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5 Tools for Teaching Physics

Are you and your team busy brainstorming and writing Science units to comply with the Australian Curriculum?


To improve your results, follow these 5 tools for teaching physics:

  1. Our first tool is to keep experiments clear and able to visually demonstrate a principle.  Kids will always ask a ton of questions, but if the answer is something they can see and is obvious, you can always refer them back to what they just observed.
  2. The second tool is to choose equipment with which children are already familiar and know how to use.  Food and kitchen utensils make great science equipment.  This keeps expenses down, and also makes the lessons relevant.  You can present equipment in a new light, e.g. a 90 g tin of tuna is just mass, and a rubber band + 15 cm ruler = a great shooter.
  3. The third tool is to include multiple trials in your experiments.   It is important to show that science is based on investigating questions using multiple trials and represents a fair test.
  4. The next is the most critical tool.  You MUST practice an experiment by yourself before doing it in front of the class.  Make an agreement with yourself to do this.  You will “de-bug” anything that could go wrong, discover equipment that doesn’t work, flat batteries, etc.  The penalty for not doing it can be that your simple, clear experiment ends up confusing your eager students.  They become cynical and think that “it doesn’t work”.  Because you demonstrated “it doesn’t work.”  Remember that you are creating the platform in primary school for the views that your students will carry with them about science for the rest of their lives.  You are the one who shows that science provides clear, simple explanations about the physical world that they live in. (That said, if something does go wrong, use it as a chance to objectively analyze what happened.)
  5. The last tool is to engage yourself as well as your students. If you are having fun, so will your students.  

    If you want simple, clear resources to plan new units of work, “Primary Physics” is a must.  “Primary Physics”, written by award-winning author Marti Ellen, is a series of content-rich, simple, clear, hands-on workbooks that will make your job easy.  “Primary Physics” has won two awards in international Children’s Book Award Contests, and you’ll want to see for yourself why “Primary Physics” is gaining international acknowledgement for excellence.