How To Get High-Schoolers Involved In Real Science? 314
Wellington Grey writes "I'm a physics teacher and have been wondering what ways it's possible to get students to participate in or donate to real science projects. I encourage my students to help out with things like Galaxy Zoo (which has just released a new version) and to get them to install BOINC on their personal computers. Do Slashdotters out there have any other suggestions that would be appropriate for the 11-18 age range? Extra credit if you can think of a way that I can track their progress so that I can give them extra credit."
Ionospheric propagation (Score:4, Informative)
You could have them monitor HF propagation beacons [arrl.org] to track the effects of the new sunspot Solar Cycle on the ionosphere.
You could have them do balloon launches [telegraph.co.uk].
Prepared May Be Better than Involved (Score:5, Informative)
When I was in high school in my chem AP class, my teacher had set it up so that at the end of the year we all had to read a timely chemistry research paper that had been published in a major journal and prepare a presentation on it for the class. This may not be what you want to hear but from what I remember of my chem. AP curriculum, I was grossly underprepared to do any serious research. However, I definitely remember than dealing with both a research subject and the academic publishing style gave a lot of background for my future.
That said, I'm computer science not chemistry, so I guess I don't know how that would have turned out in the long run. Even though I'm not chem, I know that the experience in reading real research papers definitely prepared me for graduate and research coursework in college more than anything else in my time in high school.
That said, my minor is physics, so I do know a little bit about that as well. If you've done electromagnetism/electronics, I would encourage maybe giving your students an electronics project. It was nice to have a little practical lab after all that theory. An infinite field of one ohm resisters is one thing - rewiring your coffee maker with a job server is another (btw if any of your students actually manage to do this, send me an email). That said, many of your students (I was one) may really like theory and Maxwell's equations and vector calculus, so don't make the course too EE based.
Re:Wait, what? (Score:4, Informative)
Oops, I misread his question. I thought he was asking for how to get students interested in science, when he was asking how to get students involved in *helping* science, apparently. Never mind.
FIRST Robotics (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Gee.. How long have you been a physics teacher? (Score:4, Informative)
That just means you didn't like the rules for that science fair.
Besides your answers the question:"hey, how does this work?"~
You are teaching them science is boring. Stop it! (Score:5, Informative)
You are teaching them science is boring. Stop it!
BOINC is interesting if your machine finds the aliens, and actually told you it did.
Galaxy Zoo is for when there is no fresh paint to watch dry.
In my physics classes in high school we DID things, and then we explained the math behind them, and why that was physics. Most interesting physics demonstrations involve statics, harmonic oscillation, analytical mechanics - physical motion - or at least the interesting ones do.
Sometimes we'd just start the week with letting people ask questions about things that made them curious that might be related to physics.
Here's a list of projects we did, and which your students could do:
- build bridges out of balsa wood to demonstrate statics principles and the ability to bear loads (by loading them up until they break)
- build water balloon catapults and see who throws the balloons farthest
- build ping-pong ball alcohol canons
- launch model rockets, preferably with instrument payloads
- build hover crafts using vacuum cleaner motors and race them down the hallway past the principals office
- build a Focault's pendulum to demonstrate rotation of the earth
- put a bowing ball on the end of a rope and show it doesn't smack you in the face because you let it go and it doesn't get energy added to the system on its way back
- demonstrate the coefficient of sliding friction with a triangle block, a square block with a hile drilled through it, some twine tied through the hole, and a fishing scale
- build a model roller coaster
- build a tesla coil and use it to shoot aluminum rings cut from the ends of pipes up in the air
- build a blower box with an orange traffic cone glued on top and float a ball there to demonstrate Bernoulli's principle
- dig out the switch/relay/light boxes from the 1960's classes and wire them all together to build an adder
- use a Van de Graff generator to make people's hair stand out straight from their heads
- show them a Newton's Cradle execu-toy
- put grapes in a microwave oven to demonstrate plasmas
- make little boats with wedges in their backs, stick pieces of soap there, and race them to demonstrate surface tension
- spin buckets of water without the water falling out
- shock people with Leyden jars
- build a Wimshurst generator
- build a Sterling cycle engine with a bicycle wheel and rubber bands
And that is just stuff we DID, off the top of my head, 20+ years ago -- stuff I still REMEMBER to this day, in my day job as a SCIENTIST -- because I had a great physics teacher in High School.
-- Terry
Re:Ask Slashdot (Score:3, Informative)
Build pollution detectors (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Build a Tesla coil? (Score:1, Informative)
Plus, there is an electronic kit available (info at http://www.xat.nl/enigma-e/ [www.xat.nl]) and they can be purchased at the Bletchley Park museum shop (http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/shop/index.rhtm/133066/cat.html) or http://www.jancorver.org/en/price/ [jancorver.org] (130 Euros). A mini kit is at http://www.apogeekits.com/enigma_cipher_machine.htm [apogeekits.com]
The electronic kit is a fully functional electronic replication of how the Enigma machine operated and can code and decode original Enigma messages. They also have one wheel cardboard versions for much less.
A little off topic but for teaching, when you can relate the demonstration to real life, it's invaluable. Also, things like cryptography can capture boys and girls imagination.
Re:Gee.. How long have you been a physics teacher? (Score:3, Informative)
DING! You win the prize!
As a science teacher, I can confirm this. 99% of students lack the background knowledge to do a minimal experiment, and lack the ambition to obtain that knowledge on their own. We patrol our (mandated, although we're not allowed to spend any major amount of time on it, due to our standardized state test content guidelines) Science Fair and look for the "least worst" projects to send to the state science fair. It's rare that we send a great project. Mostly, we aim for "doesn't suck too much, and won't completely embarrass the school".
For me to get students involved in real science, I'd need 3 things:
1) Freedom from "teaching to the test".
2) Money.
3) The ability for uninterested students to do something else.
At the moment, my school lacks the balls for #1, the tax base for #2, and is hogtied by the phrase "free and equal education" in regards to #3.
Galazy Zoo has Plans for you! (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Safe science is gay (Score:1, Informative)
However, as the only person in my chemistry class who practiced chemistry at all (making lots of things, including explosives) out of the classroom, I had a major advantage over my classmates who had only experience reading from a book when it came time for lab work.
I don't think this only applies to explosives though, that just happens to be what most boys like. The problem as I see it is applying what is done in class to the real world. Sure, measuring the heat of enthalpy of a reaction is great, and it is done in the real world, but it's not quite the same as synthesizing asprin or esters or soap. Getting something tangible out of careful scientific measurements and experiments is far more rewarding than just good data and grades. This is especially true for memorizing what certain lab equipment and chemicals do. It's hard to forget what a Florence flask or Vigreux column do when you have tried fractional distillation without them, and seen how difficult it was.
The same applies in other areas too, in physics for instance; building bridges can teach a lot more about statics than just calculations. Or, as you said, building small scale siege weapons. They'll have fun, and learn a whole different set of skills than they can from a book.
(posting anonymous because I modded the parent up)
Multimedia Does Wonders (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Wait, what? (Score:2, Informative)
Heck yes.
The year I began my A-levels coincided with the schools introduction of a new "practical physics" syllabus. That alone led to many more people choosing to study the subject.
So we embarked on something of an adventure involving high velocity projectiles, lasers, electronics, some minor explosions and fire. We were presented problems to solve and/or relatively open-ended projects. We made things, learned the physics, encountered real-world problems, learned more physics, solved the problems and then worked out what our results meant and why. It was a learning experience for the teachers too that 1st year - there was definite surprise when our brief to build the best elasticity driven marble launcher possible led to the results achieved.
The end result was that not only did we learn a lot, but we enjoyed it. Plus the uptake of physics rose *dramatically*. A far cry from seeing previous 4-strong A-level class constantly working from a gargantuan tome. Funnily enough the teachers said they liked things better the new way too.
Rocketry Usually Works (Score:2, Informative)