When I saw the televised event of Felix Baumgartner jumping from the edge of space in October 2012, I was truly awe-struck by the tremendous courage it would take even to dream such a jump would be possible, let alone to step off the ledge in front of millions of viewers. As he safely made it to the ground, I thought to myself what my lesson on Monday morning would be if I was still teaching students. I was imagining all of the questions students would have as they came to school on that Monday.
What would I have done? What did you do? I figured that my lesson would have gone something like this…
1. Minds-on:
Show the documentary, highlight video of the jump and the more data intensive video from different points of view.
2. Action:
Record all the questions students might have with Post-its (or if they were ready, Poll Everywhere).
I made these up but I know student questions would be much better:
- How can you take a balloon to space?
- Why does he need a space suit? Is it only for air to breathe?
- What is the speed of sound?
- I thought there was no gravity in space. I am confused.
- Why did he lose control at the beginning?
- …and many more.
3. Consolidate/Reinforcement:
We might then sort questions, and then look for our own understanding…and I know for sure we would have used some or all of these Gizmos.
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Archimedes' Principle
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Cannonball Clowns (Estimation)
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Boyle's Law and Charles' Law
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Density Laboratory
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Doppler Shift
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Fan Cart Physics
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