Submitted by Denair Unified School District

A traditional physics teacher introducing Newton’s Second Law of Motion to her students might write this on a board in front of the class: “Force = Mass x Acceleration.”

Not Breanna Vaughan. She used a simple bathroom scale, her Toyota Tacoma and the muscle of some willing students to bring Newton’s theory to life.

So much for tradition.

“My approach to science is that I try to make it fun for students,” said Vaughan, who joined the staff at Denair High School this year. “Kids learn more when they’re having fun. I always try to have real-life applications for them. I try to emphasize what jobs might use the kind of science I’m teaching.”

For her lesson on Newton’s Second Law of Motion, Vaughan literally parked her white pickup in neutral on the pavement outside her classroom. Two students placed bathroom scales borrowed from the nearby gym and someone’s home against the truck’s front bumper and then leaned against them to make the pickup move. Other students kept notes about how far the truck rolled in a certain amount of time.

The exercise illustrated the concepts of “force” (measured in kilograms via the scales) and “acceleration” (measured in meters per second). From that, students were able to determine “mass” (how much the truck weighs).

In her anatomy/physiology class, Vaughan introduced the subject of tissue engineering – essentially, building “replacement” organs or body parts for people. She asked her junior and senior students to write an essay, requiring them to answer thought-provoking questions about a sometimes controversial topic.

“If your brother went off to war and lost his leg, would you want it? If your grandma needed heart tissue, would you want something new to make it beat?” Vaughan explained. “This is what I do. Tissues could be boring, but I try to make them think. We had a good discussion.” Continue reading “Innovative Approach to Science Education Draws in DHS Students” »