One of my goals this year is to incorporate more interactive experiences into Big History. I teach this course to 9th-grade students, and they seem to enjoy and learn better when they are actively engaged. For the first threshold, I use a plasma ball to help students visualize and remember the early state of the universe and a balloon to simulate the process of universe inflation. When I taught the origin of stars and the process of fusion, some of my students weren't very enthusiastic, so I decided to label sheets with the hydrogen and helium symbols. I asked them to simulate protons of hydrogen moving in a cloud of gas before fusion. One student held a sign reading "10 million degrees Celsius," and then the students simulated the fusion process. As the process continued, when hydrogen fused, it was the turn for helium protons.
It was a simple activity, but my students had fun doing it. Days after the lesson, they remembered the process better.
When I introduced the solar system to scale, I took them to the football field to represent it. With the extreme heat in Miami, taking so many sections demanded a lot of stamina, but it was worth it. Here are some pictures and videos.
Does anybody have a kinesthetic activity to teach the origin of stars and chemical elements? I would love to learn from you. Adriane Musacchio Todd Nussen Brad Vonck
