Speaker
Description
Dance obviously involves body control and biomechanics, lending itself to the use of physics principles in its execution. But as a teacher of both physics and dance, I find that physics and astronomy instruction also benefits from analogies to dance movements and figures. From simple teaching tools like the "sun and moon dance" to the use of folk dance analogies in the teaching of circuits and mechanics, incorporating elements of dance into the classroom presents students with another pedagogical tool for understanding physics concepts. Likewise, both physics and non-physics students can benefit from reference to simple physics concepts in a folk dance class, improving dancers' technique and execution. This talk explores a few of the ways in which dance analogies help to teach physics and vice versa.
