Promoting scientific thinking in children with magic and toys

Authors

  • Pongskorn Saipetch Mahidol University International College

Abstract

Thinking scientifically is a useful skill to have for everyone. Here, we let children aged 7–15 practice this skill through various activities involving magic and toys. Magical acts are used to stimulate wonder and curiosity in children, training them to make observations, hypotheses, and tests. Toys induce fun and learning about relevant physical principles such as evolution, equilibrium and center of gravity, simple machines, conservation of momentum, conservation of angular momentum, and conservation of energy. Children 13–15 years old use the skill to investigate real-life issues such as perpetual motion schemes, vaccinations, and homeopathy.

Author Biography

  • Pongskorn Saipetch, Mahidol University International College

    Pongskorn Saipetch is a science educator.  After earning a Ph.D. in biomedical physics from UCLA in 1995, he was involved in numerous software development projects and startup companies for the next two decades. For over 15 years, he has been a lecturer in Scientific Research and Presentations at Mahidol University International College. He has been leading regular science activities for children 6-15 years old since 2010 and collects them at https://witpoko.com 

Downloads

Published

2022-11-25

Issue

Proceedings of the IUPAP International Conference on Physics Education 2022

Section

Keynote Abstracts

License

Authors who publish with the Proceedings of the International Conference on Physics Education 2022 agree to the following terms:

a) Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

b) Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

c) Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access - http://opcit.eprints.org/oacitation-biblio.html).

Privacy Statement The names and email addresses entered in the Proceedings of the International Conference on Physics Education 2022 site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.