Playground Physics is a middle-school science program that blends physical play with virtual activities to support inquiry-based learning aligned to Next Generation Science Standards. Students discover and explore the physics in their everyday lives through their physical play.
There are three components of Playground Physics: an app, a teacher activity guide, and professional development.
Using the app, they record a video of themselves playing, and then tap points along the way to trace a path of motion, and discover the motion, forces, and energy involved!
Students then analyze the data in their play performances via app-generated graphs and lenses focused on energy, force, and motion. Click on the video below to see it work.
A school bus full of third graders sits stranded, submerged in a dense, sticky substance with no way to escape. Then someone comes up with an idea. They add baking soda to a vial of vinegar and top it with a balloon. The mixing of the two substances causes an immediate chemical reaction that produces carbon dioxide, inflating the balloon and lifting them to safety. Ms. Frizzle’s students have once again used science to get them out of a jam -- this time in the form of a cake.
Twenty years ago, four-year-old Alex Peterson was on the edge of her seat watching Ms. Frizzle and her class escape from being baked inside a cake on the "Ready, Set, Dough" episode of "The Magic School Bus."
"I loved baking when I was a kid. Watching those air bubbles form, it just clicked for me that chemistry is what makes cakes, and I realized that this is what I wanted to do," says Peterson, now a doctoral student in biochemistry at the University of Maryland. "I have a very vivid memory from the third grade of looking at the schedule and counting down the time to science class because I just couldn't wait to do science in 'real-life.'"
Peterson in her lab (left) and dressed up as Ms. Frizzle with her cat dressed up as Liz for Halloween (right)
In her university lab, Peterson studies the enzymes that form biofilm, a slimy buildup of microorganisms that can grow on all types of surfaces, from teeth and buildings to pacemakers and ponds. She's looking for a way to effectively break down the notoriously impenetrable substance, which can make it hard for medications to reach the infections they need to treat. Finding a way to reduce biofilms could make treatments more effective. When asked about the effect "The Magic School Bus" had on her current career path in science, Peterson says, "It's absolutely why I'm a chemist."
Twenty-five years ago, Scholastic's "The Magic School Bus" veered off the written page and into our television sets, bringing with it a credo that emphasized taking chances, making mistakes, and getting messy. Support from the National Science Foundation helped bring the celebrated book series to the airwaves and to young viewers like Peterson, sitting frog-legged on living room floors across the country.
Sandy Welch was the director of education at PBS when the network picked up "The Magic School Bus" as part of its portfolio of children's programming.
"We were excited because it was the first fully animated science show," Welch says. "I was excited to see a teacher featured, and not just any teacher -- [Ms. Frizzle] was a delight!"
Welch says Ms. Frizzle helped inspire teachers to use the programming in their classrooms.
Today, Welch is part of a division in NSF’s education directorate dedicated to providing funding for children's media programs that focus on STEM education. It supports the agency's multi-decade effort to boost science learning beyond the classroom, where research has shown most learning takes place.
"We know that children learn intuitively and that a lot of it happens in an informal setting," says Welch.
NSF supports a wide range of informal STEM programming in museums, through after-school programs and citizen science projects. With mass media, however, there is a potential to reach millions.
According to Welch, for NSF to fund a media program it must meet rigorous criteria. Creators must demonstrate the concept was developed based on existing knowledge of best practices in STEM education and how children learn through media. They must have clearly defined goals on how to interest, engage and impact learners. They must have a way to evaluate the program's impact.
And they must be innovative.
"Our program is explicit that we want to fund innovation," Welch says. "We are looking for proposals that experiment with new technology, a new approach, a new distribution platform. We're willing to fund things that may be risky -- like a new platform that hasn't been tried but seems to hold promise."
"The Magic School Bus," "3-2-1 Contact," "Reading Rainbow," "Zoom" and "Bill Nye the Science Guy" were just a few of the early NSF-funded shows that took an innovative approach to bringing science to life on the small screen.
"Peep and the Big Wide World," for example, was one of the first programs to show that toddlers could learn basic science concepts and skills like measuring, comparing, and estimating through television shows geared toward their age group.
Courtesy SciGirls/PBS Kids
"SciGirls" was launched in response to the fact that women in the U.S. remain underrepresented in STEM, especially in fields like engineering and the computer sciences. The show engages tween viewers in STEM by following a group of real-world girls as they predict, observe, experiment, and otherwise don their "scientist hats" to understand the world around them.
Many of today's shows have also been adapted to a multimedia and mobile world, augmenting their TV programming with innovative web content and downloadable apps. Kids who love "Cyberchase," a show designed to make math fun and accessible and that NSF began funding in the late 1990s, can now access educational games, videos, and hands-on activities via the "Cyberchase" webpage on the PBS Kids website and through apps. The webpage for "Design Squad," another NSF-funded show on PBS, offers a short video on how to make everything from a two-wheeled balloon car to bristle bots made from toothbrush heads
Through on-screen characters like Peep, Peg, and Digit, and with access to hands-on activities and other innovative science content, NSF is ensuring quality science programming reaches newer generations of Alex Petersons, inspiring them to become scientists or -- at the very least -- to take chances, make mistakes and get messy!
I've talked about PhET before, so you know that I love it! In case you don't know what it is, it's a website that has simulations that you can use in your physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, and mathematics classroom. Many of them are available as part of PhET's free PowerPoint Add-in.
While at first I found this add-in I didn't think much of it. I didn't see the value in it when you can just go to the website. While this is true, the great thing about this add in is that you can use the simulations just like you were on the website but you don't need to leave your PowerPoint presentation.
56 of the PhET simulations are available to insert into PowerPoint presentations through the use of the add-in . With the Add-in installed you can browse the available simulations and insert them into your slides. The simulations work in your slide just as they do on the PhET website. A note about the add-in; if you are in a Microsoft school your Microsoft admin may have turned off the ability to use add-in or may have to approve them. So if you are having trouble finding the add in, please reach out to your tech admin.
I have always liked showing videos as part of my science classes, but I don't want to spend a whole period showing a video. Plus, we know that the kids won't pay attention to a video that long anyway. Check123 is a great site for finding short videos. All areas are represented, but of course we all care about the science section. ;-)
The videos are all less than 4 minutes long. You can do a search for what you are looking for and even narrow down the results based on the length of the video you are looking for. For the most part these videos are hosted on YouTube, so if this is blocked in your school it won't work. (On a side note, if it's blocked in your school you should really talk to the powers that be because it's a valuable teaching tool!)
What's one of your go to site for find videos for your classroom?
One thing I love and hate to do with my students is to teach them to create their own experiments. I love doing it because the students come up with the craziest ideas and they get to get a sense of what scientists really do. I hate it because it it's difficult for the students and they resist it. In the end I am happy with the work that most of my students put into the assignment (you can't get them all, lol) I try to have a collection of ideas to provide an example for my students and also for those groups who are not able to come up with their own. Scientific American has a great article that outlines an experiment just as how I would like my student to. I like to share this with students before we begin so that they can get an idea about what I am expecting.
“I can’t find my textbook!” “I don’t remember getting a textbook.” Does this sound familiar to you? That is what I kept hearing at the end of every year. Then I would have to go through a big hassle of collecting money from student to repurchase the outdated textbooks that I had. I hated having to worry about students losing textbooks or that I was always replacing textbooks that I didn’t even want that included too much information or not enough information. Enter FlexBooks. FlexBooks are online textbooks from a company called CK12. I instantly liked them for many reasons, but the two big ones were that I could customize the book and that it could be posted on my website and downloaded by the students. This videodoes a great job of explaining how they work. While not every subject has a FlexBook they have a large list of books that include math and science books for elementary, middle and high school along with some other areas such as Writing, Astronomy, History and Engineering.
So, this sounds good you say, but how can I really use it in my classroom? I picked out a textbook that I wanted to use and then went through it to delete the things that don’t apply to my curriculum. I also added in some information that wasn’t there that I wanted to make sure my students had in their book. You can also include links to worksheets (CK12 has a workbook that goes along with most of their textbooks). Once it’s created you can save it as a PDF and post it on a web page or e-mail it to students. Even better, students can put the PDF on their computers, phones, Kindles, IPads, Nooks or other eReader. If you don’t want to customize your book you can find select FlexBooks already in Kindle or Nook/IPad/Android format.
Am I convincing you yet? Maybe you want to make sure you have a teacher’s edition to refer to or a book or worksheets or labs. Well, you got it! The workbooks that are available can also be customized so can you make them fit your classroom. I usually post them on my website and the students can have access to them all the time (no more “I lost it.”)
Looking for more? CK12 has a more interactive way of presenting information that allows you pull short concepts along with chapters into an online interactive “book” Many of the concepts include video clips and interactive quizzes.
Science can be hard for younger student to understand I love that this website brings it to like. While it accompanies a physical book it can completely be used on it's own. It has video clips and interactive animations that all your students to go inside plants, around the body, deep into the earth and to the depths of space.
Just pick the area of science you want to learn more about, and which type of item you want to try:
Apply It! – Investigate and research key scientific concepts, just like any real scientist
Art In Motion – Watch scientific processes come to life with fantastic animations
Interactive Art – Click on the diagrams to interact with scientific processes
Real-World Enquiry – See how science is used to help us in the real world
Untamed Science – Join the Untamed Science crew in these high-energy videos
Visual Analogy – Understand tricky scientific concepts by comparing them to everyday objects or scenarios
Physics is a broad range of topics. Some students can grasp pretty quickly while others are more difficult. I have found that topics around force and motion are ones that stump some students. Newton's laws are particularly difficult for students. I believe that part of the reason is that these laws are complex and it is hard to bring them down to a middle school level without introducing misconceptions. I don't know what the solution is, but I'm going to keep trying to present these topics to my students in new and different ways. One way is these short video clips that I found. There are shot clips around 3 minutes long and come with a short quiz at the end.
What struggles do you have teaching physics to your students?
This is going to be a short post because I really want to share with you a blog post written by Brandy at Half a Hundred Acre Wood. She is a homeschooling mom who came up with an awesome way to demonstrate Newton's three Laws of Motion.
Take a visit over to this blog post to read what Brandy has to share!
As a female science teacher I always love to see girl involved in science. I really love the Physics Girl YouTube Channel. Diann Cowern is the physical girl and her channel is focuses on physics, astronomy and other science-related topics. It includes DIY demos, research and interviews.
I've picked out a few videos from her channel that caught my eye, but I suggest you check out the other videos to see what you can use in your classroom.
Why outlets spark when unplugging - EMF & Inductors
I love showing short video clips in my class. It breaks up the routine and also provides another learning modality for my students. Below are some short, easy to understand videos about electricity. If you have a video that you like to show about electricity, leave it in the comments below.
If you are in a school like I was in you, you know that you are not being provided with the lab safety training that is required. I did some research to find something and I came across the Flinn Online Laboratory Safety Course. There are two courses: one for middle school and one for high school. I took both of them (even though there is a lot of overlap) and learned so much!
You might be thinking, "I'm not a Chemistry teacher so this doesn't really apply to me!" I have found that non-chemistry teachers almost need this more because they have less experience with chemicals and don't always deal with them safely when they do use them.
I'm sure there are no school schools who have perfect lab safety procedures and everyone can learn something from this course. I also think it's a good refresher for teachers. I don't recall being taught lab safety techniques when I was in college (either in my science class or my science methods classes). Hopefully things have changed, but in case they haven't this is a must watch for all science teacher.
Comment below with what training you have had on lab safety. I'm interested to hear what happen in other schools.
This past week I brought out some Newtonian Demonstrators aka Newton Balls aka the click clacky things. The students love playing with them so it's a great hook to get them into this lesson. I used these to demonstrate Newton's Third Law. Students say that every action had an equal and opposite reaction. Each time they lifted one of the balls on one side and let it go, a ball went up, just as high on the other side. Most students expected this to happen, but getting them to explain what was happening in terms of Newton's Laws. It was fun to have students predict what would happen when one ball was lifted on one side and two balls was lifted on the other side. Most students were amazed with what happened as it wasn't what they expected.
Of course, with some fun comes some problems. As you can see the demonstrators often get tangeled. Most of them I am able to get out in a few minutes, but the one below was a real challange. It was a little worse before I took that picture, but I got a little bit out. I tried for TWO days and couldn't untangle it (and I like to think that I'm good at untangling things). One of my honors 8th graders, who isn't even in the class that I did this in) was able to get it out. I was truely amazed!
On of my main goals in my 7th grade science class is to expose students to the scientific method and get students doing their own experiments. No matter how many time I work on things like variables, controls and constants, it's hard for students to understand these concepts without some hands on experience. Two or three times a year I have students complete, what I call, an Inquiry Project. In this project, students get the opportunity to develop their own problem/question to investigate.
I help students to develop a problem/question and then they are to write the hypothesis, procedures and materials by themselves. In addition, I provide them with some analysis questions asking things about variables and constants.
Below are some pictures of some of the activities that my students were conducting.
How does the amount of baking soda effect how much carbon dioxide is produced when mixed with vinegar?
How does the number of mentos effect how big the explosion is when mixed with diet coke?
The Laboratory Safety Institute (LSI) was founded to provide safety training for secondary school science teachers.
LSI is hosting a webinar entitled "How to Create a More Effective Lab Safety Program." It will be held on Febrarary 10th from 7-8pm EST. To register go to:
Take a look at this post from BrainPop about how they are connecting primary sources to their movies. Right now about 20 of their videos have primary sources attached to them, but more are being added. To access the primary sources simply click on the activities icon from the main topic page and then you'll see a tab for primary sources. Once you are on that page there is a worksheet that you can print out and then a link to the primary source. If you take a look at the images below you will see the link on the Galileo page to the primary source, which in this case happens to be another quick video to watch. I think this is a great way to connect subject areas. Many students associate primary source documents with Social Studies, but now they can see that primary sources are in all subject areas
Have you heard that OSHA is moving away from Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) to Safety Data Sheets (SDS)? Lab Out Loud, the NSTA podcast, had a great podcast about it. On the page there are also several other resources. Another great resource comes from Flinn Scientific. They have a great site that provides free online safety training. On the site there is a link to the GHS training. This will go over the important information about the transition.
By December 2013 school were supposed to provide training to all teachers and staff about the transition. Just in case your school didn't, the Flinn training only takes 20 minutes and provide you with a Certificate of Completion for your records.
BirdBrain Science is a website that allows you to provide your students with common core based science readings that you can differentiated based on their reading level. Most articles will adjust anywhere from 3rd to 8th grade. In addition, the students can have the articles read to them. At the end there is a short quiz. The quiz questions, types and length, vary depending on what grade level they were assigned. At the end you can review reports of your students' program.
Below is a short video to explain the site a little more.
Follow this link to participate in a pilot to access this site for free.
What ways do you incorporate reading into your classroom? This post is cross posted on my other blog The Tech Savvy Science Teacher.
Achieve, the company involved in developing the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), has released some sample assessment tasks. You can see several middle and high school tasks. They are aaligned with both the NGSS and Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS). Whether or not your state has adopted the NGSS, I think it's a good idea to take a look at them. The NGSS has a great way of approaching science that some teachers aren't used to. If you aren't, or even if you are, familiar with this method be sure to check out these assessment tasks.
Register now for the upcoming PhysicsQuest, Spectra: High Intensity. Miss Alignment has broken out of jail and is on the loose hatching evil plans. Armed with a high IQ, an inferiority complex, and a secret lair, she will try yet again to control the town. Your students can help Spectra, her gang, and her new friend the Quantum Mechanic stop Miss Alignment’s focus on evil.
In celebration of the International Year of Light, this kit will have all of the equipment needed to teach students about bending light, spherical lenses, how color and energy are related, and how the sun’s light also carries heat. As the students do these activities, they will be applying all the skills they need to help our superheroes prevent Miss Alignment’s attempted town domination.Register now for your FREE PhysicsQuest kit!
We will be sending out the Spectra: High Intensity kits (for free) in early January. If you would like to purchase last year’s kit, Spectra’s Quantum Leap, please visit our online store.
