Teaching physics concepts is a challenge in today’s classroom.  How can a teacher present the majesty of physics in an era of decreasing budgets and often inadequate space?  All too often, schools and teachers despair of providing legitimate, hands-on laboratory experiences for students because equipment is large and expensive, especially when teaching Newtonian concepts like forces, action-reaction, and statics.  This need not be the case. I created a laboratory lesson plan that can make these concepts come alive in your classroom for a cost of just pennies per student (literally!) Below is a written description of the lesson plan. The full lesson plan [...]

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Astronomy, like the size of the solar system, is such a vast subject that it can be a challenging one to teach. It’s a fascinating topic and there are so many angles to choose when trying to effectively teach astronomy. Our experience is that most public schools teach astronomy in a way that does not inspire awe and elicit the interest the topic warrants. Most astronomy courses are not interactive and this is definitely a topic that needs to be hands-on. Powerpoints and lectures won’t cut it. So we created a lesson plan drawn from The Thousand Yard Model or [...]

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