By Caden Swain
Introduction
Fairy tales are a staple of childhood, introducing children to complicated issues faced throughout life and serving to lay the foundations for critical thinking. From the lessons on the danger of wild beasts to the uncertainty and anxiety a young person may feel before marriage, a plethora of moral, psychological, and emotional lessons are taught. Within all these purposes for fairy tales, however, a critical component seems to be missing: lessons on the mechanics of the physical world. Given the complexity of the nature of physics, the vast majority of children will not be able to understand these concepts, even at the most basic level, unless mediums that do connect with children are utilized. Furthermore, this paper utilizes O. H. Kucheriavyi’s third option regarding transforming fairy tales into didactic lessons on physics and mathematics: “the story line and the plot of folk or author’s tales as a special integrity become a means for pupils to discover some new elements of the academic content in proactive training in the system of their problem-search methodological presentation based on fairy tale motives (elements of the plot and the story line of the basic fairy tale become a platform for methodological development of a special lesson to disclose its educational potential).” The scientific themes in Snow White – air resistance and heat transfer as taught through discussing the crystallization of snowflakes and the pain caused by hot iron shoes as well as the reflection of light as taught through discussing the mirror, respectively – are primarily found in the introduction, conclusion, and climax of the story. For this reason, Snow White is an ideal option for a didactic fairy tale, as the ebb and flow of the scientific focus throughout the fairy tale should keep the focus between educational thinking and simple enjoyment of the fairy tale at a good balance. This paper will utilize this method by taking inspiration directly from Kucheriavyi, creating a realistic fictional dialogue through which a Pre-K to ~3rd grade teacher would be able to educate a class on scientific concepts and enjoy reading through a classic fairy tale. (For this reason, I will model the teacher’s dialect as appropriate for the given grade level). Furthermore, through utilization of this method the core elements of Snow White may be extracted and used in a didactic reading emphasizing scientific topics, further displaying the importance and high feasibility of adapting fairy tales into physics education.
Didactic Reading of Snow White
Snow White begins with a captivating description of the landscape, describing the scenery as “in the middle of winter, when snow flakes were falling from the sky like feathers” (Grimm 95). An excellent learning opportunity presents itself within the first two lines of the fairy tale. In order to spike the children’s curiosity, the teacher would ask the class whether any of them had experienced a snowfall following the introduction of Snow White, following up by asking the children about the conditions for snowflake formation. In this way, a teacher may successfully deviate from the fairy tale very quickly into it while still retaining the children’s attention. After priming the children’s critical thinking skills, the teacher would give a short explanation both on how and why snow forms as well as why snow falls like a feather, introducing the advanced topics of heat transfer and air resistance through an exciting medium. The following would be a reasonable discussion for a teacher to hold in order to introduce these concepts: ‘Now, we know that it has to be cold in order for snow to form, right? Does anyone have a guess as to exactly how cold? If not, does anyone know snow actually is? Correct! Snowflakes are made of ice! So, because the freezing point of water is thirty-two degrees, it must be less than that in order for snow to fall. Does anyone know how snowflakes actually form? Well, “snow is formed high in the clouds from water vapor, which is water in the form of gas” (Britannica Kids). The water vapor freezes into tiny ice crystals which clump up to form a snowflake. In fact, “one snowflake can contain as many as 100 ice crystals. But some single ice crystals fall as snow, too” (Britannica Kids).’ At this point, the children will have learned the basic concept of snow formation, but they most likely will have lost fair amounts of interest, as the preceding lecture lacks a strict connection to the fairy tale. Not to worry, however, as immediately following this, the teacher would draw the children back in by referencing Snow White while simultaneously introducing the concept of air resistance. ‘Now, does anyone know why the fairy tale describes snowflakes as falling like feathers? Well, if you dropped a ball off a building, would it fall like a feather? Of course not, so why snow? The answer lies in air resistance. Air resistance “always tries to slow a moving object down” and increases as that object’s speed increases (K8School). Really heavy objects can get to a very fast speed before air resistance completely counters gravity, but really light objects reach that point very fast. This is because the force of gravity is bigger for more massive objects. So, it takes longer for air resistance to counter gravity, allowing the big thing to build up more speed than a small thing. I know that’s a lot of information, so to make things really simple, snowflakes fall like feathers because snowflakes and feathers are around the same weight. Now, what does the fairy tale say after that?’ Thus, the introduction of Snow White includes an attractive visual example of a physical phenomena that a class teacher may easily utilize to more easily teach the basics of snow formation and air resistance. As well, the snowflake example may also be utilized at the end of the fairy tale in order both to assist in an explanation of heat transfer and tie together the didactic reading of Snow White. Thus, the teacher would conclude this introductory derivation from the fairy tale by instructing the children to keep notice of any elements of heat present throughout the rest of the story, once again drawing the fleeting attention of the students and continuing to read through the fairy tale until the mentioning of the evil queen’s mirror.
Continuing through the reading of Snow White, the next important deviation point once again occurs relatively quickly into the story. While this could potentially discourage the children’s interest, as at this point there have been two interruptions in the reading within the first page, another important deviation point does not occur until the very end of the story. So, a simple promise that this will be the last scientific lesson for a while would most likely suffice to convince the children to participate. At this point, Snow White delves into a description of the queen’s mirror, stating that “[the queen] had a magic mirror, and when she stood in front of it and looked at herself, she would say: ‘Mirror, mirror, on the wall, Who’s the fairest one of all?’ The mirror would reply, ‘You, oh queen, are the fairest of all.’ Then she was satisfied, for she knew that the mirror always spoke the truth” (Grimm 95). The fairy tale presents a perfect opportunity for the teacher to connect the metaphorical truth of the mirror to the physical nature of reflection of light from a mirror. The teacher would begin the explanation, first questioning ‘Why do you think the mirror is described as truthful? Well, think about what you see when you look into a mirror; no matter how hard you try, you will always see a reflection of yourself. Can anyone guess why? Light coming from you reflects off the mirror and enters your eye.’ At this point, the teacher would demonstrate the angles of incidence and reflection using a real mirror or a model, displaying the nature of the mirror to reflect a backwards image. Continuing with the explanation, ‘“Light reflects from a smooth surface at the same angle as it hits the surface. For a smooth surface, reflected light rays travel in the same direction … For a rough surface, reflected light rays scatter in all directions” (Science Learning Hub). Because a mirror is completely flat, it reflects light evenly, which is also why your reflection is exact. Can you think of anything that doesn’t reflect evenly? Exactly! Water isn’t a smooth surface but it does reflect, so your reflection looks strange and distorted. Can anyone imagine what would happen if the evil queen looked into a magic pool of water instead of her magic mirror? I like to imagine the blurred image of the queen in the wavy water would make the magic water respond “You, oh queen, are the wrinkliest of all!” But, the magic mirror reflects the queen perfectly, and she is indeed the fairest of all, right now at least.’ Thus, although this scientific interruption occurs very soon after the first, the entertaining connections between the physical nature of mirrors and the presentation of the magic mirror in Snow White results in an intriguing lesson on the reflection of light that is sure to keep young children captivated and participatory. Following this didactic deviation, the teacher would proceed through the reading of Snow White, noting the different points at which the mirror is referenced and how its response changes until the final important scientific stopping point is reached: the hot iron shoes that are placed on the queen.
Ending the didactic reading of Snow White, the fairy tale presents a perfect opportunity to end the reading with a scientific lesson as well as to synthesize the entire reading by connecting to the first didactic deviation. The fairy tale ends with “iron slippers [having] already been heated up over a fire of coals. They were brought in with tongs and set right in front of [the queen]. She had to put on the red hot iron shoes and dance in them until she dropped to the ground dead” (Grimm 102). First, the teacher should downplay the death of the evil queen, perhaps even avoiding it altogether. Following this initial recognition of the gravity of the situation, the teacher would begin a didactic conversation on heat transfer, using the iron shoes as a grim example. ‘When the queen puts on the shoes, does the heat transfer from the shoes to her or from her to the shoes? That’s right; the heat transfers from the shoes to her. This always occurs in heat transfer: heat flows from the object with the higher temperature to the object with the lower temperature. Does anyone remember how snowflakes form? Well, in that case, does the heat transfer from the air vapor to the surrounding air or from the air to the air vapor? Correct, because the surrounding air is colder than the air vapor, heat transfers from the air vapor to the air, causing the air vapor to crystallize into ice. Back to the iron shoes, do you think more heat would transfer from iron shoes or from an iron coin if they are both at the same temperature initially? Well, the amount of heat transferred not only depends on the temperature difference between the objects but also the mass and type of object. [“Q = c * m * T where Q = heat applied to the system, m = mass of the system, c = specific heat capacity of the system, T = change in temperature of the system” (BYJUS)]. So, if the shoes and the coin are both made of iron and are held at the same initial temperature, then more heat would be transferred from the shoes than from the coin.’ Following this, the teacher would conclude with the reading of Snow White in whichever way they see fit, emphasizing the scientific processes that can be found and examined in fairy tales.
Conclusion
While fairy tales themselves do not specifically teach children the properties of science, many aspects of fairy tales may be expanded upon in order to connect a seemingly boring topic to many children’s favorite stories. I believe this could greatly increase children’s overall interest in science as well as help develop children’s overall critical thinking skills. As shown through this didactic reading, extremely complicated processes in physics may be condensed and explained in a relatively simple and understandable way by specifically utilizing O. H. Kucheriavyi’s third option for didactic fairy tale designing. As well, this paper presented a foundational structure for the implementation of Snow White in physics education, but the fictional lectures are evidently not complete. Teachers should adapt this foundation according to their class’s needs, adding/eliminating elements of the proposed lecture and changing the colloquial dialogue to enhance the learning experience. In terms of potential pitfalls of this fictional lecture, the elements of the Grimm’s version of Snow White may be too gruesome for very young children despite its potential educational content. As well, this lecture centered specifically around Kucheriavyi’s third option, but his first and second options are easily applicable to Snow White as well as various other fairy tales. In terms of potential enhancements, Snow White displays many more scientific properties than discussed in this paper that center around topics other than physics, such as the opportunity to explain the chemical properties of poison utilizing the themes of poison present in the fairy tale. Overall, however, this fictional didactic lesson indubitably acts as evidence for the broader implementation of a scientific criticism lens in fairy tale examination.
References
Brothers Grimm. “Snow White,” The Classic Fairy Tales. Edited by Maria Tatar, 2nd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2017, pp. 95-102.
“Snow.” Britannica Kids, snow – Kids | Britannica Kids | Homework Help.
K8School. “Air Resistance for Kids | What is Air Resistance? | Physics for Kids.” K8schoollessons.com, https://k8schoollessons.com/air-resistance-for-kids/.
“Reflection of Light.” Science Learning Hub. https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/48-reflection-of-light.
“Heat Transfer Formula – Definition, Formula And Solved Examples.” BYJUS, https://byjus.com/heat-transfer-formula/.
