Hands on Teaching 1Enhancing Student Learning in Relation to Newton’s First Law, The Law of Inertia, Using aStudent Built Hovercraft Thomas Pearse, Department of Physics, State University of New York – Buffalo State College,1300 Elmwood Ave, Buffalo, NY 14222 [email protected] on Teaching 2Abstract: This paper describes the five dollar hovercraft that can be built in the classroom in about thirty-five minutes. The hovercraft can be used for discussion points and demonstrations tohelp students reform their conceptions on how moving bodies act according to Newton’s first lawof motion. The benefits are students who better understand the law of inertia through the application of hands on learning.Acknowledgement: This paper is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements necessary for PHY690: Masters Project at SUNY – Buffalo State College under the guidance of Dr. Dan MacIsaac. Dr. Steven Szczepankiewicz and Dr. Phillip Sheridan of the Canisius College Science Camp also contributed to the development of this manuscript.Hands on Teaching 3The ResearchEducational professionals have advocated both the processes and significance of hands on education for over forty years (Knezek, 2000). Over these last two decades, the debate that started as whether hands on teaching is more effective then the traditional lecture approach has shifted more toward which models of hands-on teaching are most effective. Whether it’s exploring pine cones with the use of informational texts (Yopp, 2006) or creating a manufacturing lab for teaching technology (Sexton, 2008), the evidence suggests that hands on teaching yields a higher level of learning then the traditional lecture.An ample amount of material pertains to hands on teaching for Physics, and more specifically Newtonian Physics and his first law of inertia. A qualitative understanding of physical laws improves retention and primes the student for quantitative description later on. Professor and author Arnold Arons states that “Learners must be confronted with direct experience, and with contradictions and inconsistencies, in such ways as to induce them to articulate lines of argument and reasoning in their own words and to lead them to abandon the deep-seated, plausible, intuitive preconceptions that impede development of the contra intuitive but “correct” view.”(Arons, 1997, pg.57) Aarons draws a more focused light to the difficulty newcomers to physics have with their understanding of Newton’s law of inertia due to being “burdened with common sense ideas about the behavior of moving bodies”.(Arons, 1997, pg 59) Aarons argues that due to a lifetime of experiencing motion within the confines of Earth’s gravitational field, students have a difficult time imagining bodies that when in motion do not come to rest on their own. Arons suggests to his readers that they slide a 50 lb block of dry ice across the floor while making several guided observations. This demonstration will provide a large group of students a very real and significant base of observation needed for understandingHands on Teaching 4the law of inert. A number of recent papers have been written about teaching Newtonian physics using a hovercraft in place of dry ice. In one such paper, the author uses the commercially produced Kick Disc which is a battery powered hovercraft to replace the high cost one time use of dry ice (Sorensen). The PurposeArons’ advice about creating real experiences inspired my search for ways to demonstratethe nature of Newton’s law of inertia. My goal was to counter the students’ misconceptions aboutmotion that are reinforced by their daily experiences. One solution is the use of a hovercraft. The basic operating principal of the hovercraft is to lift the body of the hovercraft on a cushion of air to greatly reduce friction. The inertial properties of the hovercraft become more observable by once friction is reduced. A properly built hovercraft can travel up to one hundred meters with no apparent reduction in velocity. Students begin to form a foundation for their future framework of understanding through observation of the inertial qualities of the hovercraft.The first hovercraft I ever used was a hard plastic disc with a built in fan that was purchased for about 45 dollars. The item is commercially called a “Kick Dis Power Puck” and was sold in local toy stores (Carlson, 2004). This was a great toy and remains in my classroom for smaller and quickly accessed demos. The one problem I constantly had was the limited clearance the Kick disc had. When attempting to do long distance observation I found that even newer hallways in the school are uneven at best and the disc will often bottom out slowing its speed or changing its direction due to increased friction. Over the period of a couple years I tried other hovercraft models. For instance, the student built compact disc which uses a balloon to force air between a compact disc and the surface the disc is sitting on (White, 2008). This discThe five dollar hovercrafHands on Teaching 5works well for a table top demonstration but is limited to that type of surface. During the summerof 2008, while working with the Canisius College Science Camp, I had the opportunity and challenge to design an inexpensive yet reliable hovercraft that students could build with limited adult supervision or support. After several weeks of testing, we developed a hovercraft that works incredibly well on most indoor surfaces that can be built for as little as five dollars. The five dollar hovercraft can be built in the classroom in about thirty-five minutes. It canthen be used for discussion points and demonstrations to help students reform their conceptions on how moving bodies act according to Newton’s first law of motion. The five dollar hovercraft travels over fifty meters of hallway without any significantslowing. The hovercraft can be used outside in a parking lot ifthe school halls aren’t long enough. The hovercraft can carrythe weight of a Physics book and still perform the same as itdoes with only the battery pack. Many of the students who have been introduced to Newtonian physics through experimentation with the hovercraft say it’s helped them better understand the role of friction in developing their preconceptions. It’s through identifying frictions presence and its role that students have made the most progress in reorganizing their understanding how
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