Abstract
We experience (perceive, act upon and react to, and conceptualize) dynamical processes in nature as agentive. Expressed differently, we experience events as resulting from activities and interactions of Forces of Nature (such as wind, light, heat, fluids, electricity, substances, and motion) that are conceived of as powerful agents acting and interacting in physical environments. An example would be sunlight creating heat in the Earth’s surface layers, and this heat using the atmosphere as a heat engine whose output are the winds on our planet. In the physics of dynamical systems, these forces are characterized in terms of intensive and extensive quantities (i.e., electric potential and electric charge in the case of electricity). The aspect of power is formalized with the help of a generalized energy principle and the rules relating power/energy to intensive and extensive physical quantities. Concrete processes depend upon properties of physical materials (in and through which forces are active) such as (thermal, electrical, etc.) capacity or conductivity. In this paper, we demonstrate how we can create Embodied Simulations and Forces-of-Nature Theater performances, where children act as forces such as water, heat, electricity, and motion. The embodied logic of the physical play teaches children about the logic of our explanations of physical processes.
Highlights
Introduction and OverviewIn this introduction, we present an overview of issues to be presented and discussed
We shall summarize practical experience, generally important points regarding imaginative and activity-based learning, and suggest research that still needs to be conducted in this exciting field of STEM pedagogy
Forces of Nature such as wind, light, heat and cold, electricity, chemicals, and motion are the protagonists of our theme
Summary
In direct physical experience of natural and technical scenes, and supported by narrative practices [1], we create the concept of Force-of–Nature (FoN) [2,3,4]. Understanding of Forces of Nature—their characteristics and activities—makes use of embodied (imaginative, figurative) mental tools that arise in organism–environment couplings [11] Such understanding is expressed with the help of different “media”, such as natural language, play, drawings, mime and theater performances, and, very importantly, stories told about events in nature and machines. While explorations of nature and technical systems and formal instruction are staples of education, other “media” through which we may gain access to our subject are less well established For this reason, and because we believe that necessary concepts for physical science are embodied, we have been investigating how our bodies might be used for learning about FoN, their characteristics and actions in physical systems. This paper is an outline of scientific, cognitive, and practical aspects and work that has gone into the production of Embodied Simulations (ES) and Forces-of-Nature Theater (FoN-T) performances (see [12,13])
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