Physics Toys

In the Physics Toys Project we studied the use of physics toys in teaching physics according to the Finnish curriculum. We chose the toys and tested them on pupils and students, then selected the best ones and assembled two toy kits: one for middle school and another for high school.

The middle school book is a teacher’s manual that includes the work instructions and the exercises for the pupils. The toy kit covers the physical phenomena of the toys from the middle school perspective – not necessarily all the aspects of the phenomena in question. The kit is helpful when teaching different concepts of physics as well as experimental methods in natural sciences. There are 7 themes and 35 different toys in the kit.

The high school kit has 11 phenomena taught with 55 toys. The idea is to use different toys to explain the same physics phenomenon. The book can be used as a teacher’s manual or a student’s workbook.

Pedagogy

The pedagogical approach is phenomenon-based and social constructivist. Pupils work and study in groups, and the conclusions are drawn and exercises done in groups. The teacher spurs the groups on and verifies the conclusions at the end. The phenomenon-based approach means that the concepts and the phenomena are studied from different angles – all the pieces of the puzzle come in the same package.