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Energy: Stop Faking It! |
The NSTA Symposium: Energy: Stop Faking It! took place at the Snowbird/Brighton
rooms at the Marriott Downtown Hotel in Salt Lake City, UT, on Friday, December
8, 2006. Twenty educators were in attendance at the symposium. The presenter was
Dr. Bill Robertson, author of the popular series of books Stop Faking It! This symposium
was designed around the book titled: Energy: Stop Faking It! for teachers
of grades 3-8. In this symposium Dr. Robertson focused on the concepts of potential
and kinetic energy, transformation of energy, work, and conservation of energy.
NSTA would like to thank all the participants and Dr. Robertson for a job well done.
After an introductory administrative session during which Flavio Mendez, Symposia
and Web Seminars Program Manager at NSTA, familiarized participants with the contents
of their folders (including the agenda, talent release form, and pre-assessment),
Bill Robertson started by introducing the audience to the term of constructivism.
He explained that throughout the symposium he would use this concept and the learning
cycle to teach the concepts of energy listed in the agenda.
Throughout the program Dr. Robertson engaged the audience in using different materials
that were placed at the participants' tables. The materials used included rulers,
toy-car ramps, marbles, paper cups, batteries, paper clips, scissors, etc. The presenter
began the seminar by giving teachers experiences in the concepts of potential and
kinetic energy. Teachers used a marble, a ruler, and a paper cup for this experiment.
They rolled the marble down the ruler (used as a ramp) and measured the distance
the paper cup moved as the marble collided with it. Several measurements were taking
as the marble was released from different heights off the ramp. Some teachers also
explored using different slopes too observing their results.
Guided discussions followed each one of the experiences. Teachers were able to ask
their questions as they "constructed" their new understanding about the concepts
of energy. Other experiences included assembling a pendulum, dropping objects, like
batteries, and using toy-car ramps to learn about conservation of energy. How high
do you have to drop a marble for it to go around one entire loop on the toy-ramp?
This important concept, Robertson explained, is taken into consideration by those
people who design roller coasters and other amusement park rides. The program ended
with the participants exploring pulleys.
All the concepts and exercises covered at the symposium are described in detail
in Dr. Robertson's Energy: Stop Faking It! book. All participants received
a copy of the Stop Faking It! book for attending the symposium and were invited
to participate in the two web seminars scheduled after this face-to-face experience.
Want to see more photos taken during the program? Check out the photo gallery below
and feel free to browse the program's agenda.
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For more information contact symposia@nsta.org
Underwritten in part by NSTA Press