Sure, they can ask endless questions about their focus for that second. They are wonder-filled, curious explorers of their world.
But if you expect them to develop questions on a new, unfamiliar topic, then you are setting up for failure. They don't have the prior knowledge, or life experiences, to be able to answer, 'What questions do you have about this new topic? What do you wonder?' Instead, they are bursting to tell you a story or tell about a connection they just made with the topic.
The questions come naturally later. Those questions are the 'halleluiah' moments for me. It shows them extending their thinking beyond the boundaries of their current learning, and it shows them transferring their understanding to new realms.
As we approach the end of our learning on the physics of forces, I had two such questions, from two different classes in one day. I'm beaming with joy with these questions!
While exploring gravity, a student asked why the Earth doesn't get pulled into the Sun. Not only is this student transferring the pull of Earth's gravity to another object (the Sun), they are wondering what is stopping this from following the example that they have been learning about.
Another class is thinking about forces in terms of pushes and pulls. A student asked about the pull of a magnet and why magnets sometimes fall down the whiteboard. We hadn't even mentioned magnetism as a force, yet here this student is making connections between the pushes and pulls experienced in daily life and in our investigations with magnetic forces. They are wondering why magnets stay up sometimes, but not every time.
Both questions allowed us to discuss balanced and unbalanced forces and find new viewpoints and make new connections. It is moments like this that I love to be an educator!
Playing a few varieties of tug-of-war is a fun way to experience friction. Students explore what more or less friction feels like.
First, I divided the class into as even teams as possible and then they played tug-of-war in the traditional way.
Here's where it gets interesting. For the second round, I gave the losers of round one gloves to put on. This makes a small change to the amount of grip. The other team still uses their bare hands.
The losing team then received gloves for round three, but their gloves had a large squirt of dish-washing liquid. They were instructed to rub their hands together, then we played tug-of-war again, one team with liquid, one without. This results in a large change to the amount of grip.
Many students had heard of friction and had had everyday experiences with it: rubbing your hands together to get warm in winter, and skidding on the floor.
So what is friction?
Friction is a force that acts between two surfaces in contact producing grip.
I found my students can create a drawing which represents the activity and includes force-arrows to show the pulls. Most of them use the arrows to show the direction of the force and many are using arrows to show whether it is a large or small pull. Some draw many/few arrows, some use thick/thin arrows and some use long/short arrows. This will lead us to discuss scientific conventions and how scientists communicate.
I found my students having difficulty representing the frictional forces. They aren't sure of the direction of force, and most weren't willing to even have a go putting it on paper.
I'm thinking in terms of John Hattie'sresearch, that these students are in the novice phase. I need to develop surface and deep understandings. I need to present and provide opportunities for multiple ways of learning. I need visual, verbal and multimedia forms to provide richer representations. I'm thinking about questions I can pose that will promote thinking. I need to be clearer with my success criteria, first in my own thinking and then sharing it with students.
Next lesson, we'll review the changes they observed with the different surfaces.I have found relevant, real-life examples: photos of aeroplane crashes on difference surfaces, soles of shoes, and videos of friction welding, of sand sledding, and a Mythbusters video on interleaved phonebooks. I'll ask those questions and have the students think-pair-share. Which is the best sled to go sledding, and which is the worst? If your plane is going down, which surface would you prefer to land on to stay alive? Which shoes would you choose to play indoor soccer and which to go hiking? We'll be investigating pushing a heavy object on a range of surfaces. We'll come back later and add force-arrows to their drawing to show friction.
Most 6-8 year olds will tell you something about air.
"Air is everywhere."
"Air is in your lungs."
"You can't see air."
Ask them to collect it in a plastic bag and they will. They will use different methods to collect the air: pulling the bag through the air, scooping air in, blowing air in, using the air conditioner.
They see that air takes up space.
They might tell you places they know that don't have air: space, inside glass and other solids.
Even though they see air taking up space, they don't really believe it until you show them this:
Tissue in a cup
Take a tissue and place it inside a clear plastic cup.
What's in the cup? A tissue and air!
Turn it upside down.
What's in the cup? A tissue and air!
Carefully lower it into a clear tub of water.
What's in the cup now?
Remove from the water and feel the tissue, the outside edge and the inside edge of the cup.
Amazed, they really get that air takes up space.
They'll tell you
"the air pushes the water away!"
Then take two identical pieces of paper. Make a big deal checking that they are exactly the same. Same size. Same weight. Same!
Scrunch one of the papers into a ball. They'll tell you that you've changed the shape. Remind them everything else is the same.
Devise a fair way to test whether a flat paper or scrunched paper will hit the ground first. Discuss that the height and the way you drop needs to same.
We only changed one thing: the shape.
Some kids will still be convinced that you made the scrunched ball heavier, but examine that misconception. Talk about the pull of gravity and the upward push of air. It's a difficult concept, but they are ready for the challenge.
Students found this lesson engaging and it challenged misconceptions on several levels.
Based on the Primary Connections resource, Push Pull
