Heejin Jeon

The Early Years: The Sun's Energy

Sun, Dec 04, 2016 5:22 AM
Introduction to the sun's energy

This resource gives several suggestions on how to conduct short-term experiments that will grab the students’ attentions such as growing plants in sunlight and without light, playing with light and shadow, etc. The article explains how children grasp the concept of the sun’s energy and provides suggestions on what teachers could do with their students. For example, on a sunny day, teachers could go outside and discuss how to describe the sunlight with our senses. It’s imperative to remind the students of how dangerous it can be if a person looks directly at the sun because of how strong it is, which could lead into the topic of eye safety. The article elaborates on the importance of discussion and engagement of the students. It concludes with providing a lesson plan on making sun prints. Overall, this resource is a good foundation and introduction for the younger students to be exposed to the topic of the sun's energy.

Learning the Ropes With Electricity

Sun, Dec 04, 2016 4:27 AM
Informative way to go about teaching electricity

This resource was very informative in not only suggesting a lesson to use by listing the materials, but also providing different steps teachers could go about this topic to exercise their students’ knowledge about electricity. Throughout this article, the authors explain how to conduct the experiments according to the concept. For example, in order to display potential energy, the authors state that the teacher holds a ball of clay above his/her head and drop it. The teacher should continuously do this motion and ask the students why the clay falls when it’s let go. Once the teacher lifts the clay again, and as he/she lifts it about the head, the instructor should point out that when one releases it, the movement of the falling ball is clearly seen, but before it is let go, it has the potential to move. The potential energy within the clay ball changes to kinetic energy once the ball is released. The authors provide several, different experiments that teachers could utilize in their lesson and explanations that match them. The authors encourage to elaborate on the topic of electricity by leading into the concept of resistance. In addition, it’s also important to evaluate the activities and how the students comprehended the material.