Whoops! I meant to come straight home and post yesterday, but it was my son's 7th birthday and I forgot. So, let's see what I can remember . . .
I do remember that the O section completed the marble roll lab with flying colors. Groups in the O-1's that were not so stellar last week did admirably this week. We will have to go over it on Monday to make sure everyone understands the graph of velocity and the graph of acceleration.
The L section wrapped up lesson 6-6 discussing Newton's three laws. This lesson is discussed on Day 84. I did a good job with the candle in the bottle demo. Mrs. Nolan had to take over to make sure I didn't pick favorites for volunteers. I don't think I do, but everyone said I did. I should leave this up to Scottie every time (Scottie is my virtual seat picker friend, Scottie Pippen--you will have to ask your son or daughter if you don't understand this).
The W and S sections discussed momentum. We watched a short video, then went over HW using the new OWLSbuck/Scottie Pippen reward system. Then I got out the super ball swinger momentum display device. This allows me to show that momentum is conserved. I swing one ball in and one goes out. I swing two balls in and two come out. In a creative burst I tried marbles on a marble track from lab and discovered that the same thing happens with them. If they are in a row and I roll one in, one comes out. Two in, two out. Momentum is mass x velocity, so it has a direction. In a closed system, it is conserved--as long as no outside forces are allowed to interact.
Next up is a review day, followed by our test. Then, at the end of the week, we have our big vocabulary test. I hope that everyone is studying!
Sweet justice.
January 12, 2008
January 10, 2008
Day 84
Whew! That was a busy day for me. I feel bad for accidentally breaking two penny stopper reagent bottles (they were empty), but of course it was all done for the sake of education.
The L section completed day 6-5 on friction forces. I introduced the new OWLSbucks homework reward system which uses the super Scottie Seat Picker to pick random students to answer questions. If they get the question right, they get an OWLSbuck. If they get it wrong, the next student gets two OWLSbucks. If they didn't do the HW, another OWLSbuck is added to the pot and the system rolls. Today, one student made almost 20 OB's answering tough questions. It keeps us focused, laughing, and in the end, better educated. Sweet victory!
The O, W, and S sections completed day 6-6 which covered Newton's three laws. Law 1: the law of inertia (a body in motion will stay in motion and a body at rest will stay at rest until acted upon by an outside force). Law 2: the mass of an object times its acceleration equals its force (in newtons or pounds). Law 3: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. I did a couple of demonstrations. In one in the S section, Seth jumped into Josh's lap while he sat in my nice, leather chair. The chair rolled back--Newton's third law. I pulled a piece of paper out from under a glass bottle, showing inertia in action (as well as static and sliding friction). It was dangerous because I lit a candle and put it on top. Well, it wasn't that dangerous, but it was more dangerous than anything that happened in math today.
Oh, that reminds me, Mr. Burcin almost caught me throwing a bouncy ball against Mrs. Middleton's door during fourth period. Almost is the operative term. I will have to use more stealth in the future.
Sweet justice.
The L section completed day 6-5 on friction forces. I introduced the new OWLSbucks homework reward system which uses the super Scottie Seat Picker to pick random students to answer questions. If they get the question right, they get an OWLSbuck. If they get it wrong, the next student gets two OWLSbucks. If they didn't do the HW, another OWLSbuck is added to the pot and the system rolls. Today, one student made almost 20 OB's answering tough questions. It keeps us focused, laughing, and in the end, better educated. Sweet victory!
The O, W, and S sections completed day 6-6 which covered Newton's three laws. Law 1: the law of inertia (a body in motion will stay in motion and a body at rest will stay at rest until acted upon by an outside force). Law 2: the mass of an object times its acceleration equals its force (in newtons or pounds). Law 3: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. I did a couple of demonstrations. In one in the S section, Seth jumped into Josh's lap while he sat in my nice, leather chair. The chair rolled back--Newton's third law. I pulled a piece of paper out from under a glass bottle, showing inertia in action (as well as static and sliding friction). It was dangerous because I lit a candle and put it on top. Well, it wasn't that dangerous, but it was more dangerous than anything that happened in math today.
Oh, that reminds me, Mr. Burcin almost caught me throwing a bouncy ball against Mrs. Middleton's door during fourth period. Almost is the operative term. I will have to use more stealth in the future.
Sweet justice.
January 9, 2008
Day 83
These days seem to go so fast, at least for me. Today was a friction day in the O, W, and S sections. We went over HW, which covered the topics of friction, gravity, and free fall. There are four types of friction: static, rolling, fluid, and sliding friction, but all are basically the same: a measure of the force it takes to overcome the resistance to motion between two surfaces. This leads into a discussion of the universal law of gravitation, the idea that gravity exists between all objects at all times. This leads to free fall, which is confusing. Objects will fall at the same rate as long as resistive air forces do not hold them up. So a marble and a car will hit the ground at the same time dropped from the same height. In reality, it doesn't happen, because the car is not nearly affected by air the way a marble is.
We looked at a free fall laboratory on Explorelearning.com which was cool--you can drop different objects from a tower and see which hit first. Very cool. You can check out explorelearning at home using the links and directions to the right of this blog.
The L section did a great job with the marble lab. Their graphs look great, a telling sign that their data was collected well.
Sweet justice.
We looked at a free fall laboratory on Explorelearning.com which was cool--you can drop different objects from a tower and see which hit first. Very cool. You can check out explorelearning at home using the links and directions to the right of this blog.
The L section did a great job with the marble lab. Their graphs look great, a telling sign that their data was collected well.
Sweet justice.
January 8, 2008
Day 82
I laughed a lot today, which I think is usually a good thing. It was all for the sake of education, of course. The W, L and O sections learned about forces today, balanced and unbalanced. I assigned Part 3 for HW tonight if you are checking at home. We went over HW, answered the $ question: what is the difference between velocity and speed? (It is that velocity includes a direction), and watched the end of the roller coaster video. Because I love that video, I have included a small clip from it. Here is a scene near the end where two young boys eat food and drink orange juice while riding a roller coaster. I don't advise doing this at home, but I do advise watching the clip several times and laughing. The video did teach us a lot about g forces; it wasn't all laughing.
The S section completed their lab on the velocity and acceleration of marbles. They did an excellent job and I was proud of them. It is a tricky lab. You have to time in intervals of one foot, five times each, for 8 different intervals. This allows us to graph velocity versus time. What we need is a photogate. What we have are several little red hand timers. Considering our resource, the students did great work.
Sweet justice.
The S section completed their lab on the velocity and acceleration of marbles. They did an excellent job and I was proud of them. It is a tricky lab. You have to time in intervals of one foot, five times each, for 8 different intervals. This allows us to graph velocity versus time. What we need is a photogate. What we have are several little red hand timers. Considering our resource, the students did great work.
Sweet justice.
January 7, 2008
Day 81
I just got done having a video phone call with Mr. Neumann. We used Skype and talked for about 30 minutes tonight. So cool; I love technology.
Speaking of tech, we had a pretty low tech lab today for the W section. I spent two hours revamping our marble lab with Mr. K-rebs help today and got it ready just in time for the W's. Here is what we did: we rolled marbles along a wooden track and timed them for one foot intervals over 8 feet. The first three feet was the downhill track, the last five feet was the trip along the floor. We used the floor tiles to measure the distance, and then students entered their data on the computers. I set up a graph ahead of time through Moodle that they could enter data into which then produced a distance vs time graph (slope = velocity) and velocity vs time graph (slope = acceleration). Tomorrow in class we will go over these, but my hope is that it helps students see the connection between math and science, and how a graph can help interpret data.
The L and O sections went over HW 6-3b, which included 5 standardized test questions. I let students know that they will be taking the PSSA Science test this year in 8th grade and will receive scores in the fall. It covers a lot more than our current curriculum in 8th grade, but I'm hopeful I can help them get ready before May. We also watched a roller coaster video today, which was awesome. A lot of discussion about G forces (both positive and negative) was generated. I assigned part 2 for HW, due tomorrow. This is on balanced and unbalanced forces.
The S section went over the Part 2 HW on balanced forces. Basically, forces are shown as arrows in force diagrams. Like velocity and acceleration, force has both direction and magnitude. The length of the arrow shows the strength and the direction of the arrow shows, well, direction. To determine a net force for two arrows pointing at each other, you must find their difference. Unbalanced forces cause objects to move. Balanced forces keep objects in place.
Sweet justice!
Speaking of tech, we had a pretty low tech lab today for the W section. I spent two hours revamping our marble lab with Mr. K-rebs help today and got it ready just in time for the W's. Here is what we did: we rolled marbles along a wooden track and timed them for one foot intervals over 8 feet. The first three feet was the downhill track, the last five feet was the trip along the floor. We used the floor tiles to measure the distance, and then students entered their data on the computers. I set up a graph ahead of time through Moodle that they could enter data into which then produced a distance vs time graph (slope = velocity) and velocity vs time graph (slope = acceleration). Tomorrow in class we will go over these, but my hope is that it helps students see the connection between math and science, and how a graph can help interpret data.
The L and O sections went over HW 6-3b, which included 5 standardized test questions. I let students know that they will be taking the PSSA Science test this year in 8th grade and will receive scores in the fall. It covers a lot more than our current curriculum in 8th grade, but I'm hopeful I can help them get ready before May. We also watched a roller coaster video today, which was awesome. A lot of discussion about G forces (both positive and negative) was generated. I assigned part 2 for HW, due tomorrow. This is on balanced and unbalanced forces.
The S section went over the Part 2 HW on balanced forces. Basically, forces are shown as arrows in force diagrams. Like velocity and acceleration, force has both direction and magnitude. The length of the arrow shows the strength and the direction of the arrow shows, well, direction. To determine a net force for two arrows pointing at each other, you must find their difference. Unbalanced forces cause objects to move. Balanced forces keep objects in place.
Sweet justice!
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