How to make hands-on physics approachable during remote learning

When our school closed in the spring, my physics class still had two units left to cover for the school year – waves and electricity. I immediately thought about how I was going to teach remotely when a lot of the lessons are experiments and hands-on activities. I started brainstorming and collaborating with my peers and fellow teachers about ways to successfully teach hands-on physics remotely.

Our school was already using a learning management platform for quizzes, tests, and homework assignments, so we had a good starting point as we shifted to remote learning, yet there were still many lessons to learn.

Related content: STEM education and hands-on learning

Ultimately, from my experience with remote teaching in the spring, there are two things I will be sure to focus on going into the new school year – using helpful technology tools to drive student engagement and keeping as much of a routine as possible during remote learning.

Tools for teaching science remotely

One of the first things I prioritized was getting the right tools to set up my remote classroom. I knew I would not be able to engage students in scientific discovery and hands-on physics with just my laptop. I wanted to find a way to be able to stay on track with the lessons scheduled and also include the same experiments to ensure students were still getting a full understanding of the content. By showing students the experiments via an Epson document camera, they are able to see the experiment in real time.