physics | science-analogies

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the
source of all true art and science."

- Albert Einstein

Physics helps us understand how the world around us works in simple-ish terms. Although we strive to simplify our explanations a lot of times they end up being quite complex. Providing students with analogies can help them to better understand complex models and explanations.

Physics

Engaging Activity:

Ted-ED has a video called "Electric Vocabulary" that talks about the history of electricity and how we have come to use the words that we have. Have students watch the video and identify the different analogies that we use in our electric vocabulary (ie. How come Franklin choose to use the term 'battery'?).

Inquiry Activity:

The purpose of this project is to get students thinking more about the applications of electricity all around us. Sometimes we learn better when we try something that is more hands on. This project is based on the idea that you are going to pick a concept (basically anything electricity related) and explore it further on your own.

This project has two parts:
1.) a physical part – students need to physically build something or plan some sort of demonstration that uses the concept they wish to explore.

2.) a written/ class presentation part - students will present what they have built/ the demonstration they created and explain why it works and any concepts related to that.

Here are some ideas of things students could do:

Create a Leyden jar and explain why it works.

Create a homemade circuit and describe how it works.

Explain why there are so many different types of light bulbs and how they work.

Connections to Physics:

Electricity as a whole offers us one great big analogy. By discussing the reasons we use the language that we do and encouraging students to explore electrical concepts further we can build toward a better understanding.

Engaging Activity:

Adapted from the Perimeter Institute.

Present your class with the Black Box (instructions below). Begin by pulling on one of the ropes asking the class how we use models in science. Pull one of the rope ends at the bottom. Pass the Black Box around and have students come up with explanations for what is going on. Have the students draw their models up front and discuss each ones' ability to explain what is going on. Don't show your class what the 'right' model is! Emphasize how in science we accept a model as long as it explains what we observe.

Inquiry Activity:

Adapted from: Stop Faking It! Forces and Motion

Give your students blank floor plans of a house. Present students with various scenarios and have them shade in areas where a person is likely to be found (ie. If someone is sick they will most likely be found in the bedroom or the bathroom).

Some Scenarios:

Home sick in bed.
Having a party.
Family is over for Christmas and you are cooking.
etc.

Students should end up with a floor plan that now contains visual probability distribution of where someone is likely to be found in certain circumstances.

Connection to Physics:

To explain how electrons behave we use quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics allows us to determine where an electron is most likely to be found in a given circumstance (much like the floor plan shows us different scenarios). Our model of quantum mechanics works because it explains some properties of electrons that older models were not able to (wave-particle duality).