Core Unit I: The Physics of Everyday Things

B. Discovering Physics

Key Concepts

Many things around the home and elsewhere involve applications of physics. Physics is all around us.

Understanding the important principles of physics behind common everyday things is interesting. It is intrinsically and extrinsically motivating.

By applying ideas in physics, some types of problems experienced around the home and elsewhere can be solved.

By examining typical items found in the home or elsewhere, many ideas in physics can be explored.

Learning Outcomes

Students will increase their abilities to:

1. Recognize that important ideas in physics are all around us.

2. Demonstrate an enjoyment of learning about physics.

3. Explore common items that operate on the basis of important principles in physics.

4. Manipulate a variety of tangible objects found around the home or elsewhere.

5. Disassemble and re-assemble a variety of everyday things to try to discover what makes them work.

6. Apply important principles in physics to solve typical problems that might occur around the home or elsewhere.

Teaching Suggestions, Activities and Demonstrations

1. Making a good first impression is important. On the first day with a new class, avoid as much as possible handing out books, filling out forms, or doing the paperwork that often is necessary. Start the course off with an interesting demonstration, a discrepant event, or an unusual experience that will interest the class and get them hooked on physics. Nothing can be as discouraging as having students withdraw during the first week or two of the course, because they find that physics is "too hard" or "boring." You can convince students that physics is fun only if they have a chance to experience it firsthand.

   Unwind. Don't be afraid to take calculated risks. Broaden your teaching reper- toire by trying new things regularly. Some things will work really well; others will not. Retain those things that worked well and keep trying new things. Your teaching will be bound to improve.

   Use puns and humour in your lessons. Take advantage of special days, and become actively involved in promoting school spirit. On "dress-up day" (or what have you), put on some weird clothes. Let the students see you as a real person. Laugh with them. Some may remember more about you than about the subject being taught. Decorate your room. Use props. Have a mascot hanging in the room. Take the chance to have your students tie-dye your lab coat if they ask to do so! Have fun.

   Teachers can easily convince students that physics is fun. All it really takes is having the students see teachers enjoying themselves in the classroom. Some of that enjoyment will rub off on them.

2. Assign students to working groups. Have each group bring a variety of objects from home (or elsewhere) which can be related to ideas in physics. The objects can be classified according to some of the kinds of things that physics attempts to investigate (e.g., mechanics, heat, wave behaviour, electricity and magnetism). Each group can work on a specific class of objects, or various different ones, at the discretion of the teacher and students.

   Examples of objects that students might bring to class include things like kitchen and woodworking tools which illustrate concepts related to simple and compound machines , electrical devices which can be used to explain important principles of electricity and magnetism, heating devices and insulating materials, sound producing devices, musical instruments, different types of light sources, electronic equipment, etc.

   Many different activities and projects can results from this, depending on the types of things that each group brings in. Students can try to explain the important principles of physics that make each of the items work the way they do. Independent of group research and investigations can be structured in order to try to answer some interesting questions that might emerge.

   Group projects, structured in such a way as to try to pose and answer specific questions about the devices, could be performed. The students might be able to come up with some very interesting questions that could be asked (e.g., Which brand of 100 W incandescent light bulbs burns the brightest, produces the "softest" light, lasts the longest, is most "durable", is most economical, is most efficient? What important principles of physics are illustrated in a variety of cooking utensils? How does a vacuum cleaner work?).

   Once a pattern for investigating everyday things has been established, the entire course could be organized around helping to explain the physics behind common everyday items. Topics might need to be integrated, particularly for some devices which illustrate more than one important principle of physics. Creative methods for evaluating group work can be used. Oral reports, discussions, group investigations, individual research projects, competitions to improve the design of household things, demonstrations, and Science Challenge projects are some of the recommended starting points for student assessment in this unit.

   This unit offers may interesting possibilities. Teachers are encouraged to experiment with different approaches to developing it. Creative risk-taking and innovative approaches to instruction and student assessment are encouraged here, as well as throughout the rest of the course.

   The unit is particularly well suited to developing the relationships among science, society, and technology. See the introduction for some suggestions regarding how this unit can be sequenced and integrated with other Core and Optional Units.