On Friday, I was so pleased to be able to return to one of my favorite days of the year, High-Interest Day at Brookfield Elementary School. This is a day where I have been able to bring the concepts of physics to k-5 graders. You may be asking yourself, "Elementary students doing physics?" YES! Not just experimenting, but understanding the concepts behind the physics of electricity and sound. This is a very special day I have had the opportunity to be involved in since 2017. So, how are we able to bring the concepts of electricity and sound traditionally taught to high school 11th and 12th graders to the elementary level? There are a few keys 1) make it a hands-on experience 2) remove the mathematical calculations and make it practical. In the past, I had the luck of bringing a handful of my physics students with me to guide the elementary students through the concepts that they had learned over the course of the year. But in my new role as a Teaching and Learning Speciali
via GIPHY The first lightbulb moment for me when I read The Innovator's Mindset last summer the first insight that really hit me was the idea of an innovation as new and better. As an educator, I've had the opportunity to iterate with my instruction. But, I really loved seeing my learners innovate with some of their work this year. Six weeks ago, I began a new term with physics students. Our first unit was on electricity. Our learners we tasked to build a series/parallel network circuit that performed a function. One group decided to build a boat. They eventually tested it out in a small pool we had in our classroom. The boat worked quite well and they had completed the task. But, the learners still had ideas of how they could take their idea further. With their new knowledge of circuits, they saw how they could increase the power delivered to the motors and increase the speed of the boat. Our next unit was linear motion. Our unit design project for this u