The Homewood elementary schools held an interactive physics demonstration March 3-7, in which fifth grade students worked to create hovercrafts powered by a leaf blower. Physics students from Homewood High School collaborated with The Hovercraft Project to perform the demonstrations in preparation to independently run it next year.
Physics students learned how to set up and teach the demonstration from the company, and then watched the fifth graders perform it until lunch. After lunch, they observed a presentation of Newton’s Laws.
Students were given an instruction manual on how to build the hovercraft. They worked in a team competing with their classmates, the main objective to launch in a specific zone. They solved five different challenges on their own, involving preparing and building their hovercraft.
The demos impressed Hall-Kent fifth-grade teacher Courtney Windham.
“Hall-Kent hasn’t done it yet and some of the other schools have so I was really glad our kids got to do it this year,” Windham said. “It was great and the kids had so much fun. They look up to high schoolers so much and the fact that you all are so interested in science and STEM makes it even more worthwhile and they get to build connections.”
Reid Stephensen, a junior taking AP Physics I, thought it was successful.
“The kids had a lot of fun, and I think it was personally valuable for all of them; although, I don’t think it was educational because I don’t think they learned about the principles of what they were doing, but I think it’s valuable for their character education,” he said.
HHS Physics teacher Jacob Helf thought the demos were great. He said the students had to go through the process of science and had the feeling of accomplishment at the end. They had to build the hovercraft, but then after they got to experiment with their work, and “you just see them laughing and screaming and all the things you love to witness of kids enjoying the process of science,” Helf said.
Helf believes his students’ involvement in these demos also helped the elementary students.
“I think it’s always positive to have high schoolers invest in younger kids and so, to see them engaging one-on-one in the groups, it’s encouraging that they want to give back because a lot of them see these high schoolers and want to become like them,” Helf said.
He believes however, that these demos aren’t only about science, but also character education.
“Because of the kind of increased engagement of what we’re doing, we’re actually able to tie in more character education. And so, to teach kids how to appreciate learning and to keep trying even while they’re failing–and to teach them that failure is valuable–these are all parts of the process that make the demos valuable even outside of science.
Physics, practically speaking, teaches you to go step by step, and so from a big picture, a great opportunity for kids to learn how to approach complex situations.”
