Movement Stimulus

Over the last few weeks many students have shown an interest in movement in their projects. Today we shared our observations with the students and introduced some movement stimulus through videos and experiments.   

Here is the outline of our second experiment, as well as a few thoughts on the experience.

Magic Movement Experience 2

Stand in a doorway with your arms down. Raise your arms up and out until they touch the door frame and then press them against the door frame for 2 minutes. When the 2 minutes is up, step forward out of the door holding your arms still in the same position.  Think about what your arms feel like. Do they stay still?  Do they want to move?

People observing are the scientists who predict and hypothesise about what is going to happen. Carefully watch the experimenter’s hands when they step out of the door frame.  What happened? Was your prediction correct? 

Before the experiment - making predictions

"I think I’m going to move my hands out of the right shape...they might go like this"

"I was thinking that if you pushed down then your hands would like to go out and then at some time they might like to go down again." 

(using a past experience to make a prediction)

"I think they’ll just float that way (up).  I think they’ll just float to the side and up at the same time."

After the experiment - sharing observations

"Your arms went up and up and you couldn't let them down"

"When I was pushing I felt really strong" 

How did you feel when you stopped pushing?  What happened to your arms? 

"They went up."

            

"They moved themselves." 

Going further - hypothesising and making inferences

"I think their arms went up is when you kept pushing all the air went up into your arms and when you stopped you felt like the air was still in your arms."

"I just did it really strong... after 2 minutes I quickly stepped forward, I got tired and so my arms go down."