Vibration and Sound

The first part of class we discussed our study guides. We went over those very quickly. The second part of the class we did a lab. In this lab we had a metal thing that we would hit on a block of wood and then hit an object. The first thing we hit was water. The tool was dipped into the water and it made the water jump. The next thing we tried was a ball. The ball bounced back of the tool. The next item we tested was a piece of paper. The paper vibrated and made a loud noise. The noise sounded like something was touching different lines in the paper. Next, we held the tool up to our cheeks. This made a vibration on our cheeks. It felt like someone was rubbing a massager on our cheek. Next, we tried the two cups tied together with string. We hit the paper clip inside the strings. The sound and vibration went all the way across the string to the other cup. This made a semi-high pitched sound. The last thing we tried was a huge round cylinder but it was not enclosed. There was no ends. This made a lower sound noise. This lab was fun. It would be great to do with my students. The students could also bring items from home to try too!

Electroscope

Today in class we did the lab, electroscope. We needed: 4 plastic drinking straws that bend, 2 plastic 35 mm film cans, modeling clay, scotch tape, and a balloon. We first put enough modeling clay into the film canisters to fill them half way up. Then we place the straws in each canister, two in each. Then Bent the straws to make arms for each. We then took two 4 inch pieces of tape and put them on the table and leave one end off. We pulled the tape up quickly then quickly placed it on the arm of each of the straws in the two canisters. We then moved the two tapes so they are face to face and 6 inches apart. Then we moved the two cans closer together. The two tapes repelled each other. Next, we tore off two more pieces of tape off and pressed them together and then pulled them apart. Quickly we pulled the two tapes apart and placed them on the two remaining arms. These two tapes attracted each other. Next we blew up the balloon and rubbed it on our hair. The balloon repelled the piece of tape whose smooth side was in the middle of the two pieces of tape and repels the sticky side that was in the middle. From this lab we learned that positive electrons repel and opposites attract. The two pieces of tape we first put on the table and pulled off repelled each other because they both had the same charge. We also saw that the tapes we stuck together and pulled apart we attracted to each other because one was negative and one was positive.

Two Simulations

For the first simulation I did the magnet and compass simulation. When the strength of the magnet was at zero the magnet did not affect the compass at all. As you made the magnet have more strength the more it affected the compass. When the magnet was at 25% and right next to the compass it only affected it a small amount. The compass was not straight up and down or north and south. It was about two degrees off. The farther you moved the magnet the farther it got away from being north and south. The compass also moved at a slow pace with this percentage. Next I turned the magnet strength to 50%. This time when the magnet was right next to the compass it was only like one degree off from being right up and down or north and south. The farther you move it away the farther the compass gets from being straight up and down. Lastly, I put the magnet at 100%. When the magnet is set up right under or above the compass it goes exactly to north and south or up and down. No matter where you put it on the page it goes to exactly north and south or east and west. I could not get the second simulation to load on my computer.

A Good Sock

Today we restarted the lab we began last Thursday. We started off by filling our four glass bottles with water. The first test was on one with a wool sock on it and one without a wool sock. We stuck the probes in them and waited for 3 minutes. The temperatures to begin with were 43.2 for the uncovered bottle and 42.9 for the uncovered. Afterwards the numbers were 42.7 for uncovered and 42.8 covered. We took final temperature – beginning temperature and found the following answers uncovered -.5 and covered -.1. We did a second experiment with a cotton sock and then a wet cotton sock. At the beginning the cotton was 41.7 and the wet cotton was 41.2. Afterwards the cotton one was 41.5 and the wet cotton was 40.4. Again we took the final – Beginning. The answers were -.2 for cotton and -.8 for the wet. We learned that the bottle with wool had the less temperature change on the first experiment and the wet sock on the second had the biggest temperature change. This experiment showed us that wet clothing in cold weather makes you colder faster. The bottle cooled off faster than all the others by quite a bit.

Study Guide and "A Good Sock"

Today in class we went over our study guides for the first half an hour. Personally, I like when Dr. E gives us the answers than when other students give the answers. The other students are too quiet. I cannot hear them give the answers and then we move on quickly. We went over the study guide quickly today but it still helps discussing the material. As I take the quizzes I remember the information we touched on in class and the examples given. It helps to go over the study guide a lot.
The second part of the class we began a lab but we did not get to finish it. We are going to redo it on Tuesday of next week. The lab we began is called, “A Good Sock”. For this lab we needed 2 plastic bottles, one sock, hot water, room temperature water, two thermometers, and a computer. The objectives of this lab are to determine change in temperature, make a bar graph, compare the insulating properties of cotton and wool. We also will need to apply what we have previously discussed in class to answer questions.

Thermal Energy

Today in class we discussed thermal energy. We learned that temperature is related to the average kinetic energy of the particles in a substance. So if the water molecules are moving around rapidly the temperature of the water increases. We also learned that thermal energy is the total of all the kinetic and potential energy of all the particles in a substance. For example a swimming pool has more heat energy than a hot cup of coffee because it has more mass. We also talked about heat is how the flow of thermal energy from one object to another. Heat always flows from warmer to less warm. There is no cold in science. We also discussed specific heat and how some things heat up faster and cool down faster than others. The example given was sand and a body of water. The sand during the day heats up very fast and at night cools down very fast while a body of water takes a longer period of time to heat up or cool down. We learned that this is because water has 4184 J/KgC and sand has 664 J/Kg C. This is a big difference. Water particles are more compact together and it takes more energy to tear them apart compared to sand where the sand particles are not bonded nearly as well so it takes much less time to tear them apart.

Presentations

Today in class we finished doing our group presentations. Our group went today and our experiment was seeing which cup would be the best insulator. We had a can, Styrofoam cup and a plastic cup. We put a small amount of dry ice in each one and let them set for a couple of minutes. We passed the cups around and had the class look at them. We found that Styrofoam cup was the best insulator. It had no frost around the cup while the other two had a lot. The can had the most. Our lesson plan was for a fourth grade class. Another group had a good experiment for younger grades that had food coloring and frosting. With this they had the students learning about the scientific method especially the hypothesis. They would ask the kids to predict what colors the food coloring would make the frosting when the two were mixed. They used the primary colors for this experiment. Their safety concerns were no eating, no poking the people with lab objects. Another group did their lesson plan on simple machine parts. They would have the students take a part a clock to see how many simple machines they could find in a clock. For safety they would have the students wear safety goggles because sometimes the springs and other objects pop out. They also stressed not putting anything in your mouth. This group also had a worksheet to go with their lab. Overall, there are many lesson plans and activities that I would use in my classroom. There was a variety of grade levels. I would be able to find a lesson plan for almost any grade I am going to teach.

Mid Term Projects

Today in class four groups in our class presented their mid term projects. Our project was to create a hands on lesson plan that had to do with physical science. We also had to present the safety procedures that go along with the lesson. The first group did an amazing job. Their project was working with magnets and if they repel, attract or do not attract. Each group was given different objects and a magnet to test them. A worksheet was given to fill out. They also made a poster of the safety concerns for their lab and for all labs. They went more in depth on the ones that had to do with their lab. I found that a washer, nail and paper clip all attract while chalk, bottle cap and a key do not. Another magnet repelled with the first magnet. The next group that went did the strength of an egg. It was a good experiment but they did not tell the class how it went with science or what standard it belonged into. They did not give any background on what the students were doing this experiment for. The third group gave their experiment on crushing a can using heat and then placing it in a cold ice bath. There experiment was for the 8th grade. I thought it was a cool experiment but I could not see it happening from where I was sitting so I did not get to see the whole experiment. They did cover the safety procedures such as do not touch the hot plate and wear goggles. The last group to go was doing solid and liquids for second grade. I think that it was age appropriate but they should have had more to their experiment. Children in second grade should know what a solid and a liquid is. It would have been neat to change things from a solid to a liquid. Overall, today I learned some neat lesson plans that will be fun to incorporate into my classroom at different grade levels.

Density and Pressure

Today in classed we continued to discuss pressure and density. We discussed that liquid and gases are both considered liquid. We discussed that density equals mass divided by volume. You cannot have different density of two objects that are the same. You can have different masses and volume but their density will be the same because mass and volume is proportional. Pressure is Fw divided by A. We did an activity to see how you can get the most pressure by standing on a sheet of paper. My group decided to use the tip toes because the smaller the area the more pressure. Our answer came out to be 16.129 of pressure per inches squared. We were one of the groups with the highest answer. We discovered that the smaller the area the more pressure and the bigger the area the less pressure. We were then asked to think of a real life problem that works this way. Our group said that in massaging you use your thumb for more pressure and to work deeper in the muscles and your whole hand to use less pressure. Another group used the example of getting your foot stepped on by a high heel. The smaller the heel the more it would hurt because of the higher amount of pressure in the small heel. The activity we did today would be a great idea to incorporate into a classroom. Along with science it also used math. It was a hands on activity and students love those types of activities. It also could be considered a critical thinking activity as well. It really makes the students think and apply important concepts from science.

Buonancy and Air Pressure

Today in class we watched two simulations and also did a lab. Both of the stimulations had to deal with Archimedes and the Buoyancy effect. In the first one we made a prediction. My prediction was that the scale on top would get smaller as the weight hanging from it was submerged and the scale on the bottom would get bigger as the weight became submerged. My prediction was right. The scale read 9.0 as the weight was in the water but not touching the bottom. When the weight touched the bottom the scale was at 0. The bottom scale started at 200 and by the time the weight touched the bottom it had increased to 210. The second simulation was a beaker of water and you could put cubes in a container in the water to see how many cubes were be put in there until they would sink. It showed the water displacement on the side. You could also play with the width and depth of the container in which the cubes floated. We learned that the water that was displaced was the same amount of water that the cubes moved aside as they fell into the water. When we did the experiment we found there to be 100 cc weight of water buoyancy. When the width of the container is widened it could hold more cubes and this is how heavy iron boats can float. Their bases are wide but as you go up they get smaller. The experiment today was blowing a ping bong ball from one cup to another. This taught us about air pressure. We learned that air pressure is what moves the ball from one cup to another. This experiment also showed us that flowing air creates force which equals pressure. This lab showed us that the softer you blow on the ball the lighter the force and the harder you blow the more force. These activities would all be great ways to show students. The first two were great ways to demonstrate buoyancy. A lot of kids need a demonstration and they were quick but helpful ones. The lab was a great way to learn about air pressure. It was quick and easy but easy for the kids to understand.

Lesson Plan

Today in class we began working on our group lesson plans. My group decided to do a lesson on insulators and conductors. Our lesson plan was found on the internet but we are tweaking it to fit our class. The lesson calls for regular ice to be put in three different cups: plastic, metal and Styrofoam. But we are doing our lesson with dry ice since it will melt sooner. Our simulation has to be short so our professor came up with the great idea of using dry ice. Since we need a safety precaution we decided to use wearing gloves and using tongs while putting the dry ice in a cup. We decided to use this because you can not handle dry ice with out gloves. In our group of three we put together our outline and put together our procedure.

Study Guide

Today in class we went through our module two study guides again today. We started on number twelve. We discussed that if you put energy in and get work out. We also learned that Kinetic Energy and Potential Energy equal the same in the beginning, middle and end. As something is thrown up the Kinetic Energy is at its highest and Potential Energy is at its highest when the ball is about ready to fall. We also discussed what simple machines do to help. We discussed that force has an advantage of distance. There are two types of simple machines are lever and incline plane. All simple machines are one of these two things. We also discussed what force fields are. We learned that they are any mass in the field space that experiences a force. It affects you and objects. We learned that even two markers have some type of magnetic attraction. As they get closer the attraction becomes stronger and as they move away it becomes weaker. We also talked about tides on earth that are caused mainly from the moon but the sun also has a small effect. They are the strongest when closest to the moon and weakest when far away from the moon. We also just need to know the definitions of Kepler’s Laws.

Kepler's Law

Today we did not have class. We had an online assignment where we had a simulation of Kepler’s Laws which we began talking about last class. This simulation was a neat way to show people who are visual learners what the laws mean. It also helps people connect the law and the visual together. It shows what the law does instead of just want it means. It helps a person understand better. But it is a little hard to understand even when you have the text book with you and directions up above the simulation. This is a hard concept to grasp and hopefully we will go over more of it in class.
Kepler’s second law states that, The line from the sun to any planet sweeps out equal areas of space in the equal time intervals. The simulation demonstrates this. When you put the a=3 you could see how that the line from the sun to the two planets took the same amount of time and space every time it swept. It also shows in red where the planet swept. This is the same distance every time and it picks back up At the same time every time. The smaller planet has the same number of sweeps as the big planet but it goes around its orbit more times then the bigger planet and goes through the sweeps more times than the bigger planet.

MidTerm Project and Study Guide

In class today we began talking about our midterm project. Our midterm project is a lesson plan. Our lesson plan needs to do with a physical science such as astronomy or earth science. We are able to work in partners or groups of three. In our lesson plan which needs to be a hands on activity. In our lesson plan we need to include: the standards, safety concerns, ethical issues, at least two references and provide a five question self/class evaluation. Our groups will have to present to the class.
The next activity we did in class was discuss our study guides. We went over questions one through eleven. We learned that energy is the most important concept of science no matter what part of science you are talking about. But we also learned that it is the most misunderstood concept of science as well. We defined energy as not being able to be created or destroyed and that it takes on many different forms. We also discussed that potential energy and kinetic energy are needed for work.

Motion

Today in class we discussed motion and in particular Projectile Motion. First, we started off reviewing Newton's second law of motion which is F=ma. We also reviewed that mass is constant and weight depends on where you are. In the end we came up with the Inverse Square law which is: 1/r^2 and learned that the closer together two items are the more force. Then we moved on to Projectile Motion in which we watched a simulation with a cannon. First, the cannon was shot at 90 degrees and the cannon ball went up and came back down. Next, the cannon was shot at 70 degrees which created a parabola effect. Then the professor asked what degree would send the cannon ball the farthest ? One student suggested 45 degrees and she was correct. We checked other numbers and realized this was the degree that would have the ball go the farthest. This simulation was with no air resistance.
In class today we went over some difficult information as a class. The simulation did help to get the Projectile Motion across. It was a neat way to see what we were learning.

September 30th Online Lab

Today we did not have class so we did an online assignment. Our assignment was to do a web-based take home lab. In this lab we had to test weights on springs. The site had different size weights and one spring you could adjust the softness and on all three springs you could adjust the friction.
The first test I tried was putting the 100 grams on spring number two with a friction of ten. The spring was about 25 cm from where it originally started. This gave no bounce after the weight was put on. It just fell straight down. Next, I tested the 100 gram weight on the second spring with the friction of five. This time the weight again fell 25cm from the starting point but it had much more bounce. It bounced more than ten times. First it bounced fast and then bounced slower as time went on. The third test I tried I again used spring number two and the 100 gram weight but placed the friction at zero. This time the weight would not quit bouncing for there to be a record of how low the spring went. It looked to be about down to 30 cm.
The next ting I wanted to test was what does the softness of spring number three do to the amount of inches the spring falls when a 250 gram weight is put on it. The friction was kept at a five for all three trials. So, for the first test I placed the softness to a ten. The results were that the spring stretched all the way out to more than 50 cm. The results went of the screen. Next, I tested the softness at a five. When the softness was at five it fell to around 27 cm. Next, the spring softness was placed on ten. The spring hardly went anywhere. The spring fell to around 5cm.
This lab was a fun way to see what we are going to be learning in class and a fun way to have us learn something even though we did not have class today.

A Star's Story

Today instead of class we had a web seminar. This was my first web seminar I had ever attended. At first it was a little awkward but it did get better. Yet, the content at times was a little hard to understand since my knowledge in Astrology is not very good.
I learned quite a bit from today’s seminar but at times it was very hard to follow and was over my head. I have not had any classes on Astrology since my freshman year of high school and even then it was minimal. I felt like today’s seminar was more for people who know about astrology. Sometimes it was very hard to understand the content of the lecture.
Today I learned that a star is made up of seventy to eighty percent of hydrogen, twenty to thirty percent of helium and the rest is other elements from the periodic table. Next, I learned the definition of a star which is: massive, hot, glowing balls of gas. I also learned the difference between high mass and low mass stars. High mass stars are bright, burn fuel rapidly, live short lives while low mass stars are less bright and burn for millions of years. People can categorize stars by temperature, composition and brightness. The sequence of a star’s life is: Nebula, protostar, main sequence star, red giant, variable stage, planetary nebula, white dwarf, and finally, black dwarf.
This lecture helped me learn a few things about stars to teach in my future classroom. At the end of the lesson there was also websites I could visit to find ideas for my classroom. This experience was a great one to have. It was nice to be able to be a part of a web seminar. It is a great use of technology.

Reading Guide One

In class today we discussed the reading guide over chapter one. As we went over the questions I had most of the answers correct. One question I needed to add information to was what was equilibrium? In class we discussed that it is state of no change and all forces are balanced. I also had to add information to: How do different shaped objects fall? Different weight objects? When there is no atmosphere? When is there no gravity? I had to add: If there is no atmosphere there is no friction all objects will fall at the same acceleration.

Graphing Your Motion Part B

Today we finished the lab, Graphing Your Motion. This time we were learning about velocity. We used the same procedure as before but this time we used time and velocity. We again did the process two times and compared the two graphs. As we walked faster we found that the lines were closer together and the humps were smaller and closer together. As we moved slower the lines were farther apart and the humps were larger and more spread out. In this lab we also defined velocity. Velocity is the speed of an object with specification of it’s direction of motion.
This would be a fun lab to do with your students. It shows them what velocity is. You could also have your class look at the two labs and compare. You could hav them talk about what they did that was the same and what was different.

Graphing Your Motion

In class we began discussing what motion and speed were last Thursday. We learned that relative to motion when something speeds up that is positive motion and when something speed goes down that is negative motion. We also learned the formula for speed which is Speed=Distance + Time. We also learned that Acceleration equals changing velocity.
In class today we began a lab called, “Graphing Your Motion”. In this lab we got to use Lab Quests which are computers that we plugged a motion detector into to measure position, velocity and accelerations. We worked in groups of four for this lab. For this lab we placed the motion detector down and placed a line of tape from the front of the detector to four meters away. A group member then walked slowly away from the detector to the end of the four meters. We repeated this process again but this time the group member walked faster.
We as a group found in both cases the position of the graph steadily increased and the velocity peaks and goes back down again and again. We then were asked what would happen if we walked toward the motion detector instead of away. We as a group decided that the velocity would be similar and the position would reverse. We conducted the study and found that we were right about the position but incorrect about the velocity. The velocity also went in reverse.
This lab would be fun for students. It gets them involved in the learning process and shows them directly. Someone is not just standing there and telling them this happens. They are actually changing the graph themselves by the experiments they are performing. The graphs show them exactly what they did. This makes it easier for students to understand what they are learning.

The Science of a Kiss & Snowflake Lab

During the activity, The Science of a Kiss: Measurement, Mass and Energy, math and science were mixed together to come up with a fun way to teach students about mass, energy and measurement. This activity could be used for all age groups with a little tweaking to the lesson plan. It is a short activity but illustrates what needs to be learned. This would be a good opening to the beginning of a chapter on mass and energy.
Since this was a short activity the masses of each kiss was given to us and we averaged them. We came up with the answer .022 kg. We were also given three heights, .01 m, .05 m, and 1.0 m. We averaged these numbers and got .53 m. The grams were already given to us for the kisses. They all were 9.8 m/s/s so our average was the same. We as a group had to then figure out the gravitational potential energy. We did this by multiplying the mass, height and grams together. The last step of the process was to find the final velocity. We were given the formula- V= Vo+2GD. So with our findings from above we got the problem 0+2(9.8 m/s/s) .53m= 10.39 m^2/s/s as our final velocity.
This was a fun activity that could show students how to get velocity in a fun way. It was very interesting to see how when you would change the height of the drop then the gravitational energy potential would change. This in return changed the average and gave us our average velocity. It would be fun to change the height to higher numbers and see how this would affect the velocity.

In class we learned that the nature of science is made up of all kinds of patterns. We also learned that around us the world of science is made up of all different kinds of patterns. Some examples are growth patterns in plants and crystal shapes in minerals and also the power of ten in science.
So for our lab we made origami snowflakes to show how the world around us is full of patterns. We were given directions on how to make the snowflake. We were allowed to use our creativity to make the snowflake. In the end our snowflake was full of patterns. It did show how the earth is full of different patterns.
This activity would be fun to do with a class. It could be for any grade level. You would just have to tweak how many folds you wanted the students to do. It is a great way to show the students how there are many patterns in nature. It would also be fun to compare all the snowflakes the students make. This would show the students no two snowflakes are alike just like in nature.

Moving Man

This simulation is a great way to teach students about velocity. It took me a while to figure out how to work the simulation but it would work well for older students. If a class is in a lower grade the teacher could handle the stimulation and have the students suggest numbers.
While using this simulation I found that the higher the acceleration the higher the velocity. Each time the man started at 0 meters and moved forward and I would pick an x for acceleration. I used 3.0 m/s^2 for my acceleration first and the stimulation gave me a velocity of 7.1 m/s at 8.6 meters. I did another test to test my theory on acceleration and velocity. This time I did an acceleration of 4.0 m/s^2 and the stimulation showed me the velocity was 8.4 m/s at 9.2 meters. The third test I tried was an acceleration of 10.0 m/s^2. The man moved 9.8 meters and the velocity was13.7 m/s. These three tests showed that the higher the acceleration the higher the velocity will be.
The next thing I discovered while using the simulation is that the higher the velocity the less time it takes to reach a point. All times I started the man on O meters. The first time I tried the simulation I chose a velocity of 5.0 m/s. It went 8.4 meters in 1.70 seconds. The next test I tried it with a velocity of 9.0 m/s. It went 8.4 meters in .94 seconds. The third test I had the velocity at 1.0 m/s. It went 8.4 meters in 8.38 seconds.
This simulation is a good activity to show students a visual way in which science works. It would be a fun activity to do as a class or even as a small group and as a class come back and share the ideas found.