Students often have a general sense of what happens with static electricity, but it is common for them to hold onto misconceptions about it. We even found this to be true for us on the seminar presentation! How can you make students understand these concepts better? How do online resources like The Physics Front and other resources from comPADRE help?
The challenge in teaching electrostatics
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007 8:18 pm
Written by: Robert Payo
Posted in Topics: Science
Jump down to leave a comment.
15 Responses to “The challenge in teaching electrostatics”
Leave a Comment
* You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
- Sign In
Information
Categories
Bookmarks
Education
Previous Posts
Expert Voices 1.0 powered by:
Content distributed under:
Robert, some of the online simulations provide conceptual models that help students understand what’s going on with the charges in objects. The Physics Education Technology group at the University of Colorado and Robert Beichner’s group at North Carolina State University are a couple of the many who have researched the impact of these illustrations on students. I hate to boil down their research too much, but basically seeing even cartoon-like animations of charges sloshing around helps develop a more physicist-like idea of what’s happening. Combining these simulations with some of the activities that Cathy and Jan described, like Bob Morse’s resources on Franklin-like experiments, can be quite effective.
Good point, thanks for the mention of Physics Education Technology, also known as PhET. I’ve known teachers that have used these simulations and they have had great success with them. They provide a way to guide students towards figuring out concepts on their own, highly suitable for inquiry-based teaching. By using balloons that you can manipulate, rub against a virtual sweater and see the charges change as well as an electric field hockey game where you can see the influence of charge and the electrostatic force they provide in moving the hockey puck. You can go to PhEt by going to: http://phet.colorado.edu/web-pages/index.html
They have all kinds of simulations and a database of activities that teachers have contributed.They are also a lot of fun to play with, which always helps!
We’ve listed these in the Seminar Resource List, be sure to check that out on the panel of bookmarks on the right.
I feel that the interactive participation made the presentation a success. The partici[ants were able to hear the information and participate in the questions and activities. Also, thank you for having the small tutoring before the presentation; it really helped all the participants.
I feel that in teaching in the 21st century we need to take advantage of technology in the classroom. Through using the internet they are able to not only increase their computer skills such a typing, searching the web but it also changes it up a bet. This makes learning more interesting. These conceptual concepts are easier to learn with visual representations. So allowing students to venture out with online resources like the physics front is fun and a new way of learning.
Robert, I know exactly what you mean because we have so many misconceptions about science concepts such as static electricity. It is important for educators to teach students why static electricty happens and what causes this to happen therefore we can help children get past these misconceptions. I think it is important for students to do many first hand experiments and not just one experiement. Technology is awesome and we must use it to help extend and expand our lessons. I think these online resources are fun for children to do and educational. Online resources should be used in the classroom to help mix up how the material is learned and students can communicate with other students not in their classroom
I believe that students are able to understand the concepts better if they had more visual aids or hands on experiments. Many students like to have the opportunity to see what they are learning to have a mental picture of the concept. This also helps them to memorize the new information and hopefully use in the future. The online resources help the students have a faster way to get connected with the information. If they are ever needing help they can always go to the website to gain some extra help. The website also gives you easy information to read and understand.
Having websites available, such as The Physics Front, provides such amazing resources for students and teachers. The Physics Front has a lot of valuable science information for students, and a lot of ideas (including lesson plans, activities, and more) for teachers. When students and teachers have resources and information available to them, their knowledge and experience can be so much greater.
Teaching science to students is hard to do, i think most of the concepts in science need to be taught hands on. You can teach out of a text book all day long but there is only so much you can learn without seeing. The more ways you teach a concept the more understanding your students will get. If they can touch it, feel it, manipulate and create concepts they will remember them. Using resources like the Physics Front, comPADRE, and other online interactive sites is key to the sucess of your students. We need to utilize our technology in the classroom. Not all expeirements can be hands on but by usung websites like those will allow students to see experiments and concepts instead of just reading about them in a book.
I agree with Liz. I feel like the best way to teach science concepts is through hands-on experiences. The presentation provided some great ways to get students involved in activities through which they can see science working right before their eyes. That is what they will remember. Resources such as The Physics Front and comPADRE are invaluable to science teachers because they offer so many great ideas and suggestions for lessons and activities that no one at your school may ever have thought of. No matter how great the school’s adopted text book is, there is no way that it could come close to providing as many useful ideas as these and other internet sites have to offer.
I left the seminar with great ideas that I could use with my students. The interactive participation made the experience even more meaninful. With the hands on experience it makes one feel capable of teaching others. It was very intersting how we were able to participate in the seminar. It wasn’t just hearing others talk but we were able to join in the seminar.
I also agree with Liz, science is a tough subject to teach. There are so many misconceptions about science concepts. When science was taught to me, I definitely remember all of my hands-on activities that I did. Activities ranging from disecting a worm (gross!), to investigating different rock types, building a volcano, etc. made learning fun for me. Although not all concepts may not have a hands-on activity that can be incorporated, there are various types of interactive actvities, such as the computer, that we can use to make learning meaningful to students. Providng students with various opportunites to explore concepts for themselves with help students begin to develop an interest in learning.
I am amazed at how good the online sites are. So many of the scientific concepts are explained so clearly. In addition, there are examples and simple experiments that can be done to teach. I am one of those who like hands on learning, it helps me to really see the connections and I feel that most children learn this way also. As I navigated through some different sites I found lots of things that I could use. Most seem to be very user friendly and I think that even GT students could help put together classroom experiences using these sites like The Physics Front.
Giving students an opportunity to watch and see these types of seminars is a great tool for the misconceptions that they do have. They will find that everything they hear is not always true. Experiments that they cannot do in their own classroom, they can watch on the internet sites. They will be able to use sites such as these to view science experiments in a technology format. Interactive seminars and sites such as these are great for students because it makes them feel a part of the experiment as well as if they were actually there participating in it. Many of the different sites will be very helpful in teaching in the future.
I think students can better understand science concepts when they are given hands on experiments to test them. Websites like physicsfront and comPADRE are interacitve and allow the students to discover these concepts on their own and allow for discussion in class about what the students have learned. I really enjoyed the online seminar, it was my first seminar and i think students should have the opportunity to “attend” seminars like these from a computer lab at school.
I believe that science is a tough subject to teach because of the misconceptions, therefore it is important that as a techer we include experiments and hands-on activities so the students understand the concepts better. I believe that the seminar was very helpful to me and I got new ideas about how to teach science in the future.