Prompt: If you were mentoring an apathetic middle school student, how would you get him/her interested and excited about math or science?
Middle school students become apathetic about learning new information when they don't find it interesting or applicable to real life. I know this is true from first-hand experience; I've seen it in my classmates, my friends, sometimes even in myself. When the spark of learning new information is not there, the question "When are we going to use this in real life?" often comes up. The method I would use to get a middle school student involved in science is to answer that question and show how it evident in the real world with interesting, hands-on experiments to capture his attention, while also presenting him with the information he would learn in class. I believe this manner is more enthralling because it not only gives him the information, but it also shows and involves him.
Possible experiments I would carry out include displaying static electricity, creating the Diet Coke and Mentos geyser eruption, or building a mouse trap racecar. If I did the one about static electricity to explain the shock we sometimes get when we touch metal objects or other people after walking on carpet in socks, I would have the student take off his shoes and drag his feet on the carpet flooring in his socks and afterward touch a metal object like a door knob to induce the electric shock. After ensuring that he fully understood which shock I would be teaching him about and getting his attention getting his attention at the same time, I would then explain how and why the shock occurred by saying something along the lines of "When you dragged your feet across the carpet, you are building up a negative charge. And when you touched the door knob, you donate the extra electrons you gained to the protons on the door knob. Thus shocking you." Then I'd explain the relevance to everyday life by saying, "I'll use an example to show how this small scale science experiment can be evident in daily life. I'm sure you see your parents pump gasoline into their cars. I bet you did not know that people have actually been serious injured from a spark, similar to the one you just felt, lighting up the gasoline and causing an explosion. To prevent it from happening, you need to discharge, or get rid of the electrons, built up inside you by touching something else metal to release the electrons onto their rather than the gas pump. This is a prime reason why it is important to understand this concept, understanding this could help prevent these situations from happening to your parent or even you in the future. I leave him with that thought. Hopefully, he will tell his parents and light the spark of learning about science within him.
I would conduct the other two experiments in the same manner as the one about static electricity. First, engaging the student by performing the experiment; next, giving them the information; lastly, leaving them with a real world scenario to keep them thinking and interested
Hello briant9,
I love your article. =)
You do use a lot of living experience that students should know from class.
However, I agree with josephine96's idea that you should try to use "them" instead of "you".
Middle school students become apathetic aboutlearning new information when they don't find it interesting or applicable to real life.
... I would say "grasping new concepts, approaches and theories" .... do you agree?
"When are we going to use this in real life?"
.... Why do we learn them? What is the relevance of these things into our real life needs? Are they applicable in real life situations?
Good Luck with your mentoring ;)
