On Saturday, Oct. 22, a group of College of Western Idaho (CWI) students representing the IDoTeach program hosted an interactive Physics workshop at CWI’s annual STEM Out! event. The event was presented by CWI's Center for New Directions and Career and Technical Education (former Professional Technical Education) at CWI’s Micron Center for Professional Technical Education. STEM Out! is designed to ignite the curiosities of boys and girls ages 10-15 as they consider future careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields.
The IDoTeach students’ workshop, entitled Phun with Physics, was designed around the concept of Newton’s Laws of Motion combined with their application to roller coaster design. In this workshop, attendees activated their prior knowledge of Physical Science and applied it to the challenge of designing effective roller coasters using foam pool noodles and marbles.
The workshop leaders, Penny Chandler, Brooke Matson, Katelynn Newcomer, and Joshua Rigenhagen, utilized an inquiry instructional method, which is innate to their coursework in EDUC 101 and EDUC 102 at CWI, in deploying this workshop. More information on these two courses as well as the IDoTeach program can be found here and by contacting Molly Wolk at mollywolk@cwi.edu or 208.562.3322.
