Art in Physics

Teaching: An effective key to self-learning This project was funded by European Union.

PRESENTATION AND EVALUATION OF THE LESSON

• In September 2016, a new team for international meeting in Bulgaria was chosen. Most pupils were from class 8. A, one was from class 8. B

• In the beginning, we had no idea what to teach. Our teacher told us to choose P. E. or Physics. We could not decide so she asked us to meet without her and vote.

• To motivate us to choose Physics she showed us books with interesting physical experiments and photos from experiments she was making in summer Microsoft school.

• We liked the experiments. They made nice effects. • The experiments looked like fun but P. E. looked like fun too.• We voted and Physics won.

Part 1 – Why Art in Physics?

• After the research (books, the Internet, YouTube), we still could not decide what topic we should teach.

• Our teacher recommended to do experiments with water, oil and food dye and study surface tension, dissolving of liquids and their density.

What happened next? Experiments!

• These experiments she learnt in Microsoft summer school. Our teacher posted illustrative photos with explanation in our Facebook chat.

• Next she did the experiments herself and posted her results.

• Finally, she wrote lesson manual for us.

• We used Facebook to explain physical laws which are demonstrated in these experiments. Amal was very good at it.

• After reading the manual, we discussed class management of the lesson and were ready to try our experiments.

• Everything went well, only the last one could not be finished because the tablets releasing CO2 stayed at home and we were using only one food dye colour.

• Then we discussed our roles in the lesson and chose which experiment every team member will demonstrate in front of the Bulgarian class.

• Finally, Adam drank one of our chemicals – milk.

As soon as Amal came home from school, he decided to practice his experiment. He did not have a food dye. But he remembered that it can be replaced. He used Acryl colour.

Growing interest in the experiments

When he ran out of the cheap oil, he used expensive oilto finish the experiment. Feedback from Amal: „It was satisfying to see how thecolours are blending into each other in various shapes.“

The next day, Bára tried her experiment at home too. In the first photo she sprinkled the salt slowly and in the second photo she added the salt quickly. She observed the differences in the reaction between oil and water.Feedback from Bára: „When I added the red colour, only the water went red. And when I added the second colour, both colours mixed in water together. And it made a nice new colour.“

Preparing our lesson • We bought different colours to find out which kind

will be the best. We had to mix colours with water so we made several experiments to learn how much water we have to add.

• We were thinking about class management.• Then we decided what equipment we need• We rehearsed our experiments at home and at

school.• We prepared worksheets and feedback sheets.• Next we organized a try out in class 6.A and 5.B• We wrote the final version of our lesson plan.

Rehearsals in our school• 6. A with 14 pupils – 13 October 2016

Everything went well but we did not have enough time to prepare our supplies in advance and then we did not have time for feedback. There were little problems to get from one activity to the other during experiments. We spoke Czech and English – it was an English lesson anyway. We asked pupils to fill in the feedback later. Our experiments are part of curriculum for Physics for grade 6

• 5. B with 23 pupils – 17 October 2016We spoke mostly English, the children understood well what to do and enjoyed our lesson.

Rehearsal in class 6.A13 October 2016

Rehearsal in class 6.A13 October 2016

Part 2 – OUTCOME for MANUAL • Title: ART IN PHYSICS• Subject: Science – Chemistry Target age: 10 - 11 Time: 1 lesson• Goal: To raise interest in physical laws• Objectives:• To introduce experiments with liquids • To demonstrate surface tension of liquids• To explain density of liquids• To demonstrate the scientific principles of immiscible liquids

(liquids that won’t mix)

Lesson plan1) Introduction of the team and project 5´2) Science Show – experiment 1, 2, 3 5´3) Making 6 groups, preparing desks and supplies5´4) Experiments in groups with worksheets 20´5) Conclusions – revision, checking understanding

5´6) Feedback, cleaning 5´

Who took part in the lessons?• 6 Czech student „teachers“: 13 - 14 years old• Michael Čep, Adam Holuša, Milan Ámal Džuga,

Lukáš Jašurek, Bára Kaňoková, Adéla Orálková• 52 pupils from 2 classes in Bulgaria 11 years old• 4 teachers: 2 elementary teachers (BG), 1 Math and

English teacher (CZ), 1 school management (CZ)

When and where • School:

Sevlievo, Bulgaria place: classroom• Date: 25 October 2016, Tuesday• Lesson 1 (class 3): 10:15 – 11:05 • Lesson 2 (class 2): 11:30 – 12:20

• Lesson plan, worksheets, feedback worksheets• Plastic cups, spoons, pencils, bottles, tootpicks • Food dyes, water, oil, salt, milk, pepper, washing detergent,

effervescent tablets (or add melted citric or ascorbic acid in little water)

Which supplies are necessary?

1) BEGINNINNG of the lesson

• The first activity was introduction of our team and Erasmus+ project aims

• After this our team shortly introduced our country and the topic of the lesson based on experiments with liquids.

2) Motivation - Science Show Experiment 1a

What you need: a plate or a bowl, water, ground pepper, toothpicks, washing-up liquid

Instructions:1

Pour water in a plate. Then sprinkle a thin layer of ground pepper on the

surface.

2Place a toothpick in the water and watch what

happens. Is it covered with pepper?

Pepper grains do not move away if a clean toothpick touches water surface sprinkled with ground pepper.

Instructions:3

Dip a toothpick in washing-up liquid. Then touch the middle of the water with

the stick´s tip.

4As the washing-up liquid touches the water, watch

the grains of pepper. What happens to them?

Pepper grains instantly disperse to the sides of the bowl if a toothpick is dipped in washing-up liquid.

Explanation: SURFACE TENSION• We explored how liquid molecules pull each other

together. We learnt about surface tension.• Surface tension describes the attraction or adhesion

of molecules to one another on the surface of a liquid.

• The surface of the water is like a stretchy elastic skin on top of the water.

• The surface tension is broken by the washing-up liquid and it snaps away quickly.

• As the water molecules try to straighten up again, they quickly move to the sides of the bowl, and the pepper moves with them.

2) Motivation - Science Show Experiment 1b

What you need: a plate or a bowl, fat milk, food dyes, toothpicks or cotton buds, washing-up liquid

Instructions:

1Pour milk in a plate or a

bowl. About a half.

2Then add two or three

drops of liquid food dye in different places. Use several

colours if you have them.

Drops of food colour do not mix with milk easily. Fat milk is better then skimmed milk for this experiment.

Instructions:3

Touch the colour spots with a clean toothpick or

a cotton bud.

4Place a toothpick in the washing-up liquid and then touch the colour.

The food colour moves away if we touch it with a stick covered with washing-up liquid. The different colours mix.

Explanation: SURFACE TENSION• Surface tension is an interesting concept, like

molecules like to stick together. • Milk has surface tension, just like water, but

unlike water, it is high in fat and is solid coloured.

• As the dye is less dense, it does not mix into the milk unless stirred. It remains separate.

• Washing-up liquid breaks down the fat of the milk and decreases the surface tension in milk.

2) Motivation - Science Show Experiment 1c

What you need: a plate, vegetable oil, food dye, toothpicks, or cotton buds, washing-up liquid

Instructions:

1Pour oil in a plate or a bowl.

About a half.

2Then add two or three

drops of liquid food dye in different places. Use several

colours if you have them.

Drops of food colour do not mix with oil. Food dye is mixed with water and is heavier then oil. Drops go down.

Instructions:3

Touch the colour spots with a clean toothpick or

a cotton bud.

4Place a toothpick in the washing-up liquid and then touch the colour.

The food colour moves away only a little if we touch it with a stick covered with washing-up liquid.

Explanation: SURFACE TENSION• Surface tension is an interesting concept.

Molecules like to stick together. • Oil has surface tension, just like water and milk. • As the food dye is less dense, it does not mix

into the oil unless stirred. It remains separate. • Water food dye is heavier then oil. The drops of

colour slowly goes down.• Washing-up liquid decreases the surface

tension in oil and breaks the fat. The colour mix with oil but not as much as in milk.

2) Motivation - Science Show Experiment 2

What you need: a glass jar, spoon, water, oil, food dye, salt, a dropper

Instructions:1

Fill about 2/3 of a glass jar with water. Add oil to form a layer on top of the water and wait until the different layers settle. Shake gently a spoon of salt into the jar.

2Salt goes down and takes

some light oil with it. At the bottom salt melts. The oil is

released and floats up.

Oil does not mix with water. Oil is lighter than water.

Instructions:3

Now you can add drops of a food dye. The drops of colour do not mix with

oil. They are heavier and go down.

4Colour mixes with water. Add another spoon of salt in the jar to restart the reaction. Watch the colour globs to

float up with oil in our video.

Drops of food colour do not mix with oil. Colour is heavier than oil but now it floats up.

Explanation: DENSITY OF LIQUIDS • The oil floats on the water because it is less dense

(lighter) than the water. • Oil doesn’t mix with water. It will not dissolve into the

water. • The salt however, is denser than water and heavier. • When you shake the salt onto the oil, it clings to the oil

and after a bit of it piles up, drags the denser glob to the bottom of the jar.

• After a while, the salt begins to dissolve in the water until it reaches a point where it can no longer hold down the glob of oil – the glob floats back to the surface where you can sprinkle more salt on it and repeat the reaction.

2) Motivation - Science Show Experiment 3 – Lava lamp

What you need: a bottle, water, oil, food dyes, effervescent tablets (citric or ascorbic acid in little water)

Instructions:1

Fill a third of a bottle with water. Add oil almost to the top. Wait until the different layers settle.

2 Add drops of food dye, you

can use more colours. Watch what the drops will do. After

a while add 1 or 2 effervescent tablets. Watch the water float up in video.

Oil does not mix with food colours. Heavier water floats up.

Explanation: IMMISCIBLE LIQUIDS • In this science experiment, you could create a real

working lava lamp. • This experiment demonstrates the scientific

principles of immiscible liquids (liquids that won’t mix).

• Next you can explore density of liquids. During the reaction is released CO2 which floats up and takes heavier coloured water with the bubble. At the surface the density of the bubble grows as the gas is released into the atmosphere and we can observe the colour drops to go down.

3) Class management

1) Dividing pupils into small groups2) Preparing working place3) Getting to know each other4) Preparing supplies for experiments5) Distributing tasks6) Preparing worksheets and pens7) Safety rules for experiments

4) Experiments in small groups

5) ConclusionsWhat happened?

• We demonstrated the scientific principles in several experiments with liquids:

• We explored how liquid molecules pull each other together and observed surface tension in different liquids.

• We observed immiscible liquids (liquids that won’t mix).

• We demonstrated density of liquids and used salt and tablets. Pupils observed globs of lighter oil going down and bubbles of heavier water floating up.

6) Feedback:What do you think about the lesson?

• Did you like the experiments?• Did you learn something? What was it?• What was the best part?• Did you understand your „teacher“?• Did you have a task? How did you feel about it?• Did your group worked as a team? • Did you feel well in your group?• Do you have other comments or

recommendations?

Part 3 - EVALUATION

Czech „teachers“ wrote: I need to learn

English.

It was fun. Now I am exhausted.

I enjoyed teaching this children. I would like to do it again.

Bulgarian pupils wrote:• I liked it. 1• It was awesome. 1• It was great. 1• It was brilliant. 3• Ten out of 10 4• It was fantastic. 1• It was cool and funny. 2• It was very, very fun. 1• It was really fun. 2• I enjoyed as it was. 1• It was very, very good. 1• They were well organized. 1

• I liked the experiments. 1• It was cool, thank you Adam. 3• I very, very loved it. It was nice

and cool. 1• I think they did a great job

spending all that time for us. 1• I absolutely loved it, It was like

are vinegar volcano. 1• They have done very well

trying to speak English. 1• Thank you very much for

coming. I enjoyed it very much. 1

Part 4 – DISSEMINATION1) We told about our lesson and the whole meeting

in Bulgaria to classmates in form 8.A and 8.B in November 2016 and to parents and public during the Open Door Day in January 2017.

We taught this lesson:class pupils town country Language date

6. A 14 Ostrava Czech Republic

Czech, English

13. 10. 2016

5. B 23 Ostrava Czech Republic

Czech, English

17. 04. 2016

4. B 12 Ostrava Czech Republic

English, Czech

19. 04. 2016

8. A 16 Ostrava Czech Republic

English 22. 04. 2016

Sevlievo Bulgaria English 25. 10. 2016

Sevlievo Bulgaria English 25. 10. 2016