FEATURED LESSON DESIGN
WHY DO THINGS FALL?
Before Newton’s model, students use Aristotle’s explanation of falling objects. They then test where that model works and where it does not.
VIEW LESSON DESIGN →ABOUT
HI, I'M
CHRIS PARK.
I want students to ask questions, use models, and understand why an answer is right.
Physics · Teaching · Questions
I am a secondary mathematics and physics teacher, currently completing Simon Fraser University’s Professional Development Program. I have an Honours degree in Physics from the University of British Columbia. Before becoming a teacher, I worked as a photonics and cryogenics technician at UBC’s Quantum Matter Institute.
The work was interesting, but teaching kept pulling me in. I had been tutoring and supporting introductory physics students, and I found that I cared most about the moment before an answer was clear: when someone is trying to make sense of something, testing an idea, and slowly realizing they may need to rethink it.
01
THE PART
THE PART
BEFORE THE
ANSWER
Good teaching includes clear explanations, structured practice, and a strong grasp of the basics. Students need the chance to build fluency and confidence before they can do much with a harder idea.
I think students today can feel a lot of pressure to be right immediately. Answers are everywhere, which can make not knowing feel worse than it should. But uncertainty is not a sign that learning has failed. It is often where learning begins.
I know that feeling well. Sitting with a problem you do not understand is uncomfortable. It can make you feel like everyone else has already figured it out. But if you can stay with the question for a little longer, try something, get it wrong, notice what happened, and try again, you are doing something more valuable than simply finding an answer.
That is the kind of thinking I want to make room for in my classroom.
02
WRONG, BUT
WRONG, BUT
THINKING
One of the ideas that has shaped me most comes from the history of science. Physics can sometimes look like a finished set of facts, equations, and correct explanations. But none of those ideas appeared fully formed.
People spent centuries trying to explain motion, light, the stars, and the structure of the universe using the evidence and tools available to them. They made mistakes. They argued. They built models that later turned out to be incomplete or wrong. But those ideas were not pointless. They were honest attempts to make sense of the world.
That matters to me as a teacher. A student with the wrong answer is not necessarily guessing carelessly or failing to think. Sometimes they are reasoning from what they know so far. That is a place to begin a conversation, not a reason to shut one down. The goal is not to celebrate being wrong; it is to use an honest mistake as information, then build toward a better answer.
I want students to see that science is not only about arriving at the right answer. It is also about noticing, questioning, testing, revising, and being willing to change your mind when the evidence asks you to.
03
WHY THIS
WHY THIS
SITE EXISTS
This site has simulations, lesson plans, and other teaching work. Some resources are for students to use directly. Others are for teachers looking for an idea, a classroom prompt, or a way to make an abstract concept more visible.
The simulations are not meant to replace discussion, experimentation, careful teaching, or practice. They are meant to create something worth talking about: a surprising result, a prediction that does not work, or a model that helps at first and then shows its limits.