So really... Why does Static Cling?

For my research article I decided to read Why Static Clings by Laurie Naab and David Henry. This article addresses "common student misconceptions about static electricity and magnetism". Many teachers teach students what static electricity is by rubbing a balloon on their head as an example but many do not really explore why exactly static electricity occurs.

Static electricity can be taught between grades four through six. This article explains possible lessons to teach students about static electricity and to inform them of their common misconceptions. Using the 5E learning-cycle model (Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend, and Evaluate). Students were encourage to make predictions within their investigation and also to make observations. Hopefully, throughout this experience, students will become aware of their misconceptions that they might have had, and eventually learn the right information to correct them. Its also important that students explain there predictions and how their thoughts changed based on their observations and what they learned through the lesson. This helps them to form "mental models" of their investigations. Outlined below are common misconceptions that students had about static electricity:

 The article give ideas for several days of engaging students in learning about static electricity. Day one suggests "engaging with static". The usual balloon can be used to bring about the common misconceptions in the classroom or using a plate, rubbing it on a child's head and sticking it on the wall. Most students will usually make a statement that magnetism and statics are related. The article than suggested to explore further through the use of tape and eventually magnets. (The lesson in its entirety is explained in the attached link) The final steps include evaluating understanding to see what the student found out by asking the original question

in order to see a change in answers. These inquiry-based investigations were powerful
because the students were able to create their own understanding of static electricity through their own observations and create a more accurate mental model of static electricity. These activities also let the students experience doing science as they gathered, recorded, and debated evidence. They started with ideas, and they changed their ideas based on their observations.
I really enjoyed reading this article because it included a lot of information about a science phenomenon and misconception that most people had. Before reading his article, I did not fully understand why static does cling but this article was helpful in helping me understand it. It also included engaging and exciting lessons to include in the classroom to teach students how static clings. Research articles are a great resource to use in the classroom because they provide students with brief and to the point information on a particular topic. Students may be engaged in reading a research article to learn because it discovers one topic and zones in on a particular area of that topic. In addition, research articles provide interesting and concise information for students' further learning. Research articles also incorporate literacy into a science subject because they help students work on their writing skills. If students create a project or write a response to the research article explaining important parts of the article or their most important part of the article, they will also be practicing their writing skills! Teachers can also benefit greatly from research articles because they provide a plethora of information for instruction in a classroom. Overall, research articles are a great tool to use and can be found almost anywhere including online!