Interactive+Analogies+in+Science

=Moving Helps our Students Learn!=

Presented By: Grant Williams (Science & Mathematics Learning Specialist: Dist 18)
As teachers we use analogies and comparisons everyday to help explain concepts to our students. We may compare the circulatory system to a busy highway, moving blood cells too and from a destination. The Earth and its core may be compared to a peach and its pit.

By providing students the opportunity to get up and interact with the analogies we may be better able to teach abstract concepts that are difficult to grasp. Things like Invisible Forces (magnetism and electricity) and properties of light (reflection, etc.) become easier to understand.

Demonstration #1: Magnetic Fields

 * One person sits in the middle of the room and is the "magnet"
 * Around 15 others each take a long string and loop it around one of the "magnets" fingers
 * The "magnet" clasps their hands together and the magnetic field string spread out around the "magnet" creating the field
 * Have remaining students attach arrows to the strings with arrows pointing to the center to show attraction field to the magnet
 * The remaining students stand between the strings and move towards the center. What do they notice? (strings are getting closer) What does this mean?
 * Have students return to the outside edge and try and touch as many strings as they can from where they are standing. How many strings can they touch?
 * Have students move towards the center and again touch as many strings as they can from where they are standing. What does this tell us about magnetic fields?

Demonstration #2: Reflection of light

 * Have 6 students all hold a basketball on one side of the room
 * Have another 6 students hold a lunch tray or another sturdy object across from their partner
 * Have the person with the basketball roll the ball straight across to their partner who is holding the lunch tray across from them so it bounces straight back. What does this tell us about the way light reflects?
 * Have the person with the lunch tray hold it at an angle and have the person with the basketball roll it straight across again. Now what does this tell us about the way light reflects?

It is important to always have a recap at the end of the class explaining the concept you were trying to teach during the interactive analogy. Review how the analogy is both similar and dissimilar from the actual concept being taught.

E.g. Highways are like blood streams in that the vehicles, like blood cells, move too and from a destination. Highways are not like blood streams because they can sometimes be empty.