An example of a teaching analogy:
"Students in a classroom are analogous to the particles of a solid, since they have a regular arrangement and a limited freedom of movement. Students shifting or turning in their seats represent the vibrational motion of solid particles.
During breaks between classes, students have a wider range of motion. They now also have limited translational motion which allows them to move among one another to the doorway and through the halls, but are still confined to the volume of the school. This is analogous to the behaviour of liquid particles.
At the end of the day, students are like gas particles since they have unrestricted and primarily translational motion which causes them to escape from their school building and diffuse throughout the community."
Previously posted at scienceanalogies.com by retired science teacher Murray Hart – original source: Licata, Kenneth P. Chemistry Is Like A … The Science Teacher 1988, 55(8), 42.
Read examples of scientific analogies
Many examples of science analogies are listed in 'Creative comparisons: Making science familiar through language. An illustrative catalogue of figurative comparisons and analogies for science concepts'. Free Download.
