Sometimes science is where you find it.
Looking for a way to move the sometimes abstract principles of physics out of the laboratory and away from the slide rule, Lincoln-Way High School teacher Hans Muehsler took his students out to the school parking lot this week for an automotive experiment.
Pushing classmate Jeremy Miech’s 1991 Ford was going to serve as a graphic illustration of force, mass and acceleration.
The car experiment popped into Muehsler’s head when “I was trying to figure up some good hands-on, real-world experience (for students).”
Miech, a senior from Manhattan, didn’t get any extra credit for volunteering his vehicle, the teacher said. “But he does get to drive.”
Care was taken to avoid scrapes and scratches. The four pushers, juniors Erika Jurgenson and Anna Broccolo of New Lenox, Brendan Burvind of Frankfort and Joel Gannon of New Lenox, cushioned the bathroom scales they used to measure the force of their exertion with towels.
Passengers had jobs, too, tossing beanbags out the window at 2-second intervals as the car moved across the lot.
“As (the pushers and the car) are picking up speed, the difference between (the beanbags) is getting farther and farther apart,” Muehsler noted, an observation confirmed by junior Tim Nimon of New Lenox as he unrolled a tape measure.
“All the work is back in the classroom,” Nimon said. “We’re just collecting data.”
Back in the classroom, the students would divide the task of compiling a full report on the mass of the car, the force exerted by the pushers, the rate of acceleration and the distance traveled.
The division of labor falls along interest lines, Muehsler said, with mathematically oriented students doing calculations and the more artistic students providing illustrations. “That’s pretty much how a regular scientific paper is written,” the teacher said. “They’re going to collaborate to their strengths, which is pretty much how real scientific work is done.”
Students said the parking lot lab work gave them some added insight as well as a little fresh air.
“It’s firsthand experience instead of just a book,” said junior Leeann Tolsky of Frankfort.