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APA
Committee on the
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| Topic: | Introducting Difficult Concepts |
| Name: | Wayne Yuen |
| Institution: | San Jose State University |
| E-mail: | philosophile@hotmail.com |
| Date Submitted: | 4/19/01 |
Article
I found that students pay attention in class more, and are interested in the material if you are doing something in front of them. Explaining the Cartesian Meditations is difficult, and sometimes explaining the wax example doesn't have the same punch as demonstrating the wax example. You can demonstrate the wax example, using a gum ball. You can pass out gumballs at the begining of class, and ask students to chew it, for an experiment. As you compare the properties of the gumball to the chewed gum, you can draw the relations between the wax example and the gumball example. Students definately get a kick if you hit a gumball against the board to illustrate the sound it makes, and then try it with the chewed gum (don't try this on a chalk board, gum on a chalk board is notoriously difficult to remove.)