Mass Spring Lab

On 9/30 we will not have class, but we were assigned an online lab called the mass spring lab. Upon arriving at the sit I was trying to discover what it is we were supposed to do, so I put the different sized weights on the springs and changed the friction and the softness of spring 3. The smaller the weight applied to the spring, the more it would bounce up and down. The heavier the weight applied to the spring the less it would bounce. The higher amount of friction that was place on the spring the less the weight would bounce. If the spring was soft the more it would stretch, and if it was hard it would bounce with less stretching of the spring. When placing lots of friction with a hard spring the weight would bounce really fast. When there was no friction and a soft spring the weight would bounce slower and less than when there was a hard spring. I also watched the difference between the springs moving in real time, 1/4 time, and 1/6 time. It was really interesting to see how the different weights, friction, no-friction, and softer and harder weights affected how the weights and springs bounced. I can see that this would be a fun andgreat learning activity for students that I will teach in the future because I enjoyed it myself. Visually seeing how friction, weight, and thickness of the springs all acted together was easy to understand.

NSTA Web Seminar

Instead of class today we enrolled ourselves into a NSTA web seminar about Astrology. It was really interesting to use Elluminate technology as a classroom; I felt like I was actually in class and was able to ask questions, reply to questions, and engage in converstation with the others in the seminar. It was neat to be learning with others from all over the U.S., there was even a woman from Australia. I learned more about stars in this one session than I have probably learned in my whole life. I learned that stars are massive hot glowing balls of gas and are made up of 70 to 80% hydrogen. We were shown pictures of stars forming, learned about high and low mass stars, and were shown simulation videos. All of the material that we were shown was really interesting and informative. We were also given the links so that we can see them again and possibly show future students. At the end of the seminar we were offered a list of web resources that could be very useful to learn about science and to relay that knowledge onto students. They inluded videos, lesson plans, and much more relating to the field. The web seminar was a new and interesting experience for me and I plan on attending more of them!

9/23 Class

Today in class we went over how to blog and use D2L since they are new technologies and are causing confusion amongst the classroom. We also discussed the NSTA web seminar about Astronomy we are to participate in on Thursday the 25th. Lastly, we went over our study guides in order to prepare for our Module 1 quiz, which includes the Prologue, Chapter 1, and Chapter 2. We discussed the answers to the questions on our study guide as a class, which helped clear up questions we had. The study guide helped me to recognize the key points of the reading material and helped me to recall information during the quiz.

Graphing Your Motion Lab Activity

Today in class the instructor gave us a brief explanation about how to use the Lab Quests, which caused my group to be less confused today during our activity. We set our motion detector which was connected to the Lab Quest on a chair and marked off a 4m straight line on the floor directly in front of the motion detector. During the first trial I stood at the 1m mark and slowly walked backwards holding a clipboard (for the motion detector to have a flat surface to detect), and walked slowly backwards towards the 4m mark; then again walking faster. We then looked at the graphs that we made and drew them on our paper. The graphs showed that when we walked slowly backwards (negative motion) the graphing line moved down then up with smoother lines, when we walked faster in the negative motion the lines were much more jagged and closer together than before. When walking forward (positive motion) the graphing line went up then down. We graphed our data on position vs. time graph and a velocity vs. time graph. This was an interesting activity, and I realized today that much more explanation would need to be given to younger students because it was a little confusing learning how to use the equipment and understanding what the data meant.

9/16 Class

During this class period we listened to the instructor discuss details about D2L, including signing up for the web seminar and how to submit Module 1 under the dropbox tab. We were then able to ask any questions we had about D2L and class in general. Next, we were given Lab Quests and motion detectors and started the Graphing Your Motion lab acivity. This activity was unsuccessful because the Lab Quests' batteries were not fully charged. Before the batteries completely died, my group was confused as to how to actually use the Lab Quest. I learned that before I use technology like the Lab Quest's, to be sure to explain to the students how to use it before sending them off in their groups.

Snowflake Patterns

On the first day of class we folded and cut paper to make "snowflakes." We did this by folding our square paper in half, then into a triangle to being making the snowflake. My table chose to make a two fold snoflake for our first time to be sure we wouldn't confuse ourselves. Next, we cut designs and shapes into our snowflakes. With this exercise I can see why it would be useful to teach young students because of the use of patterns and repeat symmetry that is shown in the final snowflake. This project will help them to understand that there are patterns all around us nature and out environment.

The Moving Man Simulation

The Moving Man Simulation was an interesting way for me to explore how the position, velocity, and acceleration of an object all work when an object is in motion or at rest. When I left the man at rest all three lines on the graph would remain at 0. When I moved the man backwards towards the tree (-10) the Position graph would move to negative numbers and vice versa when moving in a positive direction. The Velocity graph would make spiked lines between 0 and -10 when moving in a negative direction and between 0 and 10 when moving positively. On the Acceleration graph the line would spike starting from a lower number to a higher number depending on the speed I was moving him while moving backwards, and from higher numbers to lower numbers when moving forward. It was neat seeing all three graphs move at the same time to show how position, velocity, and movement are affected depending on where you are at, in what direction you are moving, and your speed. This is a great learning activity to show students visually what position, acceleration, and velocity are doing when they themselves are in motion.

The Science of a Kiss: Conservation of Mass and Energy

The reasoning for this experiment was for our class to learn about the conservation of energy. When the kiss was moving it had kinetic energy, and when the movement was stopped when the kiss hit the table it resulted in gravitational energy. We took the mass of the Hershey's Kiss which was .0022kg and we dropped it from the height of
.1 meter, .5 meter, and 1 meter. We recorded the data and calculated the gravitational potential energy. The equation we used was 2KE/m = v^2. We also found the final velocity just before the kiss hit the table by using the equation
Vf = 2(9.8 m/s^2)X .53m which = about 9.8 m/s^2. This experiment helped me to start understanding how kinetic and gravitational energy work. I was able to see how and why the numbers we used worked in the equation. I know have a better understanding about the terms kinetic energy, gravitational energy, and velocity.