Hi all. On Monday, I will start teaching eighth grade physical science. I have been looking for ways to keep the class interesting and although I’m not in a room with a lab set-up, I intend to include as many activities as possible.
Before I ever get to an activity though, I know I’ll have the inevitable questions about why they should bother studying this stuff at all. :rolleyes:
I know I can tell them that future physics and chem classes will depend on this basic knowledge and that physical science is “all around them” but I’d appreciate any real life tie-ins you might be able to think of that would hold the interest of eighth graders.
Any favorite activities you remember from physical science class?
Hi MichaelP. My folks live in Clairton. Give them a wave for me across the river.
An understanding of the scientific method is very useful in developing mental discipline. You might want to stress this as they solve their problems, and explain how this way of thinking can be used to solve other problems they encounter.
A physics prof of mine demonstrated how a pendulum arc has the same elevation on either side by letting go of a bowling ball attached to a cable just at head level. When it swung back, it came within an inch of smashing him in the face, but of course missed. This should be fun.
I don’t know what you’ve got there, but one of our local TV stations has a network of school-operated weather stations. They always mention a few of the stations on the evening news, and you can get the data from any station from their website.
That’s a great way to get the students actually gathering and tracking data, and they can actually see it put to use.
Even if you don’t have a TV or radio station with such a program, you can at least prepare data for the National Weather Service. When I was in high school, we had a weather station and a shortwave radio to call in the info each day.
To satisfy their curiosity? Kids are curious and sciences are tools to investigate the myteries of nature.
So, if you can arouse their curiosity in nature, you have no problems in teaching them science. When I was a little kid I loved to make crystals from chemicals such as copper sulphate. I loved to collect sea shells and hit people with thrown objects. I also loved to watch candles burn and make soap bubbles. Things like that. There’s a lot of science in there.
Good thoughts. I’m guessing that in Pennsylvania surfing is not that big, but by eighth grade you probably have a few with interests in skateboards and hot rods. Plenty of tie-ins there.
Try, also, to do what my physics teacher did. Organize a field trip to Kennywood and have the kids make presentations of the physical and engineering principles behind the rides.
Having the kids see actual explosions can be fun, too. Too bad they already dropped Three Rivers Stadium.
I agree with what is said above. But also, just to be a bit of an instigator, I would point out to your students, who are just the right age for this, that this will enable them to logically critique anything that grownups say to them. Hence they can disagree with their elders and have the data to back it up, particularly when they use fallacious thinking. I’d use Calvin and Hobbes comics to illustrate my point, especially the ones where Calvin’s father tells him ridiculous stuff about the world:
Here’s a a site that contains a lot of these, albeit not in cartoon form.
I suggest you talk about things that seem impossible but that can be overcome with a little bit of applied knowledge. I don’t know that I’d plunge my hand into a vat of molten lead, but I remember seeing one of Walker’s other demonstrations involving a heavy pendulum. He touched it to his chin and let go, letting the weight swing and return. Although it came within millimeters of his face on the return swing, he didn’t flinch because he knew for a fact that it couldn’t hit him. Tell your students they can do all kinds of crazy-seeming things if they understand how physics works.
-Walker, in a Johnny Carson interview cited in the linked article.
One of the valuable things about science is that it helps people separate the BS from the real claims. One example that comes to mind is James Randi’s hoax-busting. There are all kinds of stories about how he embarrased so-called psychics when he came up with scientific tests to measure their abilities. For example, one person claimed to be able to see auras surrounding people. She claimed that it these auras were large enough that if he held a magazine in front of his face and completely cover it, she could see the aura coming around the magazine. He promptly challenged her to see if she could tell where he was if he stood behind a wall just as tall as he is, by the aura just above his head. Needless to say, she didn’t try that.
How about having your students see if they could come up with ways to test various claims offered by today’s hoaxers and see if they would stand up to science? Present examples of quackery - and some real ones thrown in. Have them think of experiments to see if this actually works.
Or, you could do some science experiments that break things. Explosions, liquid nitrogen, that kind of stuff. Science is always more interesting if something self-destructs.
Thanks so much to everyone for the ideas and links. I appreciate the creativity. I definitely want to keep these kids involved. Only about 20 out of 154 said they like science. I would really like to improve this number by the end of 8th grade.
I had some great science teachers. And some not so great ones. So I’ll give you some pointers on how to keep it interesting.
Do a lot of hands on stuff up infront of the class. Show them concepts taught in their book. For example on the topic of gravity: When class starts don’t say anything, grab a chair and pull it up infront of class. Go to your desk and grab a ball of some sort. Stand up on the chair and drop the ball. Right as the ball hits the ground yell, “GRAVITY IN ALL ITS GLORY!” Then put the chair away and make it seem like nohing unusual has happened.
Ask them to prove you wrong on something. My science teacher asked us the prove that water wasn’t actually alive. So we came up with a bunch of crazy theories. Turns out that we could have just gone ahead in our books a bit and found the characteristics of all living things. But thats not the point. It got us interested.
If a student is interested in a certain topic encourage them to look into it further. Give them sites and books to look at the learn extra things if they want to.
Play games. At the end of every chapter our teacher would let us make teams of four and answer trivia questions he asked about the chapter. However you might want to pick the teams yourself. We would always form a team of the smart kids (which includes me, thankya very much) and we were undefeated. Kinda put a downer on everyone elses day…
In addition if there is time left in a class play twenty questions or other such group games, it makes the class more personable.
Bring interesting stuff into class. Tell them about the space elevator. But leave out the bad stuff, you don’t want the crush their dreams. Tell them about new cool technologies. It’ll show them about how science is used in the real world.
Most importantly, don’t be a jerk. Don’t yell at the kids. When their doing work go to them and see if they need help, don’t always wait for them to come to you. If they don’t understand something, be patient. You don’t want them looking back and hating science because you scared the crap out of them.
As one who was always in the “I hate science” crowd, I can tell you that the more real world and hands-on stuff you do, the more others like me will like it and respond. I don’t remember any of the boring stuff I learned in lectures and from reading the textbook, but I still remember the time in physics that I had to do a report on satellites, so I made a satellite out of cardboard, attached a string to it, and hooked it to the ceiling fan (my whole family had a blast doing this one). Then I recorded the orbit with the camcorder and presented the video in class along with my written report. I have no clue what the report said, but I remember the satellite.
I remember my 9th grade physical science class fondly all these years later (it was '68-'69 school year) - thanks to Mr. McGuire. We studied rocketry by building and launching rocket models. We studied internal combustion engines by taking them apart then putting them together, then we drove a go-cart around the campus. We studied shock absorbtion by packaging and throwing eggs. I know there was more, but these stand out the most for me.
He obviously loved teaching and he made it as hands-on as he could. He showed us science in every day life. I wish I’d told him how much his classes meant to me.
