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Teaching Forces to 11 Year olds
Thomas and Robin try something else new. Discussing how they would teach the first three lessons on Forces to 11 year olds.
Timestamps
- IoP Spark @ 00:37
- How would you teach forces to 11 year olds? @ 05:00
- Guidance for a non-specialist @ 21:10
Summary
Robin and Thomas were back to basics this week. With Patrick busy bringing physics joy to a
new generation of New Hampshirites (that’s really what residents of New
Hampshire are called – I Googled it and everything), it was just the two
physics geeks getting together to talk forces.
Before we got to the main business we had time to welcome IOP’s new Spark website which gathers together and updates the resources offered to teachers by the IOP. With a new section on misconceptions and a much slicker look and feel, IOP Spark should be in every physics teacher’s bookmarks – have a look at spark.iop.org.
If you completed our listener survey, a big thank you! The results show that you love the Podcast,
and particularly those episodes where you get tips and pointers for teaching
specific topics, and so this week we zeroed in on KS3 Forces, with TWP asking
the question, “What would your first three lessons be for introducing forces in
year 7 or 8?”
We discussed starting with the idea of a “push, pull or twist”
and asking students to think about ways this might work. TWP uses a circus of different types of forces
to get students thinking about pushes, pulls and twists and discussing the
origins of different types of forces.
A common misconception is that movement requires a force (e.g.
a tennis ball travelling over the net ‘must’ have a force that makes it move
forward). This is not true, and Robin said
that he would like students to have been introduced to the idea that persistent
motion is the natural state and that our experience of friction and drag make
us think that objects slow down and stop.
Another concept to introduce is force arrows – an arrow in
the direction of the push, pull or twist, and whose length is proportional to
the size of the force. Robin suggested
re-visiting the earlier circus and asking students to add force arrows to their
earlier observations.
It is one area when lots of practical investigation can aid
understanding, particularly on the idea of resistive forces such as friction
and drag.
Don’t forget to tell us how it goes and share your tips. Details on how to get in touch are below. Thanks for listening.
Chit
Thomas’ Carousel on Forces might include the following:
- a boat (origami will do) floating in a tub of water
- ping pong ball with two straws and a zig zag obstacle course made with text books
- popping toy
- something static like a heavy weight on a piece of paper
- wind up toy
- flannel to wring out
- pendulum
- pull along toy
- weight hanging on a spring
- anything you can think of that pushes, pulls or twists!
Join in!
Please share ideas or successes – or indeed questions by messaging us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/physicstp.bsky.social . You can also message us via our website contact form on every page of the web site at the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, or email using the address given in the podcast (if we remember). We are moving away from X but can be found there as @physicstp.
Music
- Season 7: Physics Is Our Business by Miracles of Modern Science.
The music is used under the Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License
<p id="cfx-noscript" class="cfx-noscript">Please enable JavaScript to use the contact form.</p>Your Name Your Email Email Subject How many L in the word LULLABY? Your Message Send a copy to your email address? Send Message
View all episodes
By Thomas W-P and Robin Griffiths with Rosie McTavish
4.8
66 ratings
Thomas and Robin try something else new. Discussing how they would teach the first three lessons on Forces to 11 year olds.
Timestamps
- IoP Spark @ 00:37
- How would you teach forces to 11 year olds? @ 05:00
- Guidance for a non-specialist @ 21:10
Summary
Robin and Thomas were back to basics this week. With Patrick busy bringing physics joy to a
new generation of New Hampshirites (that’s really what residents of New
Hampshire are called – I Googled it and everything), it was just the two
physics geeks getting together to talk forces.
Before we got to the main business we had time to welcome IOP’s new Spark website which gathers together and updates the resources offered to teachers by the IOP. With a new section on misconceptions and a much slicker look and feel, IOP Spark should be in every physics teacher’s bookmarks – have a look at spark.iop.org.
If you completed our listener survey, a big thank you! The results show that you love the Podcast,
and particularly those episodes where you get tips and pointers for teaching
specific topics, and so this week we zeroed in on KS3 Forces, with TWP asking
the question, “What would your first three lessons be for introducing forces in
year 7 or 8?”
We discussed starting with the idea of a “push, pull or twist”
and asking students to think about ways this might work. TWP uses a circus of different types of forces
to get students thinking about pushes, pulls and twists and discussing the
origins of different types of forces.
A common misconception is that movement requires a force (e.g.
a tennis ball travelling over the net ‘must’ have a force that makes it move
forward). This is not true, and Robin said
that he would like students to have been introduced to the idea that persistent
motion is the natural state and that our experience of friction and drag make
us think that objects slow down and stop.
Another concept to introduce is force arrows – an arrow in
the direction of the push, pull or twist, and whose length is proportional to
the size of the force. Robin suggested
re-visiting the earlier circus and asking students to add force arrows to their
earlier observations.
It is one area when lots of practical investigation can aid
understanding, particularly on the idea of resistive forces such as friction
and drag.
Don’t forget to tell us how it goes and share your tips. Details on how to get in touch are below. Thanks for listening.
Chit
Thomas’ Carousel on Forces might include the following:
- a boat (origami will do) floating in a tub of water
- ping pong ball with two straws and a zig zag obstacle course made with text books
- popping toy
- something static like a heavy weight on a piece of paper
- wind up toy
- flannel to wring out
- pendulum
- pull along toy
- weight hanging on a spring
- anything you can think of that pushes, pulls or twists!
Join in!
Please share ideas or successes – or indeed questions by messaging us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/physicstp.bsky.social . You can also message us via our website contact form on every page of the web site at the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, or email using the address given in the podcast (if we remember). We are moving away from X but can be found there as @physicstp.
Music
- Season 7: Physics Is Our Business by Miracles of Modern Science.
The music is used under the Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License
<p id="cfx-noscript" class="cfx-noscript">Please enable JavaScript to use the contact form.</p>Your Name Your Email Email Subject How many L in the word LULLABY? Your Message Send a copy to your email address? Send Message