Abstract:

The motivation to learn and acquire scientific knowledge is a topic of interest for personal development of students. Students are able to experiment with real practical experiences that allows them to learn real lessons that would otherwise be impossible to learn. Even more, these technological and practical resources and experiments open many possibilities for teachers to foster active learners who see the classroom as a place they want to be. It is a fact that students learn better when they make experiences with real systems. Showing the students that there is a real link between outside word and what they are learning, that this knowledge will help them to perform better in their professional career, will engage them more deeply in the learning process. It will show the students that these lessons behind a practical experience can be applied beyond university.

In the paper we want to develop the activity of students to help them confront misconceptions about their chances of surviving a car crash. By virtue of their variability, mass and speed have important roles in transferring energies during a crash incidence (momentum, impulse, kinetic energy). The sum of kinetic energy is important in determining an injury severity and that is equal to one half of the vehicle mass multiplied by the square of the vehicle speed. Understanding the role of kinetic energy will help to develop measures to reduce the generation, distribution, and effects of this energy during a road traffic crash. The influence of motivation on learning is gaining momentum, especially with regards to teaching science, at every educational level. We develloped an engineeing project to help students confront misconceptions about their chances of surving a car crash. In the project , students are chalenged to create an egg-carrying paper car with a front and weak enough to absorb the energy of high- speed crash yet strong to remain intact and protect the eggs. Students must apply mathematical knowledges and physics concepts used in real world vehicle safety engineering: momentum, impulse, force and kinetic energy.

Keywords:

Motivation, car crash, real systems, kinetic energy, stiffness, student´s skills, mathematical and physics knowledge.