Teacher Guide

Key words and Ideas in the show:

Hypothesis - a guess
Matter - the stuff things are made of
Inertia - things keep doing what they are doing, until something makes them change
Force - a push or pull

Part One
The presentation begins with a discussion of the Scientific Method:
1) Ask a question
2) Gather information on the question
3) Form a hypothesis
4) Test out your hypothesis
5) Tell some other folks what you found

Throughout the show examples of how the Scientific Method works are given. If you would like to discuss this with your class try examining other famous scientific discoveries that fit into this pattern. There are many different versions of the Scientific Method (see reading material for a greatly expanded version) but the basic ingredients of making guess and testing out that guess are always there.

Part Two
The next part of the presentation shows how the Scientific Method can be used to develop Newton's laws of motion.

1) Things keep doing what they are doing, until something makes them change.
2) The bigger some thing is and the faster it is going, the more force it has.
3) For every push in one direction there is a push in the opposite direction.

You can show the connection between the Scientific Method and Newton's Laws by taking each one of the laws through the steps of the Scientific Method. For instance, in the show we had an egg on a stand the stand on a notebook cover and the notebook cover on a glass of water. We wanted to know what would happen to the egg when the notebook cover was whipped away. That's our question. Then we gathered information on how the egg acted when it was on the stand. Someone in the audience formed a hypothesis. They guessed where the egg was going to land when the cover was whipped away. Then we tested the guess with the experiment, I whipped the cover away.

If you want to try your own experiment with Newton's Laws, I'll give you a fun one to try.
You'll need:
- an old record
- a used spool of thread
- glue
- a balloon

Here's what you do. Take the spool of thread and glue it in the center of the record, so the hole in the record matches the hole in the spool. When it is dry, blow up a balloon and attach the mouth of the balloon to the top of the spool. Let go of the balloon. If all goes well, air from the balloon will go through the spool and come out of the record hole. You have now made your own air hockey puck, sort of. It you put this thing on flat ground and push it, it will slide for quiet a while.

This is an example of Newton's 1st law. Of the three laws this one may be the hardest to believe. Probably because every thing we see move comes to a stop.

The way you uses this experiment to show the 1st law is to point out that the law says that things keep doing what there doing until something makes them change. So take the record thing and push it on the ground. (do not inflate the balloon yet) Ask the students what they think made the record stop moving. They will probably answer they it was rubbing on the ground. You then say, "If there was a way to push the record without it touching the ground, by Newton's 1st law, it would keeping on going." Then blow up the balloon and sent the record floating across the room.

For another way to do this experiment see Balloon Science by Etta Kaner.

Part Three
During the last part of the presentation I show how new ideas can be built up from old ones. I do this by using the Scientific Method with Newton's Laws to discover some air facts. The students discover:
1) We use air in place of my hand to push a ball, a way to test air with Newton's 2nd Law.
2) How expanding air cools it self down.
3) How hot air balloons work.

The two most important points in this section are that:
1) You can use the Scientific Method in many areas of problem solving an investigation.
2) How old ideas can be built up from old ones.

For further study your students might want to try some of these.

Science Magic, Ormond McGill
(Has a bunch of good science demonstrations)

The General Pattern of the Scientific Method, Norman W. Edmund
(Edmond Scientific Co)

How to think like a Scientist, Stephen P. Kramer
(Great examples of the Scientific Method in use)

Balloon Science, Etta Kaner
(Many easy and fun experiments)