Jigsaw Kinematics HW

In the hallway yesterday, we were talking about ways of better integrating homework into the flow of instruction. Here is one idea I came up with while sleeping last night

1. Students are assigned a 1D kinematics homework problems, where they are asked to work out a multi-representational model – diagrams, graphs, equations. Each individual problem is for a single moving object.

2. At the start of the next day, students get with a group of students who were assigned the same problem and they share and work on a consensus model.

3. The groups are then broken up. Students are then paired up with another student who worked a different problem. These students have to collaboratively work a problem involving finding when and where the two objects will meet up (or some other questions.)

Of course there are lots of details about the problems and the process to work out. But this is my initial thinking that I wanted to get them down before they vanished.

I see a variety of possible benefits, as well as a couple of logistical issues that would need to be ironed out, but I’m curious what others think. Has anybody tried something like this?

And finally, this is just a specific example of a more general notion. Lots of other ways to implement.