Students in ACTION! - Nia M Wardani | A Logbook of Life Discoveries

In these few days, I have been observing some student's activities to prepare the school's biggest event of the year, let's call it the DAY.

DAY is the biggest event for all organizations and student clubs in our school. There are so many competitions (singing, poetry reading, sports, science and math, etc.), charity programs, and blood donor held in the very same day. The school will be open for public starting at 6 a.m. until 5 p.m. So many people will come and join the programs held by our students.
In the final weeks before the DAY, you will observe that the classroom are getting more empty, since more and more students are taking permissions to leave classroom to get prepared for the DAY. One team, will be stand by the phone in the administration building, trying to reach any company that could give them some financial support. Another team leaves school to go for local elementary schools, local clinics, and markets to distribute the leaflet, trying to announce their programs. Another team would be always in the line, doing registration for incoming participants, printing certificates, arranging for snacks, getting T-shirts and mugs and bags done, making questions for science and math competition, contacting doctors and the Red Cross for health programs, making banner, and so other many things that are too complex for me to follow up, and of course these are really difficult tasks for high school students. They can work until midnight to make sure everything will be ready for the DAY. I am sure they are exhausted each day with those activities..
Yet, they are absolutely enthusiastic with the programs.

is there any possibility that a physics course may become equally enthusiastic?

I am wondering is there any possibility that a physics course may become equally enthusiastic?
That they cannot stop themselves from finishing the duties even though it's midnight? That they cannot not to take initiatives to make it work?
What makes the DAY is so interesting to them? Can we add that 'DAY thing' into our physics courses?

My first idea about why students get really interested in the DAY is because they become the one in action.
> They move while they think. They think while they move. They do decisions in any situation in high pressure. That what makes their brain work hard, but by working their brain and muscles hard in the same time, they can feel that they are 'the man'.
> They know what they are doing in making difference. They know they make lots of people happy. And happiness, that is shared, is the nutrition for their soul. They feed their heart.
> They make identity with their programs. This is a crucial factor for a teenager.

How to embed these values into a physics course?
That one...I am still thinking hard about this. My next posts will be about making this ideas into a good physics curriculum. All ideas would be summarize in Curriculum with frequent update (I hope so). If you have any suggestion (teaching experience, books, resources, scientific findings about education), please leave a comment.

N.B. The DAY will start tomorrow morning. I will be the judge for science competition. Let's hope everything is going well.