For me Physics is happening everywhere all the time, it just needs those observing eyes to notice it. It could be while playing Basket ball or drinking water from the faucet.
With an aim to share this vision, I explored “speed” with my 9 year old daughter’s class. My intention was to make them realize that they can grasp the concepts of Physics, simply by using their own bodies, minds and things around them. Even though it was the first such activity with them, but I believe that this and similar exposures have the POTENTIAL of sowing the seed of “inquisitiveness” in their mind, just as it was sown in my mind (when I was their age).
When I was 9 years old, I had seen a simple display of generation of electricity from water (at my school’s science fair). That little display on a 12” x 24” cardboard spoke volumes to me (on that fateful day). Without my awareness, it sowed a seed-of-inquiry inside me.
For the next few years, I continued to enjoy studying Physics and Math. I enjoyed it so much that a bad teacher did not alter my interest.
However, that seed within me sprouted after 7 years, when I learnt Physics from a great Physics teacher in grade 12. That Physics teacher had (a) a deep understanding of the subject and (b) all the necessary skills to teach. He was a rare combination of knowledge and wisdom. Whatever he taught- the examples, the derivations and concepts are still with me, fresh in my memory bank. I thank him for providing the much-needed-water-and-the-Sun for my “seed-of-inquisitiveness”.
After completing all my education in one stretch and working for a few years in an industry, I started teaching at the local university. My aim was to share my joy of learning Physics. However, I soon realized that most of my adult students lacked clear fundamentals. In addition, because of their age they had developed a closed mind towards learning familiar-yet-semi-understood-Laws-of-Physics in a new way. I felt as if I were watering the leaves instead of roots.
Just then, I decided to take some time off to raise my new born son. During that period, I tried doing “Physics activities”, as a volunteering parent at my daughter’s private school(s). It was then that I observed something astonishing. It was that the simpler I made the topic and the lesser the number of gadgets I used, the more the students opened-up-their-own-minds-to-explore. Further, the students who were most active and probing were the youngest ones in elementary school rather than the ones in the middle school.
I continued to pursue this “interesting research” at my own home, with my 3 year old son and 8 year old daughter. I encouraged them to explore.
I noticed that my son DISCOVERED (on his own) how the size-of-his-shadow-decreased as he moved away from the source of light. While, my self-motivated daughter EXPLORED how the attractive-force-between-two-magnets-changed when she placed them on either side of her finger or the glass top of the coffee table.
After about 9 months of “research”, I was convinced that Physics is a language (just like English) which needs to be started at home or at the latest in early school, e.g., by talking about reflections from spoon or mirror (just like alphabets). This conviction was further verified when my 4 year old son suddenly started DISCOVERING “h” in birthday cards and the sign boards (after his teacher introduced this alphabet). It was proved that a SMALL EXPOSURE leads to HUGE AWARENESS.
As seen through my eyes, Physics is simpler than those complicated equations. It is more beautiful than the words that describe it in most of the text books. In addition, it is even more magnificent than those magic-tricks shown by most of the teachers to get a "Wow" out of students. From my limited experience, I think that even though all these traditional ways are important in teaching Physics, yet its-real-essence is not felt. I feel Physics needs to be observed, probed, analyzed and then assimilated. I believe that for a balanced and complete understanding, EXPLORING needs to be added to the existing techniques of teaching Physics.
I pray that the universe (through like minded people) will provide the “exposure”, “encouraging parents” and the “dedicated Physics teachers” for all ELEMENTARY SCHOOL students, lest they should shut their minds off-Physics.
With Dedication,
Gunjan
Surrender, Listen and Give Contact at Contact@FollowThyHeart.Org
About Me
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Saturday, October 20, 2007
How do I deal with angry people?
I am sharing the answers to some of the questions I meditated upon. To me, these are difficult questions and I could only find answers during deep meditation. I believe they are true but difficult-to-follow-solutions.
What do I do when someone is angry at me just because he is short tempered?
This was one of the most trying situations, when someone around me would get angry at me (repeatedly) just because he is short tempered. All these years, in each situation, I used to reflect that anger back towards him by talking in the same tone. However, when I meditated upon this question, I heard a very convincing and peaceful solution to this turbulence creating situation.
I saw that I have a shadow each time I am standing in a well-lit room or in bright sunlight. In addition, the length of the shadow varied depending on the angle my body was making with the source of light.
Extrapolating it to something going on inside my mind, I saw that my true-Higher-Self was like my “body” and my high-thinking-Ego-self was like its “shadow”.
When someone is getting angry at me, I think he is actually behaving like a 4 year old child (who is) throwing a tantrum at a toy store. In fact to show his anger against me (his mother), the child starts running over and stomping on my “shadow”. But, I (as an adult), know that if someone is running over my shadow it is not hurting my “body” at all and can't help smiling.
Similarly, when someone is losing his temper at me, he is simply trying to hurt my high-thinking-Ego-self. During that process, my true-Higher-Self is actually separate and unhurt. My true-Higher-Self can never get hurt, just as the “body” does not get hurt when someone walks over its “shadow”.
Further, when he is getting angry at me, it is his high-thinking-Ego-self which is out of control, and not his true-Higher-Self. This explanation extinguished my anger against that person and instead, I was filled with pity for his lack of control over his high-thinking-Ego-self.
Just as the length of the “shadow” can be minimized by aligning one’s “body” under the source of light, similarly, I can minimize the role of my “high-thinking-Ego-self” by aligning myself constantly under His light. To the point it vanishes and only my “true-Higher-Self” manifests.
This clear vision really eased me out during the session, as I saw no obvious reason to get agitated by any body’s bad temper. However, I am still struggling to connect to my true-Higher-Self in that “agitating” moment when it happens. I pray that I get there sooner each next time.
Oct. 20, 2007
What do I do when someone is angry at me just because he is short tempered?
This was one of the most trying situations, when someone around me would get angry at me (repeatedly) just because he is short tempered. All these years, in each situation, I used to reflect that anger back towards him by talking in the same tone. However, when I meditated upon this question, I heard a very convincing and peaceful solution to this turbulence creating situation.
I saw that I have a shadow each time I am standing in a well-lit room or in bright sunlight. In addition, the length of the shadow varied depending on the angle my body was making with the source of light.
Extrapolating it to something going on inside my mind, I saw that my true-Higher-Self was like my “body” and my high-thinking-Ego-self was like its “shadow”.
When someone is getting angry at me, I think he is actually behaving like a 4 year old child (who is) throwing a tantrum at a toy store. In fact to show his anger against me (his mother), the child starts running over and stomping on my “shadow”. But, I (as an adult), know that if someone is running over my shadow it is not hurting my “body” at all and can't help smiling.
Similarly, when someone is losing his temper at me, he is simply trying to hurt my high-thinking-Ego-self. During that process, my true-Higher-Self is actually separate and unhurt. My true-Higher-Self can never get hurt, just as the “body” does not get hurt when someone walks over its “shadow”.
Further, when he is getting angry at me, it is his high-thinking-Ego-self which is out of control, and not his true-Higher-Self. This explanation extinguished my anger against that person and instead, I was filled with pity for his lack of control over his high-thinking-Ego-self.
Just as the length of the “shadow” can be minimized by aligning one’s “body” under the source of light, similarly, I can minimize the role of my “high-thinking-Ego-self” by aligning myself constantly under His light. To the point it vanishes and only my “true-Higher-Self” manifests.
This clear vision really eased me out during the session, as I saw no obvious reason to get agitated by any body’s bad temper. However, I am still struggling to connect to my true-Higher-Self in that “agitating” moment when it happens. I pray that I get there sooner each next time.
Oct. 20, 2007
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Exploring Speed
MOTIVATION
While teaching Physics at San Jose State University a few years ago, I realized that the majority of 18 to 22 year old students did not have clear fundamentals. I felt as if I were watering the leaves instead of the roots. Then, I remembered that I personally had got interested in physical sciences and exploring my surroundings right around the age of 9. After about 3 decades later, I feel that Physics is happening everywhere, be it at the basket ball court or at the water fountain.
As seen by me, Physics is simpler than those complicated equations. It is more beautiful than the words that describe it in most of the text books and much more magnificent than those magic-tricks being shown by teachers to get a "Wow" (out of students) at different levels of education. All these ways are important in learning the subject, but I think the “essence of physics” gets lost in the equations, the text books and the magic tricks. I feel Physics (or perhaps most of the science subjects) really needs to be observed, probed, analyzed, assimilated and believed. I believe that for a balanced and complete understanding, the fourth leg of "exploring the surroundings" needs to be added to the existing techniques of teaching.
Following my passion about teaching Physics in its-simplest-form at the "right age" and my intention to do something for the school where my 9 year old daughter is studying. I talked to my daughter’s class teacher and he thankfully gave me an opportunity to do something I had wanted to do for a long time.
AIM
My aim was to make some 9 and 10 year old students understand the concept of “speed” without expecting any prior knowledge about the topic or the mathematical expression (“speed = distance/time”).
INTRODUCTION
To accomplish this goal, I, my 9 year old daughter’s classmates and their teacher worked as a team of researchers.
We started out by talking about common observations on the freeways. How, we often see a car moving faster or slower than the other cars on the freeway. How the car which seems to be moving faster, crosses the approaching exit earlier than the other cars.
In addition we talked about the sign boards showing the speed in "mph" which stands for miles per hour. We discussed that the "mph" written on speedometer and on sign boards provided us a lot of information. Each one in our team was aware that “miles” is used when talking about the distance covered and “hour” is used when one is talking about the time taken to cover a certain distance. Therefore, we knew that somehow, speed was related to “distance” and “time”. “How”, was the question to be addressed?
To accomplish this, we (as a team) came out into the basket ball court. The students formed pairs. Then they picked up a bathroom roll (one for each pair) and a piece of chalk. Then they marked two straight parallel lines (using chalk) on the ground about two leg spaces apart. These lines became the start and finish lines for their experiments.
EXPERIMENT #1
For this experiment, one of the students got ready to start rolling the bathroom roll from the start line towards his partner (sitting on the finish line).
In the first half of this experiment, the student pushed the roll faster (i.e. with more force), while his partner counted 1,2,3,4,… and noted the count (in a notebook) when the roll crossed the finish line.
In the second half of this experiment, the same exercise was repeated, but this time the student pushed the same roll (from the same starting line) slower (i.e. with less force), while his partner counted 1,2,3,4,5,6,7… and noted that count (in a notebook) when the roll crossed the finish line.
At the end of this experiment, we all gathered together to discuss our observations. Everyone had similar results. We all agreed that to cover a fixed distance (between two lines), the fast moving roll took less time (lesser counts) than the slow moving roll. Everyone was convinced that the FASTER SPEED IMPLIED LESS TIME NEEDED TO COVER A FIXED DISTANCE.
Without their awareness, these 9 year old students had verified the inverse proportionality between speed and time.
EXPERIMENT #2
In the second experiment, the number of counts was kept constant (e.g., 4). This time the other student got a chance to push the roll from the starting line. While his partner got to do 3 things. The partner had (a) to speak aloud the counts till 4, (b) to mark the point (with chalk) at which the roll crossed the ground (at the end of the count of 4) and (c) to measure the foot steps between the starting and the marked point.
The student pushed the roll faster (i.e. with more force) and his partner marked the point on the ground where the roll crossed at the end of the count of 4. The partner also labeled it as “fast”. As a last step, he measured the number of foot steps between the starting and the point marked “fast”.
The same exercise was repeated by pushing the roll slower (i.e. with less force) this time. At the end of the count of 4, the student counting the “counts” marked the point as “slow”, where the roll crossed at the end of the count of 4. He then measured the number of foot steps between the starting and point marked “slow”.
When we discussed the results of this experiment, everyone once again had observed a similar pattern in their results. They all agreed that for a fixed time, the roll pushed faster (i.e. with more force) covered a longer distance than a slower roll. We concluded that FAST SPEED IMPLIED MORE DISTANCE COVERED IN A FIXED TIME.
Those bright and wise 9 year old learners had verified the direct proportionality between speed and distance.
CONCLUSION
We concluded that faster (in comparison to slower) implied that
(a) less time was needed to cover a given distance and
(b) more distance was covered in a given time.
This was the same as implied by “the much known” equation “speed = distance / time”.
It was a wonderful experience that day for me to able to make those 9 year old students grasp the concept of “speed” without using any equations, theory, demonstrations, gadgets or magic tricks.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Theodore (the teacher) for trusting me to do something “valuable and fun” for me. I would also like to thank each student for their cooperation and opening their “wisdom boxes” to explore speed. I appreciate Cheryl (the office administrator) for lending us those bathroom rolls.
WISHES
I pray that these students continue to “research and explore” things happening around them everywhere, by simply using their inherent-wisdom-boxes.
I wish that their parents/guardians provide them all the support in terms of time, space and encouragement to “nurture” a budding Newton in their family.
Happy Exploring,
Gunjan
While teaching Physics at San Jose State University a few years ago, I realized that the majority of 18 to 22 year old students did not have clear fundamentals. I felt as if I were watering the leaves instead of the roots. Then, I remembered that I personally had got interested in physical sciences and exploring my surroundings right around the age of 9. After about 3 decades later, I feel that Physics is happening everywhere, be it at the basket ball court or at the water fountain.
As seen by me, Physics is simpler than those complicated equations. It is more beautiful than the words that describe it in most of the text books and much more magnificent than those magic-tricks being shown by teachers to get a "Wow" (out of students) at different levels of education. All these ways are important in learning the subject, but I think the “essence of physics” gets lost in the equations, the text books and the magic tricks. I feel Physics (or perhaps most of the science subjects) really needs to be observed, probed, analyzed, assimilated and believed. I believe that for a balanced and complete understanding, the fourth leg of "exploring the surroundings" needs to be added to the existing techniques of teaching.
Following my passion about teaching Physics in its-simplest-form at the "right age" and my intention to do something for the school where my 9 year old daughter is studying. I talked to my daughter’s class teacher and he thankfully gave me an opportunity to do something I had wanted to do for a long time.
AIM
My aim was to make some 9 and 10 year old students understand the concept of “speed” without expecting any prior knowledge about the topic or the mathematical expression (“speed = distance/time”).
INTRODUCTION
To accomplish this goal, I, my 9 year old daughter’s classmates and their teacher worked as a team of researchers.
We started out by talking about common observations on the freeways. How, we often see a car moving faster or slower than the other cars on the freeway. How the car which seems to be moving faster, crosses the approaching exit earlier than the other cars.
In addition we talked about the sign boards showing the speed in "mph" which stands for miles per hour. We discussed that the "mph" written on speedometer and on sign boards provided us a lot of information. Each one in our team was aware that “miles” is used when talking about the distance covered and “hour” is used when one is talking about the time taken to cover a certain distance. Therefore, we knew that somehow, speed was related to “distance” and “time”. “How”, was the question to be addressed?
To accomplish this, we (as a team) came out into the basket ball court. The students formed pairs. Then they picked up a bathroom roll (one for each pair) and a piece of chalk. Then they marked two straight parallel lines (using chalk) on the ground about two leg spaces apart. These lines became the start and finish lines for their experiments.
EXPERIMENT #1
For this experiment, one of the students got ready to start rolling the bathroom roll from the start line towards his partner (sitting on the finish line).
In the first half of this experiment, the student pushed the roll faster (i.e. with more force), while his partner counted 1,2,3,4,… and noted the count (in a notebook) when the roll crossed the finish line.
In the second half of this experiment, the same exercise was repeated, but this time the student pushed the same roll (from the same starting line) slower (i.e. with less force), while his partner counted 1,2,3,4,5,6,7… and noted that count (in a notebook) when the roll crossed the finish line.
At the end of this experiment, we all gathered together to discuss our observations. Everyone had similar results. We all agreed that to cover a fixed distance (between two lines), the fast moving roll took less time (lesser counts) than the slow moving roll. Everyone was convinced that the FASTER SPEED IMPLIED LESS TIME NEEDED TO COVER A FIXED DISTANCE.
Without their awareness, these 9 year old students had verified the inverse proportionality between speed and time.
EXPERIMENT #2
In the second experiment, the number of counts was kept constant (e.g., 4). This time the other student got a chance to push the roll from the starting line. While his partner got to do 3 things. The partner had (a) to speak aloud the counts till 4, (b) to mark the point (with chalk) at which the roll crossed the ground (at the end of the count of 4) and (c) to measure the foot steps between the starting and the marked point.
The student pushed the roll faster (i.e. with more force) and his partner marked the point on the ground where the roll crossed at the end of the count of 4. The partner also labeled it as “fast”. As a last step, he measured the number of foot steps between the starting and the point marked “fast”.
The same exercise was repeated by pushing the roll slower (i.e. with less force) this time. At the end of the count of 4, the student counting the “counts” marked the point as “slow”, where the roll crossed at the end of the count of 4. He then measured the number of foot steps between the starting and point marked “slow”.
When we discussed the results of this experiment, everyone once again had observed a similar pattern in their results. They all agreed that for a fixed time, the roll pushed faster (i.e. with more force) covered a longer distance than a slower roll. We concluded that FAST SPEED IMPLIED MORE DISTANCE COVERED IN A FIXED TIME.
Those bright and wise 9 year old learners had verified the direct proportionality between speed and distance.
CONCLUSION
We concluded that faster (in comparison to slower) implied that
(a) less time was needed to cover a given distance and
(b) more distance was covered in a given time.
This was the same as implied by “the much known” equation “speed = distance / time”.
It was a wonderful experience that day for me to able to make those 9 year old students grasp the concept of “speed” without using any equations, theory, demonstrations, gadgets or magic tricks.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Theodore (the teacher) for trusting me to do something “valuable and fun” for me. I would also like to thank each student for their cooperation and opening their “wisdom boxes” to explore speed. I appreciate Cheryl (the office administrator) for lending us those bathroom rolls.
WISHES
I pray that these students continue to “research and explore” things happening around them everywhere, by simply using their inherent-wisdom-boxes.
I wish that their parents/guardians provide them all the support in terms of time, space and encouragement to “nurture” a budding Newton in their family.
Happy Exploring,
Gunjan
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