Physics Class at
Palmara Drag Way
As part of my EPL we took the Y12 Physics class to the drag strip to do some experiments. It was a great place to really engage your students. We did have to have safety in mind and to that end, the school contracted with a company called Safe Drive Training (Aust) Pty Ltd to provide the cars, the qualified racing car drivers, radar speed guns, stopwatches etc.
It is good example of how context can provide engagement for students. It brings real meaning to concepts such as coefficient of friction, vectors, acceleration, velocity, displacement.
I estimate that the students will learn and retain more from one day at the drag way than they would from a week in a classroom with "chalk and talk."
While ICTs are less effective that real life, they are still much more effective than "chalk and talk."
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Wow, Murray, you were very lucky to be part of this teaching experience. I don't know of too many teachers that would be brave enough to organise such an outing. He/she sounds like they are a very innovative teacher, and are lucky to have the support of the school.
ReplyDeleteHi Susan, this was organised by my MT before I started the placement. (My second day on EPL could have been snorkelling at Hook Island but Ricky didn't reply to me in time. I didn't know if that was too far from Maths & Physics - my MT teaches Marine Studies.)
ReplyDeleteSafe Drive Training (Aust) Pty Ltd - Physics in Motion Science program is available to all Queensland schools (http://www.sdt.com.au/safe-driving-programs-schoolsci.html). I highly recommend it.
I think all students should be shown those to videos so they can see what the difference between 60 km/h and 120 km/h really means. I recorded them and I edited them so there is no student looking at the camera. You may download them and use them for educational purposes.