Learning physics is never easy..Being a physics teacher for 16 years, the most common respond that I get each time I tell an individual that I'm a physics teacher, is that 'I was very weak in physics', 'I used to hate physics' or 'I only managed to get a P7 for physics in my SPM'. But my amazement was most of them will add another sentence 'Oh..but I remembered an experiment that uses the trolley that you have to push, then paste ticker tapes on to my lab book'
It kept me thinking why this experiment is more popular among these ex-physicists. Even those in their 40s and 50s remembered this small but not unsignificant part of their physics life. Why? So I came up with a few anwers:
(1) it involved hands-on learning; meaning that you were actively involved in the learning processes.
(2) you enjoyed the activities; the learning processes involved learning and playing at the same time. You were always communicating with one another in the classroom.
(3) You were free to move about in the laboratory during the lab class and a allowed make noise (which does not happen often in a physics classroom).
(4) You don't have the headache of trying to understand what is being taught as the learning process is simple and very straight foward. Push, cut, paste and there...the tape chart is created..! Movement with constant velocity, constant acceleration etc..everything right in front of you at the end of the lesson.
My conclusion is that active learning aided the cognitive process, while communication and use of our senses makes everything simpler and clearer.
Proud of being able to find the answers to my question, I asked an individual who was babbling about his experiences with the ticker tapes. 'So..what was your findings of these actvities?' He gave me a blank look and smiled...'That..I forget..'
Well...at least he remembered the activities...
