Interactive Model Tool about Center of Mass during COVID-19 Pandemic: A New Learning Path in STEM for K-12 Education (original) (raw)

2020, 2020 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering (TALE)

the pandemic closure brings [4], [5]. This plan was a challenge to K-12 students from Public Schools: physical exercises in which the students could learn in a playful and experiential way a concept of Natural Sciences [6]. This challenge focused on building cognitive, socio-emotional, and behavioral skills, and on quality of life through the care of the physical health of educational actors [7]. The chosen concept was the "center of mass" because it is a biometric, dynamic, and contextual variable linked to body movement-kinesiology [8], [9], where students could be experienced in the quarantine period ('lockdown') through physical exercises. Also, there is a significant probabilistic relationship between the more a child is physically active (spontaneous and induced sports practices), the more the child's ability to learn and solve problems (within the zone of proximal development) [10], [11]. An Interactive Model ("Change your Center of Mass!") was built based on a mathematical model with the center of mass as a dependent variable and independent variables: body mass index and vertical jump, in which students and teachers could insert data, and qualify as your center of mass is: from regular (not very active physically) to excellent (in activity with high performance). And this interaction with the Model could be a motivating factor for the student to remain active during and after the pandemic. The center of mass is a hypothetical point where the whole mass converges as if all external forces were being applied at that point. The center of mass can coincide with the center of gravity when a human body is under the influence of a uniform gravitational field [8], [12], [13]. This biophysical variable is important because it is related to the student's biomechanics and biometrics, his body volume has a direct and proportional relationship with his movement, it can be quantified (e.g. body mass index on running speed) and qualified: the perceptual effort used to get out of inertia (e.g. laziness) [14]. Jumping jacks is a physical exercise in which you can study and analyze the center of mass about its induced variation because it is a vertical movement in which, over time, we can verify a variation in the position of the center of mass in student (or athlete), if students are actives and change Abstract-The pandemic caused by Sars-CoV-2 resulted in a period of physical distance and school closures. This motivated us to elaborate on some physical and psychological harm reduction plan for the students. A challenge was proposed to K-12 students from Public Schools of the Recife City: physical exercises in which the students could learn playfully and experientially a concept of Natural Sciences. The chosen concept was the "center of mass" because it is a biometric, dynamic, and contextual variable linked to body movement, which could be experienced in the quarantine period. The objectives of this work were: (i) to propose a challenge through the physical exercise to K-12 students (jumping jacks), which implies the study of "center of mass" (COM) concept, (ii) to quantify the dependent variable COM and to relate with independent variables (e.g. body mass index), (iii) to build a learning object "Interactive Model" from the data obtained, (iv) to evaluate the didactic process. The objectives proposed were successfully implemented. The Interactive Model: "Change your Center of Mass!" was built and evaluated by teachers of Public Schools (Brazil), who highlighted its potential (impact, complexity, applicability, innovation) suggesting the model to the educational system.