My big idea

2012 will be my 5th year teaching physics, astronomy, and geometry, my 2nd year utilizing the modeling curriculum in physics, and my 2nd year implementing Standards-Based Grading in both physics and geometry. 

I attended the Modeling: Mechanics workshop in MI in the summer of 2011 and immediately fell in love. One of the first thoughts I had was "how could I implement this in my other classes?" Modeling is all about student discovery and geometry struck me as perfectly suited for such an approach, but I got bogged down in learning modeling and dealing with SBG, so I tabled that thought for the year. 

This summer I went to ASU and attended the Modeling: E&M workshop which was incredible (huge thanks to instructor Michael Crofton for his hard work as well as the entire ASU staff). The only downside was that I was stuck in the desert with no car for 3 weeks, which means I had a lot of downtime. So I revisited the idea of Modeling: Geometry and jotted down some thoughts and outlined a basic framework. I've done a fair bit of Googling, and I've talked to a lot of people, but I can't find anyone who's already tried to merge the modeling curriculum with math of any kind (please correct me if I'm wrong - I'd love some help on this). 

Basic premise: Most topics in a high school geometry course can be learned through discovery and discussion without much guidance from teachers in much the same way that Modeling: Physics is set up. 

I've spent the summer of 2012 formalizing my plan and putting in enough of the foundation to force me to jump in. I plan on posting my plans, thoughts, and reflections here so that hopefully others will find some merit in the idea and help carry it forward.