PASCO SE-8747 Kinesthetics Cart KINESTHESIA-1 - Manual (Page 5)

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012-05787C Kinesthetics Cart
Introduction
The sensory experience that is “mediated by end organs
located in muscles, tendons, and joints and stimulated by
bodily movements and tensions is known as Kinesthesia
or Kinesthesis” 1 –derived from the Greek words kinein
(to move) and aisthesis (perception). There is good evi-
dence that in certain contexts kinesthetic experience can
be more engaging and memorable than many other learn-
ing experiences.
For example, video arcades feature games that incorpo-
rate the entire body of the player into their video adven-
tures. One player for example mounts a replica of a
Yamaha

750 and grips a mock handle bar as artificial
countryside and pieces of road pass in front of the cycle
on a 50” high screen. As the player turns the handle bars
the motorbike tilts through an angle to provide the player
with a kinesthetic experience of turning. An actor memo-
rizing a script commonly recites lines aloud and uses
muscle memory to aid learning.
Many articles have been published to date that indicate
the importance of kinesthetic experiences in the learn-
ing process and show how powerful they are in help-
ing students to relate natural phenomena to the laws of
mechanics.
Seven years ago, the Physics Department of Dickinson
College converted their introductory physics courses into
a workshop format that places the experiments in the
hand of the students and affords them the possibility of
rediscovering fundamental laws of physics. More re-
cently, we have started to introduce a series of kinesthetic
apparatus into our curriculum. This carries the Workshop
Physics idea even further: Instead of letting the students
perform the experiment, we now physically incorporate
students into the experiment. Several kinesthetic activities
have in the meantime been tested in the Workshop Phys-
ics program. They also prove to be effective in more con-
ventional lecture and laboratory settings.
Furthermore, kinesthetic experiences are helpful in elimi-
nating some of the traditional student conceptions. Stu-
dents usually have derived these non-Newtonian “com-
mon sense conceptions” from everyday experiences. Of
course, the reason that these conceptions are non-Newtonian
comes from the fact that practically all motions we encounter
in our everyday life involve friction in one form or another.
One such student-conception is that one must apply a con-
stant force to produce motion at a constant velocity.
Finally, kinesthetic experiences are also highly motivat-
ing. Students enjoy riding on these kinesthetic carts and
delight in the experience which is retained as a muscle
memory.
The SF-8747 Kinesthetics Cart, a.k.a. Kinesthesia-1, af-
fords students the opportunity to experience Newton’s
laws kinesthetically. Students can experience motions as-
sociated with various forces including constant velocity,
constant acceleration and collisions. It also helps to eradi-
cate some common misconceptions of beginning physics
students. This manual lists a series of experiments and
demonstrations that are possible with Kinesthesia-1. It
also provides examples of how Kinesthesia-1 can be used
to help enhance student understanding of both quantita-
tive and qualitative aspects of Newton’s Laws.
➤ WARNING!
For all of the experiments and
demonstrations involving Kines-
thesia-1 with the exception of Ex-
periment 10, it is of paramount
importance that at no time a stu-
dent should stand on the device!
1
Webster’s College Dictionary.