Newton's laws beyond the classroom walls

Abstract

AbstractOne of the most profound qualities of science is its potential to transform and enrich students' experiences with the world. In prior work, I have conceptualized this quality of science in the construct of transformative experience. In order to illustrate the difference between transformative and nontransformative experience, this article presents the contrasting experiences of two students learning Newton's Laws in a seventh‐grade general science class. One student exemplifies engagement in a transformative experience—the learning of Newton's Laws enriches his experience with events of motion in his everyday, out‐of‐school life. The other student exemplifies the “good” student who is engaged in the class and learns the content, but does not undergo a transformative experience. The experiences of these two students are analyzed and discussed. Recommendations include a need to focus on student experience outside the classroom and engagement with content (as opposed to engagement with peripheral things, such as humor or mere activity). © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 88:182–196, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/sce.10109