There is an old adage that goes something like this: Tell me; I hear it. Show me; I learn it. Involve me; I comprehend it.
Learning from a textbook, with traditional lecture and note taking, is necessary to some degree in any subject. Physics is no exception to the rule. However, when the focus in a course is on only lecture and regurgitation of notes and information, the students don?t truly learn the material.
I teach at a technical high school. This school differs from a traditional high school in the sense that students learn trades at the same time that they learn their academics. Programs such as automotive technology, carpentry, computer electronics, baking and cosmetology are available to the students at my school.
I teach a Principles of Technology course, and I like the fact that it is not designed specifically for the technical high school. It also is effective in motivating students to learn physics in a traditional high school setting. This course allows teaching beyond the book in many different ways. The three main ways in which I teach outside the book involve the labs that come with the program, student projects and a thematic lesson that will be the focus of this article.
The labs are not your traditional ?slide a car down an inclined plane? type of lab. In the Principles of Technology labs, students use tools and equipment that would normally be seen in a workplace scenario. For instance, students use air chambers to measure drag and resistance, similar to what automobile technicians have to look out for. In other labs, students measure insulation and resistivity values and decide which insulation should be used for a particular application, much as a house contractor would.
Projects provide interactive and unique opportunities for teaching outside the textbook. One project that my students completed dealt with electrical energy and the students? family energy bills. They calculated the cost of using three different appliances in their houses. They then calculated the cost of energy per kilowatt-hour from their energy bills. Finally, they presented their findings to the class, and the class discussed ways of reducing the costs.
The final way in which Principles of Technology has allowed me to teach out of the box?and the crux of this course for my class?is a thematic project. Students have short attention spans, which should surprise no one. If you can find something that interests all students, you?ve gone more than halfway in winning the battle.
I chose roller coasters as my class?s thematic project. My Principles of Technology 2 class started out with this project for two reasons. The first purpose was for the theme to serve as a review of the material from the previous school year. Students usually don?t remember what they did yesterday or what they learned, which is magnified when you throw in a summer vacation. The project theme allows us to review such topics as velocity, speed, acceleration, force, work and friction.
My second reason for starting this thematic project at the beginning of the course was for the students to learn such concepts as energy, kinetic energy, rotational energy, work energy theorem and the conservation of energy. All of these concepts are covered in the course, and they relate to many other concepts that the students need to grasp, both physics and non-physics related.
In the first part of this thematic project, students designed their own roller coasters. I encouraged them to use any means that they would like for designing the coasters. Most students decided to use the video game, Roller Coaster Tycoon, for their design efforts.
They were required to give their reasons for choosing to build the kinds of coasters built and the reasons behind their layouts. Students made presentations on their coaster designs to the class. In the presentations, they included concepts such as forces, acceleration and velocity.
One student even presented several different coaster designs to show the class what would happen if a coaster were built incorrectly. The student?s audience had a good laugh (though a scary one) at seeing coasters flying off the tracks and exploding.
The next part of the project required the class to work as a team to design a coaster that they then would build. The first method that students tried involved the cars riding on top of copper wires. They soon found many problems with this approach and had to scrap the idea and start out with a different type of material.
The final project used tubes as the track and the copper wire as the track supports. It was great to see the students work with an idea, realize the problems with it, and decide on what to do next as the best solution. They worked entirely as a team; they decided on the tasks to be done and delegated responsibilities to each student.
Throughout this process, the students were to become ?experts? at certain concepts. After the class roller coaster was completed, students presented their project to school administrators, including the assistant superintendent, the high school principal and two assistant principals. The presentation included a demonstration of their completed roller coaster, an explanation of their initial design and PowerPoint presentations showing the process and the physics concepts learned.
The presentation was so well received and well done that the principal offered to pay for the entire class to demonstrate its project at Six Flags Great Adventure?s Physics Day!
As a final note, this class is comprised of seniors, and getting them to do much of anything has previously been a challenge. After this class, the seniors stated that they all liked this kind of project a lot, and that they learned more in this class than they had in any previous science classes.
So don?t be afraid to take the time to teach outside the box. Even if a project or a course like Principles of Technology sounds crazy to you, don?t be afraid to try it. Who knows? You may learn a lot from it as well.
David Rosengrant has a BS in astrophysics with a minor in geology and a master?s in arts and teaching. He is currently in his third year of teaching Principles of Technology at Bucks County Technical School in Fairless Hills, Pa.
