Hands on Teaching 1 Enhancing Student Learning in Relation to Newton s First Law The Law of Inertia Using a Student Built Hovercraft Thomas Pearse Department of Physics State University of New York Buffalo State College 1300 Elmwood Ave Buffalo NY 14222 tpearse buffaloschools org Hands on Teaching 2 Abstract 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 to help students reform their conceptions on how moving bodies act according to Newton s first law of 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 3 The Research Educational 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 understanding Hands on Teaching 4 the 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 Purpose Arons advice about creating real experiences inspired my search for ways to demonstrate the nature of Newton s law of inertia My goal was to counter the students misconceptions about motion 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 disc Hands on Teaching 5 works well for a table top demonstration but is limited to that type of surface During the summer of 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 can then 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 significant slowing The hovercraft can be used outside in a parking lot if The five dollar hovercraf the school halls aren t long enough The hovercraft can carry the weight of a Physics book and still perform the same as it does 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 bodies should move in the absence of friction This results in a more developed understanding of Newtonian physical laws and thus a
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