{"id":73,"date":"2017-09-08T19:25:35","date_gmt":"2017-09-08T23:25:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/edt431-531\/?p=73"},"modified":"2017-10-09T20:17:57","modified_gmt":"2017-10-10T00:17:57","slug":"the-imperial-arch-engineers-physics-lesson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/2017\/09\/the-imperial-arch-engineers-physics-lesson\/","title":{"rendered":"The Imperial Arch-Engineer’s Physics Lesson"},"content":{"rendered":"

*The following paragraph will be enhanced if its reading is accompanied by the appropriate music*<\/p>\n

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The shadows dance across the deck of the Arch-Engineer’s chambers as the imperial elevator’s hydraulics hiss to a stop. As the doors open, the glow of a nearby dying star pierces into the chamber, filling the room with a weak red light that flicks against the large cylindrical tank in the center of the room. A trembling guard stumbles forward into the chamber and weakly beats his palm across his breastplate in the empire’s signature\u00a0salute, facing the horrifying creature suspended in the electric-blue slime. The nameless soldier maintains his position, wanting nothing more than to run for his life as steam slowly begins to fill the room, creeping around the edges of the cylinder as its contents drain into the floor’s chamber. <\/em><\/p>\n

The horrifying marriage of machine and man shudders momentarily, seemingly disoriented by the sudden lack of mind-enhancing chemicals entering its respiratory\u00a0system. The nightmarish torso in the tank turns itself to face the summon “Speak.” It commands. “M-my liege” says the guard, his hand visibly quivering against his breastplate, “We have located the enemy’s assault crafts. The assassination\u00a0plot is now underway, as was expected. The alliance’s invasion force will be arriving in a number of hours.” The Imperial Arch-Engineer exhales deeply before responding. “Excellent”. He hisses. “Alert the Fleet Admiral to deploy the tractor beams from our cloaked ships in sector IV. As long as the applied force starts out weak, those alliance dogs won’t realize that we’re pulling them off course until after it’s already too late.” <\/em><\/p>\n

The guard shudders. “But sir, how can we be certain that their ships will be pulled off course?” The Arch-Engineer lets out a frustrated hiss before responding. “The applied force of their ships’ thrusters is sending them to this location as we speak. However, once a second force has been added, their resultant direction will be changed. If my calculations are correct, they’ll be pulled off course before making the jump to hyperspace, sending them directly into our imperial ambush.” \u00a0“Leave me.” The monster said, speaking once more. “If I am to be certain that my calculations are absolute, I will require absolute silence. Do not distract me again.”. The Arch-Engineer turned around once more to speak to the guard, immediately realizing that he had ran away long ago.\u00a0The Arch-Engineer probably would have smiled if he could have. Today was going to be a glorious day for the empire.<\/em><\/p>\n

Imagine learning about vector addition this way. Not as a student in a classroom listening to a guy who doesn’t get paid enough to care about his job talk about trigonometry, not as an athlete trying to sum the forces on a ping pong ball, but as an imperial guard on board the intergalactic star destroyer, listening to the cyborg monster Arch-Engineer explain his calculations that will certainly lead to the Alliance’s destruction. in education, context matters. <\/strong>If she fails, the student in class might get a B on the upcoming exam. If he fails, the athlete might overshoot his table tennis serve. But, if the Arch-Engineer fails, the Alliance will be successful in their attempt to assassinate the Viceroy, destabilizing the empire’s diplomatic power and threatening to send the entire galaxy into a brutal, bloody war for control.<\/p>\n

A truly exemplary teacher understands context. Context is the difference between intergalactic war and drawing lines on paper with a protractor. Context is the difference between two people touching their lips together and true lovers kissing for the first time. Context is the difference between a student who cares and a student who doesn’t. In order to become an exemplary teacher of the universe’s most awesome subject, we must first become masters of context. “Aesa, how do I become a master of context?” I hear you rhetorically asking me in order to help me segway into the next part of this paragraph. I’m glad you asked! Come with me, and I’ll show you some wonderful and creative ways to become a teacher of cosmic proportions!<\/p>\n

Reality:<\/h1>\n

How many times have you asked yourself this question in a classroom: “When am I ever, EVER going to use this information in real life?” Most people would probably say “several”. There’s often a degree of separation between what we learn in school and real life. In history, we learn to memorize names and dates relevant to things that happened a long time ago. In math, we talk about equations and theorems that exist in abstract space. And, indeed, in science, we talk about microscopic organisms with ridiculous names like these guys:<\/p>\n

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How do we remove this abstraction?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n