This article was written by Lexi Pepper
Sometimes a classroom is defined by beanbags hitting the floor, buggies racing through the hallways, data points being recorded, and graphs created to find patterns. Students are stepping out of the traditional classroom due to physics teachers incorporating experiments into their lesson plans.
Northview high school physics teachers are getting students involved using hands-on experiments to help kids understand topics through labs. Teachers plan a buggy experiment to introduce their unit on movement. In order to do this, students are using moving toy buggies (cars) to then mark points on a meter stick to learn about position/time graphs. The buggy activity helps kids learn more about a topic through hands-on activities. What sets the teachers at Northview apart from others is their commitment to experiment based interactive learning helping students connect scientific concepts to real life situations they can see and do themselves.
Along with experiments, teachers are still incorporating homework packets. Teachers keep the traditional learning style, but adding a little extra spice to the mix might be what’s helping our students learn the best.
Science teacher Tyler Weatherwax, has taught physics for 7 out of his twelve years as an educator. Weatherwax is dedicated to enforcing all learning styles with his lessons to ensure all students grasp knowledge in some way throughout the experiments.
“We have a diagram for a model, we have the graphical model, the equation is a mathematical model for every statement,” Weatherwax said. “So we try to look at things with multiple representations so that hopefully something that you’re stronger in, like if it’s verbal explanations or mathematical models connect and you see the two bridge.”
Junior Josie Corson, who is a visual learner, was able to go from confusion to clarity during this lab.
“I didn’t really understand when he was explaining it, when you see it you just grasp it more,” Corson said.
Weatherwax along with other physics teachers trained and implementing identical lessons have learned the importance of teaching order when it comes to lesson planning.
“It [the lesson] goes activity and then concept and then vocabulary. It’s a cognitive psychology piece . . . it’s based on work out of Arizona State University. All three physics teachers have attended the same workshops on how to teach physics better, based on cognitive psychology studies that started in the ’80s,” Weatherwax said.
Weatherwax explains how as beneficial as experiments are, both packets and experiments are needed.
“You have to have the packets to deploy the thinking . . . the experiments are what people remember,” Weatherwax said.
Corson likes the combination of labs and packets to learn better because she can easily comprehend the information.
“I think both are probably helpful because you see it and then also the more you write it out it helps you understand it more,” said Corson.
Similarly, junior Jahzir Mason agrees both packets and experiments are needed to grasp the full concept.
“At first, when you do a homework packet, it’s not really showing you how something’s supposed to be done, but after you do the experiment, it actually clicks because then you start thinking of a pattern . . . I think both are needed, because I think the packets can help with consistency, but I think the experiments get you better understanding. I think they both work together,” Mason said.
Teachers insist on incorporating these labs and experiments for the benefit of all learning styles. The formula for Northview physics is interactive labs + packets = best success.
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