Physics in the Primary Classroom
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As a practical matter, the child in the womb in the third trimester is not in a coma-like state totally unaware until at the moment of birth when, like throwing an electrical switch, she suddenly wakes for the very first time and begins to experience life. The child has already been conscious for some time in some significant sense and is already experiencing life.
The leading question I want to ask is this....
What does the child in the womb not experience?
The child in the womb does not experience discrete entities in open space.
She herself is not yet a discrete entity in open space. Objects in space are, in fact, neither the first nor the predominant experience the child has during pregnancy, infancy or early childhood.
Then what is?
What does the child experience in the womb and then in the world?
Change.
Energy.
Rather than the objects and creatures, the child first perceives the flow of energy through and around and from these entities. Even before birth she experiences changes in light , motion, chemical reaction, heat, voices and music, the deliberate act of touching. She is the recipient of conscious intention.
The child, beginning in the womb, experiences eight forms of energy and they are...
Consciousness Electricity Magnetism Light Motion Sound Heat Chemical Reaction
This thought leads to
a Premise, a Paradigm, a World View and a Proposition
Consciousness Electricity Magnetism Light Motion Sound Heat Chemical Reaction
This thought leads to
a Premise, a Paradigm, a World View and a Proposition
The child experiences changes in energy, first and ever after, on a deeper level than she experiences discreet objects at rest. We all do. A bird unknown and invisible on a branch is noticed when it sings and found when it flies. A spinning top is more interesting than a top on its side. An object on a shelf can remain unnoticed and unrecognized even after it has been used. Peek-a-boo is more exciting than a staring match, but not as satisfying as loving eye contact.
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Energy surrounds the child.
Discreet entities emerge from it. Change, energy, is fun and the child comes to it with an initially complete lack of impulse control. This is the reason that stillness and observation are learned behaviors. Perception of discreet objects is also a learned behavior. This is true of simple objects at rest and even more so of the parts and aspects of complex objects in motion. A wooden block is one thing, literally. A bicycle is actually a great number of things. It takes years to be able to perceive in detail the discreet entities in our environment. It takes as many years to acquire the Language needed to discuss them abstractly. Even as adults we will encounter situations where we cannot identify a complex object or its parts and don't know their names.
On the other hand, the ebb and flow of energy happens to us, like it or not. Energy impinges upon perception. Observe the child and you will see that she is drawn to events but has to be lead to specific objects. Either that or be given sufficient free time to explore her environment on her own. The pursuit of an object will only satisfy and inform her if she can do something with the object. Pick it up. Move it. Change it. Impart her own energy to it. Become part of it. Becoming part of it, the building made of blocks, the circuit, the art or music is profoundly important in Equipment Design. It elevates the child from passive observer to active participant.
Remember not knowing.
Her daily experience is that of encountering objects she has not yet perceived in detail, doesn't understand and can't name. She doesn't know the gears on the bicycle are separate objects. She literally does not see them as such. She's never seen or taken them apart. She doesn't even have the word gear let alone the idea of gear ratios. Sometimes an object will have a bottom, back or inside of which she is unaware. Objects and beings can move and do things of which she is unaware. Surprise is a constant factor. It's part of the fun. althiugh, reality also bites. All of this happens in the absence of language and concept. All of this is embedded in and causally effected by physical realities literally beyond her senses as well as her direct experience.
Change is the child's fundamental concrete, sensory reality.
Change manifests as energy and discreet objects emerge from it.
Change occurs, beginning in the womb, in the ebb and flow of basic sensory forms of energy: changes in light, sound, motion, heat, chemical reaction and consciousness itself. And like those of us already born, the child inhabits dense electrical and magnetic fields and is effected by but probably does not perceive them any better than adults do. We aren't wired for it any more than we are wired to see infrared red light. Such perceptions come through the use of Enhanced Measurement like a stethoscope, an infrared thermometer, a radio or magnetic film.
How much is beyond the senses? Things too small, like atoms. Things too large like the Earth itself, if you're standing on it. Things too far like Pluto. Except now we can easily show the child images from deep space. Things too slow like a plant turning to face the sun. Except now we can easily show the child time lapse video. Things too fast, like a humming bird's wings, but now we can show high speed video. Things inside other things like an aquifer, a vein of coal, a buried utility line or the bones in her hand, but now we can show the child thermal imagery, magnetic imagery, sonic imagery, infrared, ultraviolet and x-ray imagery.
Other common phenomena beyond the immediate senses are, the blades inside the pencil sharpener or the water in the pipes in the walls. Magnetic fields. Light outside the visible range, 430-790 THz. Sound below 20 and above 20,000 Hz. But now we can easily enhance the senses with commercially available, affordable devices that are simple enough for the young child to operate and begin to comprehend.
Energy can appeal to one sense immediately but need deliberate action to bring it to another sense. While lightening is a spectacular example of Electricity and appeals to sight, hearing, smell and even a tactile sensation, most of the electricity around us is hidden, invisible. Small static charges do not show themselves until the moment you touch a door knob. Pretty much everything else is inside a conduit or container like a battery or a capacitor. In terms of motion, it's one thing to watch a gyroscope spin. It is something far more to pick it up and try to turn it over and so feel the reality of spin, the force of angular momentum. Magnets appeal best to the tactile sense, but also are easily used to create images and three dimensional shapes. Sound can be very tactile and kinesthetic, like a bass drum pounding in your chest as you dance. The heat print of your hand will remain in a metal plate beyond your eyes and fingertips but accessible with a piece of liquid crystal film.
Much of physical reality is apparent to none or only one of the child's senses. It consists not only of discreet entities in space with their parts, aspects and behaviors but of the fields of Energy that flow through, around and between these entities. And so while the experience of Energy is prior to the experience of discreet entities, the conscious perception of Energy is also a learned behavior. The child's natural experience of Energy is readily enhanced through the use of technology from simple hand tools and toys to complex devices. It is surprisingly easy to provide the child a series of experiences that present the different types of energy, their basic properties, uses and measurements. It is no more difficult than teaching phonetics or arithmetic. And because it involves action and change, Moving Parts, it is very appealing to the child.
This approach to the child's experience is pragmatic. It tells us what to place in the child's environment. It is not theoretical physics in the adult sense, though its exploration will present fundamental examples of theoretical physics and the associated language. This often done by turning classic lecture demonstrations reserved for higher education into simple physical activities well within he child's capabilities. It is not the adult's world of Abstract Math. It is how the child gets to that world. This is the child's physics..It is what happens to the child, the child's experience. It is the concrete, physical experience of fundamental realities that are extraordinarily beautiful and useful. Realities which are fundamental to the child's planetary culture. In that culture, Electricity and Magnetism are special because they are central to the tools the child needs to learn to use in the real world. In that culture it is the Language of these realities acquired through ordinary conversation and gesture. It indicates a curriculum and equipment set that can be used in a dedicated specialized classroom or as an integrated aspect of a comprehensive primary classroom. It compliments and extends the Montessori primary equipment set in particular and in principle, technique and aesthetic. It is an application of Simplicity.
Discreet entities emerge from it. Change, energy, is fun and the child comes to it with an initially complete lack of impulse control. This is the reason that stillness and observation are learned behaviors. Perception of discreet objects is also a learned behavior. This is true of simple objects at rest and even more so of the parts and aspects of complex objects in motion. A wooden block is one thing, literally. A bicycle is actually a great number of things. It takes years to be able to perceive in detail the discreet entities in our environment. It takes as many years to acquire the Language needed to discuss them abstractly. Even as adults we will encounter situations where we cannot identify a complex object or its parts and don't know their names.
On the other hand, the ebb and flow of energy happens to us, like it or not. Energy impinges upon perception. Observe the child and you will see that she is drawn to events but has to be lead to specific objects. Either that or be given sufficient free time to explore her environment on her own. The pursuit of an object will only satisfy and inform her if she can do something with the object. Pick it up. Move it. Change it. Impart her own energy to it. Become part of it. Becoming part of it, the building made of blocks, the circuit, the art or music is profoundly important in Equipment Design. It elevates the child from passive observer to active participant.
Remember not knowing.
Her daily experience is that of encountering objects she has not yet perceived in detail, doesn't understand and can't name. She doesn't know the gears on the bicycle are separate objects. She literally does not see them as such. She's never seen or taken them apart. She doesn't even have the word gear let alone the idea of gear ratios. Sometimes an object will have a bottom, back or inside of which she is unaware. Objects and beings can move and do things of which she is unaware. Surprise is a constant factor. It's part of the fun. althiugh, reality also bites. All of this happens in the absence of language and concept. All of this is embedded in and causally effected by physical realities literally beyond her senses as well as her direct experience.
Change is the child's fundamental concrete, sensory reality.
Change manifests as energy and discreet objects emerge from it.
Change occurs, beginning in the womb, in the ebb and flow of basic sensory forms of energy: changes in light, sound, motion, heat, chemical reaction and consciousness itself. And like those of us already born, the child inhabits dense electrical and magnetic fields and is effected by but probably does not perceive them any better than adults do. We aren't wired for it any more than we are wired to see infrared red light. Such perceptions come through the use of Enhanced Measurement like a stethoscope, an infrared thermometer, a radio or magnetic film.
How much is beyond the senses? Things too small, like atoms. Things too large like the Earth itself, if you're standing on it. Things too far like Pluto. Except now we can easily show the child images from deep space. Things too slow like a plant turning to face the sun. Except now we can easily show the child time lapse video. Things too fast, like a humming bird's wings, but now we can show high speed video. Things inside other things like an aquifer, a vein of coal, a buried utility line or the bones in her hand, but now we can show the child thermal imagery, magnetic imagery, sonic imagery, infrared, ultraviolet and x-ray imagery.
Other common phenomena beyond the immediate senses are, the blades inside the pencil sharpener or the water in the pipes in the walls. Magnetic fields. Light outside the visible range, 430-790 THz. Sound below 20 and above 20,000 Hz. But now we can easily enhance the senses with commercially available, affordable devices that are simple enough for the young child to operate and begin to comprehend.
Energy can appeal to one sense immediately but need deliberate action to bring it to another sense. While lightening is a spectacular example of Electricity and appeals to sight, hearing, smell and even a tactile sensation, most of the electricity around us is hidden, invisible. Small static charges do not show themselves until the moment you touch a door knob. Pretty much everything else is inside a conduit or container like a battery or a capacitor. In terms of motion, it's one thing to watch a gyroscope spin. It is something far more to pick it up and try to turn it over and so feel the reality of spin, the force of angular momentum. Magnets appeal best to the tactile sense, but also are easily used to create images and three dimensional shapes. Sound can be very tactile and kinesthetic, like a bass drum pounding in your chest as you dance. The heat print of your hand will remain in a metal plate beyond your eyes and fingertips but accessible with a piece of liquid crystal film.
Much of physical reality is apparent to none or only one of the child's senses. It consists not only of discreet entities in space with their parts, aspects and behaviors but of the fields of Energy that flow through, around and between these entities. And so while the experience of Energy is prior to the experience of discreet entities, the conscious perception of Energy is also a learned behavior. The child's natural experience of Energy is readily enhanced through the use of technology from simple hand tools and toys to complex devices. It is surprisingly easy to provide the child a series of experiences that present the different types of energy, their basic properties, uses and measurements. It is no more difficult than teaching phonetics or arithmetic. And because it involves action and change, Moving Parts, it is very appealing to the child.
This approach to the child's experience is pragmatic. It tells us what to place in the child's environment. It is not theoretical physics in the adult sense, though its exploration will present fundamental examples of theoretical physics and the associated language. This often done by turning classic lecture demonstrations reserved for higher education into simple physical activities well within he child's capabilities. It is not the adult's world of Abstract Math. It is how the child gets to that world. This is the child's physics..It is what happens to the child, the child's experience. It is the concrete, physical experience of fundamental realities that are extraordinarily beautiful and useful. Realities which are fundamental to the child's planetary culture. In that culture, Electricity and Magnetism are special because they are central to the tools the child needs to learn to use in the real world. In that culture it is the Language of these realities acquired through ordinary conversation and gesture. It indicates a curriculum and equipment set that can be used in a dedicated specialized classroom or as an integrated aspect of a comprehensive primary classroom. It compliments and extends the Montessori primary equipment set in particular and in principle, technique and aesthetic. It is an application of Simplicity.
Consciousness
The primary survival force for every newborn is interaction with another conscious being. There is, of course, the need for air, water and food but what keeps us alive, happy and growing is conscious contact, personal interaction; that fundamental meeting of beings, of souls and behaviors, that tells us we are not alone, that we are valued and will be helped. Also, it's fun. In the Child's Physics in the primary classroom, Consciousness is simpler than a grownup's philosophical or psychological consideration. Consciousness is a straight forward causal factor, a physical reality. It can manifest as eye contact, verbal interaction, gestures or writings or drawings, a push from behind on the playground. It can expresses itself in code of any kind from signaling with the light switch to clapping hands to call for silence. It can be the use of a remote control device, a robot, expressing conscious intention in machine behavior. It can be the use of biofeedback as a control interface with a piece of software. It can be direct neurological integration with a prosthesis. In the Child's Physics, Consciousness is a physical fact, like Electricity.
The primary survival force for every newborn is interaction with another conscious being. There is, of course, the need for air, water and food but what keeps us alive, happy and growing is conscious contact, personal interaction; that fundamental meeting of beings, of souls and behaviors, that tells us we are not alone, that we are valued and will be helped. Also, it's fun. In the Child's Physics in the primary classroom, Consciousness is simpler than a grownup's philosophical or psychological consideration. Consciousness is a straight forward causal factor, a physical reality. It can manifest as eye contact, verbal interaction, gestures or writings or drawings, a push from behind on the playground. It can expresses itself in code of any kind from signaling with the light switch to clapping hands to call for silence. It can be the use of a remote control device, a robot, expressing conscious intention in machine behavior. It can be the use of biofeedback as a control interface with a piece of software. It can be direct neurological integration with a prosthesis. In the Child's Physics, Consciousness is a physical fact, like Electricity.
Spiritually, emotionally, culturally and terms of survival, Consciousness is the central form of Energy. But technologically and pedagogically Electricity is the starting point in this curriculum because it is the common ground on which all the other forms of Energy stand.
Consciousness generates and is effected by electrical signals. Consciousness imbues Electricity with meaning turning it into Language. Language is a technology so deep in the human experience we don't even think of it as that, until we have to write code. Consciousness uses Electricity as a control interface to interact with devices through physical contact, programing, biofeedback and direct neurological connection. Consciousness uses electricity to communicate. Like this web page. My thought to yours. Consciousness manifests in significant ways as Electricity. Electricity is a pervasive tool used to effect and inform Consciousness.
As a practical matter, in terms of resources and design, Electricity is the medium our planetary culture uses to transmute Energy from one form to another.
As a practical matter, in terms of resources and design, Electricity is the medium our planetary culture uses to transmute Energy from one form to another.
Electricity
From a pragmatic standpoint Electricity is the common ground underlying our use of the other forms of Energy. While it does show itself naturally like lightning or the crackle of a sweater when you pull it over your head, most of it is hidden inside objects like wires, walls, machines, batteries, plastic surfaces, electronics, storm clouds and living creatures. The idea is to give the child the tools to safely perceive its presence, learn its basic properties, control it and be able to discuss it. Electricity can be directly converted into each of the other forms of Energy and each of the other forms can be directly converted into Electricity. Light, think bulb and solar cell. Sound, think microphone and speaker. Motion, motor and generator. Heat, oven and turbine. Chemical reaction, fuel cells. Magnetism, induction. Consciousness, code.
This physical property of reversible change is a fundamental idea and is central to the presentation of Energy in the Primary classroom. It is a paradigm that explains the function of and organizes the cacophony of tools, devices and systems in the infrastructure of the child's world. It explains simple objects and simplifies complex systems. For example, heat produces steam which turns the turbine which generates electricity. This is a series of energy transformations. A cell phone changes conscious intention and physical motion into electrical signals containing code into radiation which becomes light pulses in undersea cables to reemerge on the other side of the planet and be converted back into electricity which is transformed into sound and image which effects the consciousness of the the listener in real time. My thought to yours. Electricity can also be transformed into other forms of itself. Think cell phone charger. AC in, DC out. Consider the grid itself; the movement of massive amounts of Electricity over thousands of miles continually without interruption and transformed into myriad precise shapes and sizes at the point of delivery. These properties of Electricity are used to power and control devices and environments and to communicate and store information. This is the child's planetary culture. Electricity is central to our post-industrial revolutionary, digital world. And so Electricity is the starting point in the Child's Physics.
From a pragmatic standpoint Electricity is the common ground underlying our use of the other forms of Energy. While it does show itself naturally like lightning or the crackle of a sweater when you pull it over your head, most of it is hidden inside objects like wires, walls, machines, batteries, plastic surfaces, electronics, storm clouds and living creatures. The idea is to give the child the tools to safely perceive its presence, learn its basic properties, control it and be able to discuss it. Electricity can be directly converted into each of the other forms of Energy and each of the other forms can be directly converted into Electricity. Light, think bulb and solar cell. Sound, think microphone and speaker. Motion, motor and generator. Heat, oven and turbine. Chemical reaction, fuel cells. Magnetism, induction. Consciousness, code.
This physical property of reversible change is a fundamental idea and is central to the presentation of Energy in the Primary classroom. It is a paradigm that explains the function of and organizes the cacophony of tools, devices and systems in the infrastructure of the child's world. It explains simple objects and simplifies complex systems. For example, heat produces steam which turns the turbine which generates electricity. This is a series of energy transformations. A cell phone changes conscious intention and physical motion into electrical signals containing code into radiation which becomes light pulses in undersea cables to reemerge on the other side of the planet and be converted back into electricity which is transformed into sound and image which effects the consciousness of the the listener in real time. My thought to yours. Electricity can also be transformed into other forms of itself. Think cell phone charger. AC in, DC out. Consider the grid itself; the movement of massive amounts of Electricity over thousands of miles continually without interruption and transformed into myriad precise shapes and sizes at the point of delivery. These properties of Electricity are used to power and control devices and environments and to communicate and store information. This is the child's planetary culture. Electricity is central to our post-industrial revolutionary, digital world. And so Electricity is the starting point in the Child's Physics.
Magnetism
Magnetism, like electricity, is all around us particularly in our devices. For the child Magnetism has a profound similarity to gravity with two differences. First, it can push as well as pull and second as a classroom practicality it can actually be put into her hands. We live in a magnetic field. In fact. we stay alive because of that field. Animals orient by it. The Auroras dance to it.
In real world design magnetism and electricity occur together, a version of yin-yang, heads and tails. In physical fact, they induce each other, that is, given the right design they cause each other to exist. On the primary level they can and should be presented simultaneously but separately, to keep clear their separate properties. For instance, permanent magnets are strictly bi-polar while a static charge can be diffused and disorganized. While Electricity and Magnetism are physically distinct, they are not physically separate or independent but in terms of classroom presentation can be presented as such. The two can then be united through demonstrations of the fundamental phenomenon, induction, the relationship between a conducting coil and a magnetic field. As long as a field and a coil move relative to each other a voltage will be induced and in a circuit a current will flow. Conversely, a current flowing through a coil will generate a magnetic field. This is easily given to the child as equipment to use, things to do and experience.
Magnetism provides a particularly good example of the child's physics. This curriculum views a magnetic field as an example of both Energy and Force. It, in fact, does not differentiate between energy and force, because the child doesn't. The words are used interchangeably, combined with the word Field and associated in conversation with the term Energy. Google these words and you will find that grownups have discussions concerning whether the field of a permanent magnet is an Energy or a Force. Some will come down on the side of Force, like gravity, while others will contend that the magnetic field is the Energy of the Work done to produce the field, stored in the field and manifesting as a Force, to be eventually released again as Energy, as or when the magnetic filed dissipates. The difference between force and energy being that a force like a permanent magnet's field is stable. It just does what it does without apparent input of Energy. Such discussion will be replete with mathematics and in the end leave the two terms undefined for common use.
In a Primary classroom no one cares.
The primary age child has none of this. Little experience. No pertinent language. No concepts. She has two, probably black, probably doughnut shaped objects. When she holds them one way they push apart. They do this. This happens right in her hands. She feels it. This simply and literally is an invisible force field. She can't see it but she can feel it. If she turns one magnet the other way the two pull together. They stick and click. She can hear it. She has to exert some effort, force, energy, to get them apart again. She will soon find that magnets can be used to move all sorts of objects and even to make them float and yet will have no effect at all on other things. Soon after that, if we show her, she will see that magnets can be used to make Electricity. So in the child's physics, magnets do things. Magnets exert force. Magnets have and impart Energy. Magnets have a Field. Its real.
Magnetism, like electricity, is all around us particularly in our devices. For the child Magnetism has a profound similarity to gravity with two differences. First, it can push as well as pull and second as a classroom practicality it can actually be put into her hands. We live in a magnetic field. In fact. we stay alive because of that field. Animals orient by it. The Auroras dance to it.
In real world design magnetism and electricity occur together, a version of yin-yang, heads and tails. In physical fact, they induce each other, that is, given the right design they cause each other to exist. On the primary level they can and should be presented simultaneously but separately, to keep clear their separate properties. For instance, permanent magnets are strictly bi-polar while a static charge can be diffused and disorganized. While Electricity and Magnetism are physically distinct, they are not physically separate or independent but in terms of classroom presentation can be presented as such. The two can then be united through demonstrations of the fundamental phenomenon, induction, the relationship between a conducting coil and a magnetic field. As long as a field and a coil move relative to each other a voltage will be induced and in a circuit a current will flow. Conversely, a current flowing through a coil will generate a magnetic field. This is easily given to the child as equipment to use, things to do and experience.
Magnetism provides a particularly good example of the child's physics. This curriculum views a magnetic field as an example of both Energy and Force. It, in fact, does not differentiate between energy and force, because the child doesn't. The words are used interchangeably, combined with the word Field and associated in conversation with the term Energy. Google these words and you will find that grownups have discussions concerning whether the field of a permanent magnet is an Energy or a Force. Some will come down on the side of Force, like gravity, while others will contend that the magnetic field is the Energy of the Work done to produce the field, stored in the field and manifesting as a Force, to be eventually released again as Energy, as or when the magnetic filed dissipates. The difference between force and energy being that a force like a permanent magnet's field is stable. It just does what it does without apparent input of Energy. Such discussion will be replete with mathematics and in the end leave the two terms undefined for common use.
In a Primary classroom no one cares.
The primary age child has none of this. Little experience. No pertinent language. No concepts. She has two, probably black, probably doughnut shaped objects. When she holds them one way they push apart. They do this. This happens right in her hands. She feels it. This simply and literally is an invisible force field. She can't see it but she can feel it. If she turns one magnet the other way the two pull together. They stick and click. She can hear it. She has to exert some effort, force, energy, to get them apart again. She will soon find that magnets can be used to move all sorts of objects and even to make them float and yet will have no effect at all on other things. Soon after that, if we show her, she will see that magnets can be used to make Electricity. So in the child's physics, magnets do things. Magnets exert force. Magnets have and impart Energy. Magnets have a Field. Its real.
Light
Light is pervasive but in a basic and ironic sense, invisible. Unless we are looking directly into the light source, which in our electric culture actually happens quite frequently, we don't see the light itself, we see the objects that reflect it to our eyes. There are shafts of light through the clouds, lightning bolts and little sparks. You actually see the light in these situations. The prepared primary classroom has to present special situations in which the light itself is separate and obvious: light sources, mirrors, lenses, fibers, filters, solar absorbers. A rainbow on the floor is a great simple, free tool and shows more than just color although again the direct connection to the sun is invisible and is an idea to be presented. Light has the curious quality of behaving both like an object and a wave. The child is born bathed in Light but not knowing that Light itself exists and has specific properties.
Light is pervasive but in a basic and ironic sense, invisible. Unless we are looking directly into the light source, which in our electric culture actually happens quite frequently, we don't see the light itself, we see the objects that reflect it to our eyes. There are shafts of light through the clouds, lightning bolts and little sparks. You actually see the light in these situations. The prepared primary classroom has to present special situations in which the light itself is separate and obvious: light sources, mirrors, lenses, fibers, filters, solar absorbers. A rainbow on the floor is a great simple, free tool and shows more than just color although again the direct connection to the sun is invisible and is an idea to be presented. Light has the curious quality of behaving both like an object and a wave. The child is born bathed in Light but not knowing that Light itself exists and has specific properties.
Motion
There is constant motion in the world around the child and also the motion the child creates herself, her own movement small and large, her kinesthetic experience. Motion is second only to conscious contact in the child's life. Beyond her own behavior and that occurring around her, there is motion that cannot be perceived. Things too slow, too fast, too small. Things moving inside other things, like water in a pipe, gears in a toy or electricity in a wire. We all know children love Motion; being rocked, teeter-totters, running around, bouncing balls, using tools and toys. Motion has a fundamental place in this curriculum and equipment and in classroom design. It is important in our digital culture to remember that children love moving parts. Machines are inherently more interesting than circuit boards. Machines offer the opportunity to take things apart and put them back together. Doing this, assembly and diss-assembly, especially using drawings to do it is a fundamental intellectual and practical life skill.
In terms of the child's physics, consider gravity. Gravity is generally regarded as a Force rather than an Energy basically because it's just there all the time. Again, what difference does this make to a child who has just fallen down? Gravity is experienced as Motion. Motion is Change. Change has Energy. A high school science teacher might place a baseball on a desk and explain that because of the force of gravity the ball lifted to the level of the desk has potential energy, as opposed to the kinetic energy it will have when it is pushed over the edge and falls. In this scheme there are only two forms of energy, potential and kinetic. This is fine as an abstract exercise for young adults but for the young child the ball just sits there and nothing happens. Potential energy has no concrete reality. But then when she pushes it which is one motion used to cause another it rolls, which is Motion, both angular and linear. When it rolls over the edge it moves even more, falling and making a sound when it hits the floor. In the child's physics, this is all about Motion and Sound. Experience of this downward type of motion can be used to bring out the idea of an invisible field called Gravity which, for the child, is the awareness and the reality that all uncontrolled motion tends to go to the ground and come to a stop. This experience can lead to the idea of Equilibrium and beyond that Entropy, everything seeking an equal level: heat dissipating, water calming, sound echoing away.
There is constant motion in the world around the child and also the motion the child creates herself, her own movement small and large, her kinesthetic experience. Motion is second only to conscious contact in the child's life. Beyond her own behavior and that occurring around her, there is motion that cannot be perceived. Things too slow, too fast, too small. Things moving inside other things, like water in a pipe, gears in a toy or electricity in a wire. We all know children love Motion; being rocked, teeter-totters, running around, bouncing balls, using tools and toys. Motion has a fundamental place in this curriculum and equipment and in classroom design. It is important in our digital culture to remember that children love moving parts. Machines are inherently more interesting than circuit boards. Machines offer the opportunity to take things apart and put them back together. Doing this, assembly and diss-assembly, especially using drawings to do it is a fundamental intellectual and practical life skill.
In terms of the child's physics, consider gravity. Gravity is generally regarded as a Force rather than an Energy basically because it's just there all the time. Again, what difference does this make to a child who has just fallen down? Gravity is experienced as Motion. Motion is Change. Change has Energy. A high school science teacher might place a baseball on a desk and explain that because of the force of gravity the ball lifted to the level of the desk has potential energy, as opposed to the kinetic energy it will have when it is pushed over the edge and falls. In this scheme there are only two forms of energy, potential and kinetic. This is fine as an abstract exercise for young adults but for the young child the ball just sits there and nothing happens. Potential energy has no concrete reality. But then when she pushes it which is one motion used to cause another it rolls, which is Motion, both angular and linear. When it rolls over the edge it moves even more, falling and making a sound when it hits the floor. In the child's physics, this is all about Motion and Sound. Experience of this downward type of motion can be used to bring out the idea of an invisible field called Gravity which, for the child, is the awareness and the reality that all uncontrolled motion tends to go to the ground and come to a stop. This experience can lead to the idea of Equilibrium and beyond that Entropy, everything seeking an equal level: heat dissipating, water calming, sound echoing away.
Sound
We sing to our children. We read to them. We make silly noises for them. They experience weather and animals through sound. We dance to Sound. We encode meaning in sound. We make images from sound. We move objects with sound. We create with Sound. Sound soothes. Sound frightens. Sound informs. We make Sound with our bodies, with strings, with reeds, with membranes, vessels, columns of air and electronics. Sound manifests as waves in all states of matter. Sound is one of our oldest and deepest cultural realities. It is also one of the most easily presented forms of energy and energy transformation available to the primary classroom.
We sing to our children. We read to them. We make silly noises for them. They experience weather and animals through sound. We dance to Sound. We encode meaning in sound. We make images from sound. We move objects with sound. We create with Sound. Sound soothes. Sound frightens. Sound informs. We make Sound with our bodies, with strings, with reeds, with membranes, vessels, columns of air and electronics. Sound manifests as waves in all states of matter. Sound is one of our oldest and deepest cultural realities. It is also one of the most easily presented forms of energy and energy transformation available to the primary classroom.
Heat
Heat is obvious and very concrete. Summer sweats, Winter shivers, kitchen stoves, fireplaces, refrigerators. The sun. A hug. The first time you touch something you didn't know was really hot. Therein is the issue: presenting heat safely in a primary classroom. Heat it self is self-evident. Its properties, however, are not. Conduction, convection and radiation have to be simplified and identified. Sensing residual heat requires sensory augmentation, which is readily available even for the primary classroom. The simple fact that absolutely everything radiates heat in the infrared range of the spectrum, which our eyes cannot see but our cameras can, puts Heat at least partially in the extrasensory world.
Heat is obvious and very concrete. Summer sweats, Winter shivers, kitchen stoves, fireplaces, refrigerators. The sun. A hug. The first time you touch something you didn't know was really hot. Therein is the issue: presenting heat safely in a primary classroom. Heat it self is self-evident. Its properties, however, are not. Conduction, convection and radiation have to be simplified and identified. Sensing residual heat requires sensory augmentation, which is readily available even for the primary classroom. The simple fact that absolutely everything radiates heat in the infrared range of the spectrum, which our eyes cannot see but our cameras can, puts Heat at least partially in the extrasensory world.
Chemical Reaction
This is the energy spontaneously generated when certain materials come into contact or released when a small amount of energy, such as heat, light or electricity is applied to a combination of materials . Pour vinegar onto baking soda. Strike a match. Chemical changes can also occur in materials when energy is applied over time. Bake clay in a kiln and for that matter anything at all that you cook. Angel food cake is a great example. Chemical reactions are all around the child. Melting ice. Waves and steam coming off hot pavement after a summer rain. It is the energy expressed in living things through photosynthesis and our own metabolism. Chemical reaction is the intersection between this physics curriculum and the traditional Montessori curriculum which focuses on the Life Sciences. Consciousness itself resides in the interface of Electricity and Chemical Reaction.
This is the energy spontaneously generated when certain materials come into contact or released when a small amount of energy, such as heat, light or electricity is applied to a combination of materials . Pour vinegar onto baking soda. Strike a match. Chemical changes can also occur in materials when energy is applied over time. Bake clay in a kiln and for that matter anything at all that you cook. Angel food cake is a great example. Chemical reactions are all around the child. Melting ice. Waves and steam coming off hot pavement after a summer rain. It is the energy expressed in living things through photosynthesis and our own metabolism. Chemical reaction is the intersection between this physics curriculum and the traditional Montessori curriculum which focuses on the Life Sciences. Consciousness itself resides in the interface of Electricity and Chemical Reaction.
Premise, Paradigm and World View
The Premise is that the perception of Energy is as fundamental to the child's understanding of the world as is the perception of Objects. It is cultural, within the educational establishment including the Montessori system, that the child be taught to perceive objects first. The primary Montessori equipment is comprised of sets of parts that can be moved. The Pink Tower is a set of cubes. You can do all sorts of things with them but you cannot arrange them into a complex whole having moving parts. The child cannot build a simple machine or a simple circuit with the primary Montessori equipment set. Moving parts are relegated to practical life and the playground.
Once a practical awareness of Energy is developed, a practical idea, a design tool, that defines all of of our technological devices and systems can be presented. This organizational concept is important because the child needs to understand what is happening around her regardless of what she chooses to do in life. So, regardless of the particular human purpose intended by a the device or system.....
The Paradigm is that the practical function of technology is to change Energy from one form to another. The paradigm is a point-of-view, a way of thinking. A tool you pick up and use and put down again when you are finished. The nomenclature used here is an angle bracket indicating the direction of transformation. It gives the child a way to conceptualize what's happening all around her.
So...a motor is....
electricity > magnetism > motion
while a generator is
motion > magnetism > electricity
Complex systems can be simplified. So a rocket can be....
chemical reaction > motion....
Complex systems can also be laid out in expanding detail....
So a cell phone conversation using a fiber optic network can be described as....
consciousness >sound>electricity>light>motion>electricity>sound>consciousness.
The Premise is that the perception of Energy is as fundamental to the child's understanding of the world as is the perception of Objects. It is cultural, within the educational establishment including the Montessori system, that the child be taught to perceive objects first. The primary Montessori equipment is comprised of sets of parts that can be moved. The Pink Tower is a set of cubes. You can do all sorts of things with them but you cannot arrange them into a complex whole having moving parts. The child cannot build a simple machine or a simple circuit with the primary Montessori equipment set. Moving parts are relegated to practical life and the playground.
Once a practical awareness of Energy is developed, a practical idea, a design tool, that defines all of of our technological devices and systems can be presented. This organizational concept is important because the child needs to understand what is happening around her regardless of what she chooses to do in life. So, regardless of the particular human purpose intended by a the device or system.....
The Paradigm is that the practical function of technology is to change Energy from one form to another. The paradigm is a point-of-view, a way of thinking. A tool you pick up and use and put down again when you are finished. The nomenclature used here is an angle bracket indicating the direction of transformation. It gives the child a way to conceptualize what's happening all around her.
So...a motor is....
electricity > magnetism > motion
while a generator is
motion > magnetism > electricity
Complex systems can be simplified. So a rocket can be....
chemical reaction > motion....
Complex systems can also be laid out in expanding detail....
So a cell phone conversation using a fiber optic network can be described as....
consciousness >sound>electricity>light>motion>electricity>sound>consciousness.
It is necessary to develop the child's senses: color, pitch, weight, texture, taste and smell, temperature, shape, dimension and movement. It is also necessary to recognize the reality that exists beyond the senses. This is the literal meaning of the term "extrasensory". Ultraviolet light, for example, is extrasensory, unless you count sunburn. The senses can, however, be easily Enhanced.
The World View to be offered to the child is that the extrasensory world is real, can be made sensible, measured and interacted with and does not consist only of discreet objects in space any more than does the sensory world.
The Proposition is this. Our educational culture tends to withhold basic physical experiences, basic physics demonstrations until the student is believed capable of the mathematics. Yet the actions and equipment used in many of these demonstrations are well within the primary child's capabilities. Physical experience gives rise to language. Language leads to concept. Concept enables Mathematics.
The experience of simple, fundamental physical realities belongs to childhood.
The experience of simple, fundamental physical realities belongs to childhood.