PASCO SE-8747 Kinesthetics Cart KINESTHESIA-1 - Manual (Page 9)

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012-05787C Kinesthetics Cart
Figure 1.3: The lower cart is being abruptly stopped
by the 4”x4”x2” block. However, the student rider
and the upper cart continue to move with constant
velocity v
c
.
Figure 1.4: The student and the upper cart continue
to move with constant velocity v
o
in accordance with
Newton’s First Law, while the lower cart has come to
a complete stop.
For the success of this experiment it is important to align the Kinesthetics Cart precisely, so that
the 4”x4”x2” block mounted to the floor meets the middle of the bumper of the lower cart. Mis-
alignment to a degree that a wheel will hit the 4”x4”x2” block, might result in damage to the
Cart and possible injury to the rider.
This past semester, one of my students participated in the experiment described above in
Experiment 1 where she was riding on Kinesthesia-1 at constant velocity v while the lower cart
got abruptly stopped. Two weeks later she remembered her kinesthetic classroom experience
while working in the kitchen of the student dining hall. She was pushing a cart loaded with a
large stack of trays when suddenly the front wheels of her cart got stuck at a ridge in the floor.
As the trays went flying she exclaimed with excitement: “Newton’s First Law!!”
What a nice testimony, evidencing the fact that kinesthetic experiences facilitate the transfer
of lessons encountered in the classroom to the “world out there”.