Abstract
High school physics teachers often turn to various resources, including the Internet, as they search for engaging physics activities for their students. An important question, especially for new physics teachers, concerns the safety of these activities. Have safety issues been adequately addressed within these activities? The purpose of this article is to emphasize potential safety issues involving high school physics projects as well as to provide a checklist for physics teachers to use as they evaluate activities. If the activity is deemed to contain safety issues, physics teachers are encouraged to attempt to modify the activity to make it safe. If the activity cannot be modified for safety purposes, then it is recommended that the physics teacher search for a different activity. The intention of this article is to provide high school physics teachers with safety information that can be used in preparing safe, inquiry-based, hands-on, engaging and topic-appropriate physics activities for their students.
Highlights
High school physics teachers are expected to provide safe, hands-on, inquiry-based activities for their students
Teachers can provide safe activities for their students to explore physical science inquiry-based investigations by following the safety procedures described in this article
Many teachers will retrieve physics activities from the Internet to use in their laboratories
Summary
High school physics teachers are expected to provide safe, hands-on, inquiry-based activities for their students. 42-43) “The actual doing of science or engineering can pique students’ curiosity, capture their interest, and motivate their continued study; the insights gained help them recognize that the work of scientists and engineers is a creative endeavor-one that has deeply affected the world they live in.” These activities begin with curriculum-based student-friendly learning targets created by the teacher. The categories include the following: General Laboratory Safety, Motion (Kinematics), Momentum, Angular Momentum, Forces, Energy, Electricity, Magnetism and Electromagnetism, Simple Harmonic Motion, Waves, Optics, Buoyancy, Nuclear, Robotics, Field Trips, and Sensitivity to Student Feelings This checklist provides the teacher with a quick reference for general safety measures as well as guidelines for specific physics categories. Teachers can provide safe activities for their students to explore physical science inquiry-based investigations by following the safety procedures described in this article
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