Physics FUN Force
Phyiscs Fun Force Members Erin Beggs and Josh LeGreve (in
grey sweatshirts) with two grade 3 classes at Clay Lamberton School in Berlin,
WI
The Physics FUN Force is a group of
students volunteers organized by the Physics Department at Ripon College.
We are available to visit classrooms in area elementary schools and lead
science-activity sessions. During each session the emphasis will be on investigation
and discussion of the children's observations and ideas. Our
goal is to have fun with science while the children learn! As we develop
our activities, we want to add a storybook to each unit and introduce each
activity with a related story. Some of the activities we will bring to classrooms
are ones that have been tried out by the Elementary Teaching: Science
and Health class at Ripon College and are on the "Daily
Science" web page used by that course..
Activities for
the Classroom or for Special Events
Here are some of the activities we offer to bring to your class.
Suitable grade levels are noted. Click on the title to call up more information
about the sessions as well as the applicable areas in Wisconsin's Model
Academic Standards in Science that apply to them. (Most of the activities
touch upon standards in Science Inquiry and Physical Science
and/or Earth and Space Science.) We offer both anytime classroom activities
AND a few "special event" activities to be done outdoors.
The special events will require special scheduling during the "good weather"
periods of early fall and late spring. Most of the sessions would require
at least an hour.
Classroom Activities (to be done indoors at any time of the
year):
Special Events (to be done outdoors in early fall or late spring on fair-weather
days):
Of course we shall be concerned with safety. We'll begin each session with
a discussion of safe practice specific to the activity's materials and procedures.
Would you like the Physics FUN
Force to visit your classroom?
If so, please contact Dr. Mary Williams-Norton, the group's advisor, by e-mail
by clicking here. Please send your name,
school, grade level, phone number, e-mail address, which activity you would
like us to bring to your classroom, and a brief summary of the kinds of activities
the children have already done in this area. Also suggest times of the day and
dates that might work for you. Because the students are busy with classes, scheduling
a visit may require some flexibility. We'll bring most of the necessary materials
with us, but we may ask you to provide everyday materials such as papers, pens
or pencils, markers, water, etc. as noted in the information on each activity.
There is no charge for a visit BUT we love receiving thank-you notes from classes
we visit. As we do visits, we'll take pictures and add them to our web site,
like the one on the Constellation
activity page.
Do you want to participate in Physics
Fun Force visits and RESEARCH about learning at
the same time?
Of course the reeason that we want to visit classrooms is to inspire and promote
science learning. While most of our modules are set up for a single visit to
provide both an interesting story and a science activity to explore, we can
offer several of these modules to provide two visits with more activities AND
the opportunity to assess science learning that has occurred in the process.
On the first visit, we would collect information
about children's ideas on the theme of the lesson, presente a story related
to the science theme, and lead an activity to let the children learn about teat
theme by preliminary exploration.. We might leave a simple "homework"
assignment for everyone to think about and try before ou next visit.
On the second visit we would offer
a second, related activity and give the children an opportunity to demonstrate
what they've learned as they design,
do, and discuss an investigation** related to
the theme. We'll share osbservations with the teacher, who might want to use
the results as part of student learning assessments for the appropriate State
Science Standards.
If you would like to join us in examining science learning
with the Physics Fun Force, please let us know when you contact us about a first
visit. ** Because the two-visit system will include investigation, we would
ask that each class which participates begin with the INVESTIGATION module or
be very familiar with inquiry-based science learning.
Back to Ripon College Physics
Department page or Mary
Williams-Norton's page.
Last updated September 3, 2007