KBlog 31: Unleashing Creativity: Tips for Helping Students Birth Innovative Ideas: 3. Tumbling Toast, Cheerios and Spilled Coffee: The Unlimited Universe of Science Questions from Everyday Life

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Image by George Milton

The Challenge:

Your students do not have to have a fancy lab, a huge budget, or high-end equipment to do great science. There are only two requirements. Those are one the ability to observe and two to be curious about what they observe. As a science teacher, I know that the information students gain from formal instruction will fade quickly. What I want for my students is to develop the ability to observe their surrounding world and ask questions based on curiosity.

A Solution:

Over the years I have accumulated a collection of interesting articles that my students and educators can access, I put some of them on my website. 

At the end of each school year, I spend time going through the titles of journals and conducting key word searches on topics that could intersect our daily lives. Relating science to everyday life makes the student-science connection strong. This connection is a great springboard to motivate students to apply their curiosity to ask and investigate questions of personal interest. I posted example articles on my website and IF you would like more posted articles, please let me know (rkurtz3@gmail.com). Here are sample topics based on articles I have found.

·       Physics of Breakfast

·       Cheerios Effect

·       Tumbling Toast

·       Luck and Skill in Golf

·       Mealworms and Styrofoam

·       Memorizing During Sleep

Resources:

Page Linking to a few sample articles (email me or comment if you would like more articles to be posted) -- https://www.k12stemspace.com/new-page