Projecting a simulation: a 40-minute class activity plan

Projecting a simulation onto the board is easy. The hard part is making the class participants rather than spectators. When students only watch, a simulation turns into a nice show, and what they remember is often “colourful things were happening”. In this article we suggest a flow that turns a single simulation into the core of one lesson (40 minutes). The minute split is a suggestion; adjust it to your class.

Why isn’t watching enough?

A finding that science education research keeps repeating is that students do not arrive with empty minds: they bring ideas from everyday experience, and a demonstration does not change them by itself. As we explain in our article on misconceptions, the idea must first be brought out and then compared with data. The flow below therefore has three parts: prediction, trying, explaining. It is the class-sized version of the predict-observe-explain method.

Two well-known teaching techniques are built in:

• Think-pair-share: think alone first, then talk with a classmate, and finally share with the class. It is a simple discussion structure proposed by Frank Lyman in 1981.
• Wait time: in Mary Budd Rowe’s 1974 work, a longer teacher wait time after a question was reported to be associated with the quality of student answers. In practice: ask the question, then stay quiet for a few counted seconds.

Preparation (before the lesson, 5 minutes)

1. Open the lesson link. Simulations work without an account, so you do not need to wait for students to log in.
2. Try the activity once yourself. Know what happens when you change each value, but do not give the class the answer.
3. Check that the projected image can be read from the back row.

As an example we will use the “Get the block moving on carpet” activity in the Friction force lesson. Before the activity opens, this prediction question appears: You push the same block on ice and on carpet. On which surface does it take a bigger force to get it moving? In the simulation you first choose the surface, then increase the push in 1 N steps and find the smallest force at which the block starts to slide.

The flow, minute by minute

0-5 min: a moment of curiosity and prediction. Show the prediction question on screen without starting the simulation. Ask students to decide alone, silently. Have them write the prediction and a one-sentence reason on paper or in their notebook. Writing prevents the “I thought so too” reaction later.

5-10 min: pair talk and a vote. They compare predictions with a neighbour. Then vote by show of hands and write the counts on the board. Do not say whether anyone is right. Listen to the reasons of one or two students: “Why do you say less force is needed on ice?”

10-25 min: trying at the board. Start the simulation. Call one student to the board each time; they change the values and the class interprets. In Kuazara the server tells you whether a submitted answer is correct, so you do not have to say “wrong” yourself. Useful questions:

• What do you expect to happen? Say it before changing the value.
• What does the gauge say? Does it support your prediction?
• If we change one more value, what do we expect?

25-32 min: explanation. Read the short explanation that appears after the correct answer together. Then go back to the vote distribution: who started with which idea? Also discuss why that idea seemed reasonable. Saying “this idea comes from everyday life, but here it misses this detail” instead of belittling the misconception makes it easier for students to change their minds.

32-37 min: writing in their own words. Students write three sentences in their notebooks: What was my prediction? What did I see? What do I think now? This small summary makes visible that they have revised their own idea.

37-40 min: a closing question. One question: “Is there something from today’s activity you are still not sure about?” They can write it on a slip of paper and leave it on the way out. This also shows where to begin the next lesson. We describe how to extend this in our article on exit tickets.

Small classroom-management notes

• One screen, many voices. Instead of the others watching silently while a student tries at the board, give the class the task “predict the next step”, so everyone stays mentally involved.
• Delay the right answer. Once students hear the answer they stop thinking. Keep the order prediction, reason, trial.
• Do not forget quiet students. Pair talk also gives a voice to those who do not want to speak in front of the class. It is a light version of the “peer instruction” that Crouch and Mazur describe for university physics.
• Mistakes are normal. A wrong prediction is not punished; predictions are not scored in Kuazara. That gap is what triggers learning.

What do you see if you open a class in Kuazara?

When you open a class with a teacher account, you can see the distribution of the predictions your students chose before the simulation, anonymously (once at least three predictions have accumulated). In the next lesson you can then put the intuition that is common in your class next to the explanation. You can also assign the end-of-lesson mini test as homework; its submission status shows in the progress table. See the Teachers page for details, and browse simulation-based topics on the Science page.

Summary

• Projecting is not enough; the predict, try, explain order carries the learning.
• Have students write the prediction first and make the class’s ideas visible with pair talk and a vote.
• Call a student to the board; let the simulation show whether the answer is right.
• In the last minutes, have students write a summary in their own words and finish with a short closing question.
• In Kuazara, simulations work without an account; classes, homework and the prediction distribution need a teacher account.