Experiential Learning at It's Best

Day Eight- May 19, 2010 8am-4pm

Today was the day the entire 8th grade class went to Six Flags for a physics project. The day started with me taking a group out on the playground to calculate the high of the climbing net they have. This was a way to refresh their memory on the law of sines I taught them last week. The activity went great and everyone was getting it pretty fast. The only problem was we weren't getting the right answer!! What could be wrong, everything was right formula wise... Ah yes, who could possibly not realize that the calculators were in radians not degrees, how foolish of us. The kids got the answer we were looking for and we headed back in for a quick meeting before we jumped on the busses. When we walked through the park to our first destination everyones nostrils were wide open taking in all the scents. There was cotton candy, popcorn, and my personal favorite funnel cake.

The kids quickly jumped on some rides and started taking down all the calculations. The heights of the towers were accurately read by using law of sines (the one I taught them.) It was really interesting for the kids to actually experience what force was and how the G's were effecting them. Also, the rides were fun and exciting which made the kids even more excited about the material. If you let them actually experience the rides and just the act of being there then they will most likely learn more. Some may consider an amusement park to be only a distraction to students, but I don't believe this is true. When they are in small groups and have a chaperone that knows the material then they will get lots of work done and still have time to have a little fun.

There really isn't much to say on this blog because not much happened besides riding roller coasters and doing some physics. It was truly an amazing time at Six Flags and I'm really glad that I got to be apart of the experience. So since there isn't much to say, I will make up for it in pictures. Well it isn't a huge amount, but it should do the trick!