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Force and Motion: Stop Faking It! |
The NSTA Symposium: Force and Motion: Stop Faking It! took place at the Hilton Omaha
Hotel in Omaha, NE, on Thursday, October 19, 2006. Twenty-seven educators were in
attendance, representing the states of Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana,
Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and South Dakota.
The presenter was Dr. Bill Robertson, author of the NSTA Press publication Force
and Motion: Stop Faking It! Finally Understanding Science So You Can Teach
It. The symposium focused on the topics of constructivism, the learning cycle, and
the concepts of position, speed, velocity, acceleration, mass, forces, and Newton's
laws of motion. NSTA would like to thank all the participants and the presenter
for a job well done!
The program started with 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, the talent release form,
the pre-assessment form, and the session's learning goals.
Dr. Robertson began his presentation with thought-provoking questions to discern
participants' level of understanding of constructivism and the learning cycle. This
discussion was followed by hands-on activities and discussions that worked through
Newton's Laws of Motion.
During the program, participants made observations of speed, velocity, and acceleration
using simple objects like ping-pong balls, golf balls, rulers, and HotWheels tracks
confronting their previous ideas of these concepts. To better understand Newton's
second law, Robertson tasked the teachers to build an apparatus using a straw, balloons,
a fishing line, paper clips, an index card, tape, and washers. The teachers were
able to change the mass of the system by adding or taking away washers, and the
force by adding or taking away balloons. Then they observed the changes in acceleration
as the balloons moved across the fishing line. Robertson demonstrated Newton's third
law using a couple of demonstrations. In the first demonstration, he used two chairs
with wheels pushing against each other, and in the second one he used a spring.
After the hands-on activities and demonstrations, Robertson showed the audience
several computer simulations from the Force and Motion Science Object and asked
the teachers to make predictions and to give explanations as he changed variables
on the computer. Participants were very engaged throughout the entire program, asked
many questions, and seem to enjoy Dr. Robertson's enthusiasm and wealth of practical
knowledge.
The core content of the symposium was drawn from the NSTA Press Book Force and Motion:
Stop Faking It! and the soon-to-be-released Force and Motion NSTA Science
Object, both of which Robertson authored. All participants received a copy of the
NSTA Press book.
Want to see more photos taken during the program? Check out the photo gallery below
and feel free to browse the program's agenda and read the presenter's information.
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Underwritten in part by NSTA Press
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