The Science Of Star Wars: Creative Physics Learning In A Galaxy That Isn’t Far Far Away

Physicist and Star Wars fan Professor Carsten P Welsch explains how Star Wars fiction can help students to better understand the developments happening in accelerator science.

“Much to learn, you still have” are the famous words of Jedi master Yoda to Count Dooku when he faces his old Padawan in Attack of the Clones.

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      string(5679) "being balanced or unbalanced. This model will be further developed at KS4. Although the treatment of Newton’s Laws is best left until then, it is important to avoid misconceptions being inadvertently set up: forces being balanced doesn’t necessarily mean that the object they are acting on is at rest, but rather it isn’t accelerating.There is a pitfall for the unwary in using contexts in which there are a number of forces acting which are not at right angles or parallel to each other (e.g. a child sliding down a slide). If pupils are required to work out the resultant it will be beyond their mathematical capabilities.An important categorisation in the study of forces is the distinction between contact forces and non-contact forces. Pupils will have studied both magnetism and gravity at KS2 but at KS3 there is the start of the concept of a field, which is applied to both of these (and electrostatics are introduced as well). Developing this idea is important, including the notion that the field is stronger at some places than others, such as near the poles of a magnet (the attraction or repulsion can be felt to be stronger) or near a large mass (objects losing weight the further they travel into space from the Earth).Gravity can be effectively explored both on the scale of the personal (thinking about weight and how that would alter if near to a planet with a different mass) and in terms of solar systems and planets orbiting a sun (for example, keeping the Moon in orbit around the Earth and the Earth around the Sun). Pupils may imagine the Earth’s gravitational field reaches no further than the edge of the atmosphere.Their previous study of space will have related largely to the Solar System and the development of explanations around the causes of day and year length. This can be extended by using the same model to explain seasonal variation. It now needs to extend much further and set our solar system in the context of many such systems and the understanding of what is meant by a galaxy. Coupled with the use of the light year as a measure of astronomical distance, this is leading towards a gradually developing sense of the scale of the universe.KS3: EnergyObjectives: Knows the main fuels and energy resources of the Earth Can recognise how energy is stored and is transferred in terms of force Understands how energy can be transferred in the form of heat, and the principle of temperature equilibrium Understands how energy is measured and that it has the same value before and after changes Understands how fuel bills are calculated Energy has no formal role in the teaching of Science in KS 1 or 2. However it is unlikely that teachers will have been able to explore activities such as running toy cars down ramps or identifying food chains without either they or pupils at some point using the term. This is understandable: pupils will use the word in everyday parlance. It does mean, however, that existing ideas need to be explored and misconceptions identified. The study of energy needs pupils to speak, listen and write to construct explanations as well as see demonstrations and carry out experiments.Energy is one of the most fundamental ideas in science and is used in explanations of a wide range of phenomena, from why birds of prey hunt, through why chemical reactions take place to how we keep warm in the winter, yet it is a tricky concept. Many teachers will have encountered it in their education using the ‘transformation model’: in a torch chemical energy in the battery is converted into electrical energy in the wires and then into heat and light in the bulb. This helps to describe how a torch works, or at least why it won’t continue to work indefinitely. However, it’s not so good at suggesting where the energy has gone if, for example, the torch is then switched off or allowed to run down. Pupils may suggest that there’s less (or no) energy left in the battery, none in the wires, no heat and no light and conclude therefore that the energy ‘has gone’. The approach now used in the Programme of Study uses the model of ‘stores and transfers’. The energy that was stored in the battery is transferred by electricity, heat and light to the environment, where it has been dissipated. Pupils shouldn’t be too concerned about tracking how the energy has been transferred, but can usefully compare the total input at the start with the total output at the end. Pupils should understand that if adjacent places are at a different temperature then energy will tend to be transferred until they even out. A parcel of fish and chips will lose heat until it is at the surrounding temperature and a block of ice cream will gain heat until the same thing happens. We can intervene in this by using insulation, which postpones the inevitable, or using devices such as cookers or refrigerators, which draw upon further energy supplies to maintain the differential.Fuels are a useful context to study energy with. Thinking about a moving car or a house being kept warm in the winter, these processes can be made sense of by thinking about the energy store at the start of the process being a tank of petrol or a supply of gas. They also provide a context for considering the finite nature of the earth’s resources and the challenge we face in using these well so that ‘the lights don’t go out’.Studying fuels also supports the idea of fuel bills and how these are calculated. Exploring this reinforces a number of key ideas, such as the cost of maintaining a supply system irrespective of usage (hence"
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Creative Teaching & Learning

Paving the Way for Physics Progress

8 Jul 2019

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      string(5722) "From dance crazes like the ‘Floss’ to films, songs and toys, there are a wide range of cultural experiences and interests students have that often seem disconnected from their classroom learning. As highlighted in this issue in ‘Why Pop Culture Needs to be a Part of STEM Education’ (p. 62), simple tweaks to subject content can make a significant difference in how students relate to a subject and get them emotionally invested in pushing forward to develop new skills. Although it can be overwhelming to think about where to start with pop references in the classroom and to come up with ideas that offer both enjoyment and depth of coverage, there are many resources available. In the following section, we’ve highlighted just a few of the available websites that are finding creative and innovative approaches to teaching subject material using popular culture. Many of these include lesson plans or videos that can be used in class, but others have online platforms that allow students to create videos or magazines, or engage directly with the material through quizzes or online assessment. It is clear that many teachers are finding in popular culture a way of keeping their own teaching fresh and ensuring students have a range of experiences in the classroom and we’re pleased to be able to share some of these ideas and approaches with you.Making Curriculum Pophttp://mcpopmb.ning.com/Making Curriculum Pop describes itself as “a resource sharing community for educators interested in better practices and teaching with pop culture”. It is a sharing hub with more than 7,000 members and groups that cover a wide range of interests and teaching ranges. 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There is a ‘Week in Review’ section where top articles, links and threads are compiled, highlighting the main interests of the week. Members can post links to articles, videos and other web content and they can contribute to discussion threads and curate their own ‘playlists’ or write messages/content that would be of use for other teachers. For teachers interested in further pursuing the pop culture angle, the owners of the site have also published a book engaging with related teaching theory called Making Curriculum Pop: Developing Literacies that was published in 2015 by Free Spirit Pub.NuSkool – Real Life Learningwww.nuskool.comNuSkool is an entertainment learning platform that finds teachable moments in popular culture. Their aim is to help the audience find the hidden lessons in all aspects of entertainment. They see their job as showing the world that learning isn’t confined to a textbook and occurs both inside and outside the classroom, which is what they consider ‘real life learning’.NuSkool has a team of highly qualified educators, researchers and pop culture experts who produce videos, articles, standards aligned lesson plans, quizzes and other types of assessments. The lessons themselves can be accessed for free off the home page and include titles such as ‘X-Men: Are Mutants Already Among Us?’, which is a lesson on evolution and genetics, or ‘Will the Real Iron Man Please Stand Up?’, a Physics and English Language Arts lesson based on the public figures Elon Musk and Tony Stark. Other topics include Donald Trump, police brutality, Star Wars, prosthetic limbs, baseball, bullying, video games, and many others. The lessons include written aspects as well as videos and media content. Each one has a full lesson plan and assignment that the student can fill out on the website. The lessons and assignments are free, but the lesson plans are available via subscription. Subscription packages are affordable, ranging from $1.99 per day to $70 per year. Subscription access also includes access to assessments, quizzes and test prep exams, unlimited student accounts, the ability to create online classes and send lessons to students and the capacity to facilitate private group discussions with students on each post. This is an excellent resource for using pop culture in the classroom and is a great way to get new ideas for thinking about this approach to teaching. It’s OK to be Smart  https://www.youtube.com/itsokaytobesmartPBS Digital Studios has more than 50 original web series on offer that explore science, arts, culture and more. ‘It’s OK to be Smart’ is a YouTube channel that looks at science from unconventional perspectives, including through the lens of popular culture. 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Arts-Based Learning

Popular Culture Online

10 Oct 2018

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      string(304) "... even be able to reflect on what their idea was and realise that it needs to change. Student choice is an important aspect of Computer Science. It’s very easy to opt out of the challenging aspects if they have no direct personal relevance. My Magnum Opus still isn’t ..."
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      string(4837) "each category (e.g. fear, happiness, sadness, determination, resignation and ambivalence). I ask each student in the class to pick a number for a category and then reveal the word that they have chosen. With their 4 or 5 words they must design a story for a game, along with several characters and a goal for the player to achieve. The creative interpretations of words are fantastic, and as long as you spin the order of the words or add some extra ones/categories it’s a very easy task to repeat throughout the year. The best examples are illustrated to make great displays and I have a competition for the best interpretation each time. It produces a great buzz around the subject and is a welcome change from the diagrams of keyboards I previously had up on my walls. Students who ‘can’t’ code suddenly want to know if their steampunk arcade game in which they must protect their scampering puppy from ‘fire rain’ using a metal umbrella is easy enough to make in Scratch. Rule 3: Don’t forget your Magnum OpusBig coding challenges always appeal to my students, especially the younger ones. Every time we start a new coding topic I’m asked if I can teach them how to make Mario/FIFA/Fortnite. The answer is, of course, no, and it’s demoralising for them to hear it and for me to say it. Instead we need to harness that drive. For my students we have a long-term goal, something to aim for in the future. Perhaps, by the end of this year, they will be able to make a Fortnite clone (replace with current trend) in Scratch/Unity/etc. We may spend a lesson discussing it and breaking it down into simple ideas. “I need a way of getting 100 players on a map”, or “I need a way to switch weapons”, etc. After that first discussion, we leave it to one side and as the year progresses, every time we learn a new skill that might help us complete our Magnum Opus we make a quick note of it. By the end of the year some students will be ready to have a go, some will still need more time, others may even be able to reflect on what their idea was and realise that it needs to change. Student choice is an important aspect of Computer Science. It’s very easy to opt out of the challenging aspects if they have no direct personal relevance. My Magnum Opus still isn’t complete almost six years after I first laid down the initial plans, but I’m working on it and it inspires me to improve my skills when marking levels allow it. For students it’s about making the subject more creative. The GCSE can be very challenging for students who haven’t completely bought into the subject. KS3 for me is an incredibly important time where we as educators have the chance to guide students toward making the right choices. That Fortnite clone my Year 7 class are close to finishing may not change the world, but it has certainly inspired many of them to put in countless extra hours.Failure is an optionI believe that Computer Science and IT are at an important junction and the destruction of most of the IT courses with the last curriculum was clearly a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Much of the wonderful creative aspects have been lost in the search for a Holy Grail of academic vigour. That said, Computer Science doesn’t need to be scary, and in fact it can be just as creative with the right approach from an early age. My steps won’t save a Year 11 class only weeks away from their exams but I’m certain they’ll have a massive impact on that Year 7 group who are just finding their feet. Every year that we face the same challenges in the same way is another year where a sizable number of the cohort are dissuaded from taking up a fantastic subject with huge potential. All we need is to let the students fail a little bit more and help them develop their skills to cope. Each one of my rules will result in students failing something quickly. That’s ok, because we remember our failures and we find creative ways to adapt and improve. Fearing failure holds us back, both staff and students, from achieving what we want. Failure is an option, and potentially it’s the best one.Dave Chilver is an inspirational game design and ICT teacher and was the 2017 winner of the BAFTA YGD Mentor Award.NOTES:These ideas have been adapted from the great work being done by the staff at the University of Suffolk (especially Rob Kurta) and the University of Lincoln. In addition, Mel Phillips at BAFTA YGD has been instrumental in developing an inspirational games program of study for Secondary and Sixth Form students. There’s an obvious need to get creativity into computing and I’m glad that there are people working on it!"
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Computing and Coding

Creative Computing Encouraging Artistry and the Freedom to Fail

17 Jul 2018

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      string(5684) "We are on the verge of an explosion of virtual reality technology and innovation. The quality of affordable commercial headsets has seen a Great Leap Forward in the past four years thanks to companies like Oculus and Valve.As classrooms have advanced greatly in the past twenty years from blackboard to interactive whiteboards to personal tablets, we can expect to see huge advancements into the virtual world over the next twenty. Virtual and augmented reality technology represent an untapped goldmine of creative learning experiences for children of the Internet Age.These are some of the way’s VR technology can assist in school and I have included links to other articles from TeachingTimes.com and around the web to provide a comprehensive picture of current technology, applications and implementation of VR tech that can enhance curriculum delivery.Art – no longer constrained by the limitations of pen, paper and the school’s resourcesWhen I first brought my Oculus Quest, I was able to visit the Guggenheim in New York and the Louvre in Paris in a single afternoon. I explored their unique architecture, both inside and out and saw a wide variety of paintings and exhibits using a completely free app called ‘Wander’. (Then I took a gentle stroll around Machu Pichu via the Grand Canyon but that’s incidental).Many students across the country are never given the opportunity to visit these places courtesy of a school trip. If they do, they may be at the back of a large crowd and miss many of the finer details.Now they can visit them totally free of charge. Believe me this is so much more than simply viewing these places on a computer screen. The exhibits retain their true scale in virtual reality and they retain that striking sense of presence that normally one only gets from viewing them in person.But art is not just for spectators. For the doers and makers, there already exists a plethora of apps designed to help in the creation of paintings and sculptures in a virtual 3D environment.Apps such as Sculpt0r VR and Tilt Brush by Google represent the first generation of commercially available 3D sculpting apps. They offer a huge selection of tools for an artist to create whatever they want, from portraits, to marble busts, to video game characters to detailed landscapes and environments.Much of what would be considered impossible before, is now perfectly doable in VR. For example, it is now quite possible to create a free-standing replica of the solar system that can be fully explored, all within the confines of the classroom and with absolutely no mess to be cleaned up.Try these for more art experiences:Transforming the Classroom with Augmented and Virtual Reality Headsets Jory Debenham, Assistive Technology Nov 2018 VR apps being used in the Washington Museum of journalism, Connecting Children and History … The VR Experience, E-Learning Update Issue 67 Piotr Baczynski, March 2018 7 best tools for painting, 3D modelling and sculpting in VR Miriam Harris, September 2018 An interesting article called VR in the Art Classroom with Google Carboard’ which includes a fascinating 360 degree video called Dreams of Dali, Anonymous, July 2016VR can now bring challenging science concepts to lifeInstead of students reading words and trying to visualise what is happening, they can inhabit a virtual world, hypothesise, test and push the boundaries to see science in action.We have already seen real world doctors using VR to give medical students access to clinical experience on demand and making surgery safer by generating 3D models of tumours from MRI scans.Now in the classroom it is clear that VR technology enables students to grasp the anatomy and functions of cells and organs which are not visible to the human eye.High School biology teacher, Rebecca Girard from Belmont California, has been using apps such as Cyber Science and the Human Anatomy Atlas. These demonstrate functions of the heart and blood flowing through the arteries, so students witness the opening and closing of the valves in real time using augmented reality, which projects the 3D models from a flat computer screen.Her view is that: ‘students never understood the structures, relationships, and orientations of the organs with the same clarity as when they used virtual reality.’ By comparison, real organs used in dissection are ‘preserved and inflexible and the valves and muscle no longer pump’. There is no comparison.As a former chemistry student, I now often think that it would have been hugely beneficial to explore and experiment with models of atoms and molecules without the need for real world chemicals and lab tests.There already exists an app called MEL chemistry VR. This lets you take a familiar object such as a pencil and zoom in on it. You can fly between the molecules of graphite and disassemble an atom so that the subatomic particles can be counted. It is as if you shrink down and witness at first hand the inner workings of the real world.Physics based VR games are already proving to be one of the most naturally synergetic VR experiences. It would be a small step for a developer to take the complex physics engine from a game like Bone-works and apply it so that concepts such as centrifugal force and conservation of momentum could be explained, demonstrated and most importantly experimented and interacted with, without the need for any lab set up.Hannes Kaufman and Bernd Meyer from the Vienna University of Technology took a physics engine developed for the PC games market and created PhysicsPlayground, an educational"
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Creative Teaching & Learning

The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy Of Edtech

15 Jul 2020

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