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Kelly O'Shea

@kellyoshea.bsky.social
642 followers 277 following 34 posts

High School science teacher. Less homework, more thinking. Sense-making tools and student discourse for the win. SBG; #iteachphysics; #MTBoS. Currently teaching: Physics, Biophysics: Optics & Acoustics, Cognitive Science. She/her. kellyoshea.blog

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Kelly O'Shea @kellyoshea.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
I can't reply, so trying this way. I've found it helpful for a few years now in a class where kids are writing code to have them submit short (usually 5 minutes or less) screencasts (really easy to make with Quicktime on the mac or Loom, etc). You can immediately tell what they actually understand.
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Physghoul 👻 🎃 @physgal.bsky.social · 06/12/2025
36 years ago today, 14 women, most of whom were studying engineering, were killed by an anti-feminist gun man at École Polytechnique in Montreal. I was a young graduate student studying physics at the time and I will never forget. #MontrealMassacre #NeverForget 🧪 👩‍🔬 ⚛️ 🎢 #AcademicSky 🇨🇦
Photos of the 14 victims of the Montreal massacre:

Geneviève Bergeron, Hélène Colgan, Nathalie Croteau, Barbara Daigneault, Anne-Marie Edward, Maud Haviernick, Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz, Maryse Laganière, Maryse Leclair, Anne-Marie Lemay, Sonia Pelletier, Michèle Richard, Annie St-Arneault and Annie Turcotte

and the rooms where they were killed.
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Kelly O'Shea @kellyoshea.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
Unbalanced forces problem solving stations—today in 10th grade Physics! :) #modphys #iteachphysics #scichat 🎢
Photo of whiteboard with instructions for how to approach the stations (identify system, draw and annotate diagrams, etc) and reminders of equations from previous experiments (Newton's 2nd Law, Fg = mg).Force sensor attached to small cardboard box with a string. Pink task card with instructions for the station. Motion detector.Two version of the same station. A pink task card along with a force sensor.A track propped up as a ramp using some various physics textbooks. Pink task card. Blue spring scale. Red PASCO cart with mass labeled on it. Motion sensor.
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Michael G. Lerner @mglerner.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
I love having students work in groups to write sample exam problems in class. This time, I told them to take some existing problems and make them harder. It’s so cool seeing them dive into things like “well, we could give less information … what could we leave out?” #ITeachPhysics
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Bree Barnett Dreyfuss @barnettdreyfuss.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
#Teach180 Day 53 cont. Physics did a balanced forces lab based on @kellyoshea.bsky.social. They start off calling every force a force of gravity but end up with good results. All you need are the push pull scales, balances that can read in Newtons and some mystery masses. 🧪🎢
A spring scale that is covered pushes down on a 100 gram mass while it sits on top of a digital balance. The balance reads 3.23 N.One spring scale hangs from another. A metal ball with an unknown mass hangs from the bottom scale. The top scale reads about 9.5 N while the bottom one reads 9 N.
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Michael Freeman @afreeparticle.com · 24/09/2025
A lot of #iTeachPhysics folks use them to build the first model that students encounter: constant velocity motion. I find students enjoy it, because it’s easy enough to grasp, and it’s a hands-on experiment they can do right away. (1/2) @kellyoshea.bsky.social blog: kellyoshea.blog/2012/11/19/b...
kellyoshea.blog
Building the Constant Velocity Model
Here’s a binder. And the handshake. [As they walk in, I’m handing out their binders (with materials, labeled dividers, spare graph paper, their names on the sides) and shaking their han…
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Michael Lerner @lernerphysics.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
Day 13 of #teach180 #iteachphysics: ALERT ALERT! If you use standards-based grading, and you can't use an outside grading program due to weird state laws, I can help! lerner180.posthaven.com/day-13-my-da...
lerner180.posthaven.com
Day 13: My Day Was All Spreadsheets
Listen, I know I still taught AP Physics 2 on Friday. Yes, I know it was boring. I sped through so much vocabulary that I know most of my students knew from middle school. It's about mechanical...
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Tigerphysics @tigerphysics.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
@kellyoshea.bsky.social I took your CFPM Stacks of Curves Card Sort and started to build it in Desmos. I know it still needs some scaffolding but it is a start. classroom.amplify.com/activity/68b...
classroom.amplify.com
BFPM Stacks of Curves Card Sort
BFPM Stacks of Curves Card Sort (from Kelly O'Shea)
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 28/08/2025
chatgpt applies for a job
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Kashmir Hill @kashhill.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
Adam Raine, 16, died from suicide in April after months on ChatGPT discussing plans to end his life. His parents have filed the first known case against OpenAI for wrongful death. Overwhelming at times to work on this story, but here it is. My latest on AI chatbots: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/t...
nytimes.com
A Teen Was Suicidal. ChatGPT Was the Friend He Confided In.
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Michael Lerner @lernerphysics.bsky.social · 13/08/2025
I am doing a #teach180 blog now, in concert with @barnettdreyfuss.bsky.social. Days -4 & -3 are about our professional days. lerner180.posthaven.com/day-4-convoc... and lerner180.posthaven.com/day-3-profes.... Shout out to @afreeparticle.com for the link hub template.
lerner180.posthaven.com
Day -3: Professional Development
Today was some professional development. We had some good PD led by Facing History and Ourselves. In the afternoon, we had a staff meeting, where a link hub I maintain that I fully stole from...
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Jenn Borgioli Binis @jennbinis.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
#PairedTexts
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Kelly O'Shea @kellyoshea.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
High School Physics Teacher Camp is back! August 3rd in DC—the Sunday of the @aapthq.bsky.social Summer Meeting. Please tell every high school physics teacher you know. My favorite day of the year. tinyurl.com/AAPTcamp #iteachphysics #iteachmath #modphys Hope to see you there!
Advertisement for 2025 AAPT HS Physics Teacher Camp. August 3rd. 8:30am-4pm. Join us for a day of self-organized workshops, guest speaker, and lots of fun! Location: St. Albans School 3103 Wisconsin Ave, Washington, D.C. Only $30! Meals included! Register now: tinyurl.com/AAPTcamp
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Kelly O'Shea @kellyoshea.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
One of the best moments of the year in 10th grade is always the pure joy kids have the first time they connect a circuit and the bulb lights up. It's magic every time. #iteachphysics
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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 25/04/2025
PhD Timeline xkcd.com/3081
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Kelly O'Shea @kellyoshea.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
High School Physics Teacher Camp is back! August 3rd in DC—the Sunday of the @aapthq.bsky.social Summer Meeting. Please tell every high school physics teacher you know. My favorite day of the year. tinyurl.com/AAPTcamp #iteachphysics #iteachmath #modphys Hope to see you there!
Advertisement for 2025 AAPT HS Physics Teacher Camp. August 3rd. 8:30am-4pm. Join us for a day of self-organized workshops, guest speaker, and lots of fun! Location: St. Albans School 3103 Wisconsin Ave, Washington, D.C. Only $30! Meals included! Register now: tinyurl.com/AAPTcamp
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Sam Wang @samwang.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
NIH funding supports the vast majority of all biomedical research in the United States. Virtually every advance in American medicine and biological science comes from NIH. This is a blow against American science. Call Congress, 202-224-3121.
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Erin Biba @erinbiba.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
Please PLEASE go comment in favor of this rule. The subminimum wage for disabled folks is vile and evil and *must* be eliminated. The poverty rate of disabled folks is astronomical compared to abled folks. There is no doubt this disgusting discriminatory policy is part of the reason why.
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Kelly O'Shea @kellyoshea.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
Unbalanced Forces problem solving stations this week in 10th grade Physics. A favorite day every year! #iteachphysics #modphys #scichat
Instructions written on the whiteboard. 0) Identify the system. 1) Draw & annotate relevant physics diagrams: FBD & VAD, v-t graph. 2) Make indicated measurements. 3) Add measured values to your diagrams. 4) Use annotated diagrams to solve. 5) Use instructions to check your solution. --> Troubleshoot as needed. 6) High five! (optional)A station with a triple-fan cart, track, and instructions.A station with a ramp, cart, spring scale, motion detector, and instructions.A station with two instruction cards and a force sensor.
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 28/11/2024
Friends, this week marks a monumental step forward in my path towards pushing for a greater ecology of accountability in the age of AI. Thrilled to officially announce the AI Accountability Lab (AIAL) @theaial.bsky.social at Trinity College Dublin is launching today, Thursday Nov 28, 2024 aial.ie
aial.ie
AI Accountability Lab
Stewarding a greater ecology of accountability in the age of AI
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Marta R. Stoeckel, PhD, NBCT @martastoeckel.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
I'm excited to share that an article I wrote on using group roles to help students collaborate effectively is in the latest issue of The Science Teacher! #EduSky #iTeachPhysics www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
Using Group Roles to Promote Collaboration
Collaborating effectively in small groups is an important skill for students, especially in classrooms adopting science education reforms like the NGSS, but it is also an extremely challenging skil...
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Emma Mitchell @emmaphys.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
We’re starting balanced force lab practical stations in 9th-grade physics! Students predict the hidden reading on the covered spring scales. This is their very first time solving problems with gravitational force. We’ll move on to more complex stations in next class! #modphys #iteachphysics
Mass is hanging from a covered spring scale Hidden mass is hanging from a spring scale Mass is hanging from a hidden spring scale. Two spring scales pull to the left and right, one hidden and one visible. Mass hangs from a hidden spring scale and rests on a pushed-in spring scale.
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Michael Freeman @afreeparticle.com · 18/11/2024
In case it is helpful to all you teachers, here is my... Visibly Random Group Generator v7.3 🍎 Free, no ads 🍎 Set # of groups or group size 🍎 Checkboxes for absences 🍎 Add pairs of Ss that can't work together, be alerted of conflicts 🍎 Editable names & color to match classroom Link in reply 🧬🥽🎢♾️
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Marta R. Stoeckel, PhD, NBCT @martastoeckel.bsky.social · 14/11/2024
I'm visiting classrooms today and a teacher was excited for me to see his class do a version of mistakes whiteboarding frok @kellyoshea.bsky.social! It is great to see teachers trying new things to promote better student to student discourse! kellyoshea.blog/2012/07/05/w...
kellyoshea.blog
Whiteboarding Mistake Game: A Guide
The Mistake Game (which I’ll describe in more detail in just a moment) has become the default mode of whiteboarding (problems, not experiments) in my physics classes. I’ve written about…
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Kelly O'Shea @kellyoshea.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
My 10th grade Physics classes did the kinematics card sort recently. kellyoshea.blog/2017/11/10/s... "Forgetting" to give them a few of the cards (the word ones) always lets them get 5-10 more minutes of useful conversation out of the activity when they think they are "finished". #iteachphysics
kellyoshea.blog
Stacks of Kinematics Curves as a Card Sort
I’ve been making major updates and changes to my materials in the intro physics course this year. It is the first year we are teaching a yearlong physics class to everyone (10th graders) in m…
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Kelly O'Shea @kellyoshea.bsky.social · 03/03/2024
HS Physics Teacher Camp is back! Sunday July 7th in Boston! Registration is open now. Spread the word! #iteachphysics #modphys #AAPTSM24 sites.google.com/site/physics...
Infographic advertisement for the 2024 AAPT HS Physics Teacher Camp. July 7th. 8:30 am - 4 pm. Join us for a day of self-organized workshops, guest speaker, and lots of fun! Location: John D. O'Bryant Shcool of Math & Science 55 Malcolm X. Blvd Boston, MA. Only $25 Meals Included! Register now: bit.ly/2024HSPhysicsCamp
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Kelly O'Shea @kellyoshea.bsky.social · 13/07/2023
Hi :) Getting ready for #AAPTSM23
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