May the Centripetal and Centrifugal Force Be With You
I am now back into full swing in the classroom! I had totally forgotten how much hard work it is to be a homeroom teacher – and in a perverse way, I am really grateful. I am also at a smaller school, with a lot less resources and technology. And do you know something!? This has kicked me in just the right direction in terms of getting innovative and making the most of what is available.
This week was an absolute riot! We were introducing forces to the students. Literally one week ago my knowledge on forces was almost exclusively related to Star Wars and Obi Wan. Thankfully, I have some awesome science teacher friends, who helped bring me over from the dark side to the light.
Bucket of Water
It all began with me demonstrating how centripetal and centrifugal forces act when an object is in motion – in a circle. To show these non star wars forces in action, I grabbed a bucket and half filled it with water. I then began to swing it round and round, over my head, with the students cheering for me to swing it ever slower to see at what point the water would be pulled down soaking their teacher. Fortunately, physics didn’t let me down, and the experiment ended up with enlightened students and a dry teacher.
However, this was just the hook to the week’s fun. Next up we had our students use the design process, heavily borrowed from the MYP design cycle, to create a roller coaster from card; huge thanks to science buddies (link here) to see our force friends, centripetal & centrifugal, in action.
Building the Rollercoasters
After we had covered the knowledge of the forces, there was a bunch of tasks for the students to get stuck into, with by-far the hardest task – shaping the hill at the beginning of the roller coaster, so that the marble would travel down the hill with enough speed to enter the loop and not fall out. I have to tell you the screams of joy from the students getting this to work were drowned out by my own.
We finished the week up with the year 6 students introducing and demonstrating how the roller coasters worked, to year 1 and year 2 students. I have to tell you, the year 6 students were simply superb in how they worked with the younger students. They had amazing patience when explaining forces (push and pull) to those little guys, and the pride they had in showing off their rollercoaster creations was obvious for all to see.
This past week was the wake up call I have been waiting for quite some time. I now see STEM in a whole different light, and I am going to make it my mission to awaken the science teacher that has been lying dormant in me since 2004.
Resources
Check out the free PDF knowledge worksheet I created here, on Teachers pay Teachers.
A link to the slides from the lesson