Abstract:

Experience gravity, the force that dominates the Universe holding galaxies together, moving stars and planets. See a black hole up close. Follow a ray of light on its journey through Cosmos. Discover the gravitational waves. Understand the deeper nature of space and time. This can all be done in the classroom, in a fun and playful way, using simple low-cost materials and the right guidelines: this is our goal. That’s why we propose a set of instructions to build a gravity simulator and a series of related teaching cards from which teachers can build lessons to treat the traditional topics related to gravity but also the most recent discoveries of modern physics in school.

Nowadays we know that gravity comes out from the deformation of the space-time: a massive object, such as a star, deforms space-time producing gravity, i.e. forcing the planets to orbit around it. In a similar but simplified way, one can lay out a rubber sheet and see that it can be warped by a small weight placed on it. In this case, if one throws a marble on the sheet, it would fall towards the weight or eventually turn around it before falling. Surprisingly, if the marble is carefully launched, it is possible to make it orbit around the weight just like the planets orbit the Sun, i.e. following the Kepler’s laws. But you can do even better: using the right configuration of weights and marbles, you can simulate a double or triple star system, reconstruct the orbits made by a probe during its space exploration, replicate the formation of the Solar System, but also show some of the most recent discoveries of modern physics, such as black holes, gravitational ways. Following this approach, one can introduce the most recent physical theory that describes gravity, General Relativity, without facing its complex mathematics but instead using a simplified and intuitive version that can be easily treated in school.

In order to ensure that every school teacher or curious student, especially in High School, can replicate these experiments in complete autonomy, we have developed and optimized a simple and low-cost kit that allows to build a rubber sheet space-time, select the right weights and marbles and treat all the topics we have explained so far through detailed teaching cards. In this talk, we present this work, showing its state-of-art and future prospects.

Keywords:

Gravity, Einstein, Spacetime, Black Hole, hands-on activities, informal learning, Secondary Education, Learning by doing, science communication, science.