Driving Inertia Home

This article provides several activities (including a discrepant event) to showcase a learning cycle lesson on inertia. The stages of the author’s learning cycle are: Elicitation, Explorati... See More

This article provides several activities (including a discrepant event) to showcase a learning cycle lesson on inertia. The stages of the author’s learning cycle are: Elicitation, Exploration, Invention, & Application. This is slightly different from the 5Es that are more commonly used in science teaching (Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend, and Evaluate). The discrepant event involves the use of an apple and two knives, so caution will need to be exercised when the knives are in use so that they are not accessible to students. Students can try several other activities offered in the article. Inertia is an important topic to teach in middle school, as students are already looking forward to driving their own vehicles, and these investigations reinforce the importance of wearing seat belts.