"Bell Ringer"

Today in class I worked with my group on deciding what bell ringer to do. After doing much research, my group found that it would be a great idea to do a bell ringer about gravity. To catch the students attention we would start off by showing them a very interesting you tube video we found that talked about a bubble and zero gravity. After the students were amazed by the you tube, we would then show them another you tube video that we think the students would really enjoy. This you tube that we showed would show the students what a classroom would be like if there were zero gravity classrooms. It is my opinion that this you tube will really catch the students attention. At one point in the you tube, some teachers are throwing another teacher back and forth to each other, it is very cool. After our students are done watching those two you tube videos, we will then have a crossword puzzle for them to work on that consists of terms that go hand in hand with gravity. We are not going to give the students any terms for answers, the students will have to try and find the answers by themselves or with the help from their science books. We thought that by not providing an answer box, the students will then have to work harder and will probably remember the material a lot better this way, rather than telling them the answer. Our bell ringer is going to be for freshman in high school because we know that freshman would probably understand gravity better that any younger grades.

"The Tuning Fork"

I thouroughly enjoyed today's class period. We first went through the reading guide and then went on to participate in a fun filled experiment. This experiment was called "The Tuning Fork" and was by far the most fun experiment that we have done all year. Our group first struck the tuning fork against the wooden block and then dipped the ends of the tuning fork into a little glass of water. It was very cool becuase as soon as the tuning fork hit the water, it created ripples in the water. We then struck the tuning fork again and then touched the ends of the tuning fork to a piece of paper and hurd a sizzle. Then we struck the tuning fork against the wooden block and placed the ends of the tuning fork against our cheecks. This was a very interesting feeling becuase it sort of tickled your cheeks in a way. We then moved onto a different exercise with the tuning fork that involved one's ears. We struck the tuning fork and then placed it up to one another's ear and heard a lot of vibrations. Then we struck the tuning fork and held it into a long tube which created an obnoxiously loud sound. It was so loud that it hurt my ears in a way and also my partners ears. The next exercise dealt with the tuning fork and water. Before presenting the tuning fork into the exercise, we did a few things with out fingers and a stethoscope. Then we moved onto the interesting part where we taped our fingers underwater and then listened with the stethoscope in the water. The sound that it produced were somewhat similar to chants that Indians would do during a ceremony or special events. The sound was also somewhat comparable to someone tapping the drums. The next exercise we did dealt with glass bottles and a mallet. The materials person in our group filled three glass bottles with water, all of different amounts. At first all of the group members closed their eyes while one person struck a bottle with the mallet and we had to tell that person if the pitch was high or low. The person then struck a different bottle and then asked us what bottle we thought had a higher pitch. We then opened our eyes and then hit the bottles with the mallet again to see for ourselves which bottle had the higher pitch. It was interesting to see that the bottle that had the most water, had the lowest pitch and the bottle with the least amount of water had the highest pitch. I really enjoyed this exercise just as I enjoyed the others. As already mentioned, this was by far my favorite lab and I know that my students would enjoy it as much as I did!

"Electroscope"

Thursday's class was eventful in a way. We first got to class and went over the reading guides for a little bit and then moved onto the experiment. The reason that I said the class was eventful was because Dr. E did numerous demonstrations with a balloon to try and help her students understand the material a little bit better. I really enjoy when Dr. E does examples in class because it helps her students to comprehend the material more thoroughly. After going through the reading guides, Dr. E allowed for us to do an interesting experiment. The materials for the experiment were: 4 plastic drinking straws, 2 plastic 35 mm film cans, modeling clay, tape, a balloon, and a wool sheet of material. This lab dealt with forces attracting each other and repelling each other. To start off the lab, we first had one person stick the modeling clay in the cans while another person read the lab out-loud. We first ripped off two pieces of tape, each about 4 cm long and then placed them on the table. We then ripped the tape off the table really hard and then placed one piece of tape on two of the straws (their were two straws in each canister but we made sure the tape was in the two different canisters, not both). We then moved the cans so that the tapes faced each other and then slowly moved the cans closer and closer together to see the two tapes repel each other. We then grabbed two more pieces of tape and pressed the sticky side of one against the smooth side of the other, leaving one end of each tape sticking out as a handle. Then we quickly ripped the tapes apart and stuck them on the remaining two straws. We then moved the canisters apart and then brought them together again slowly, to only notice that the two tapes attracted each other. We then rubbed the balloon against the wool material to build static and then brought it up to the different pieces of tape and saw how it attracted to some and repelled against others. I really enjoyed this experiment, it surprised me to see some of the outcomes that we got.

Website

On Tuesday, we did not have class so instead Dr. E allowed for us to look at a couple different websites that she thought we would enjoy. Both of the websites that I looked at were very interesting but I liked the Electricity and Magnets Simulations website better than the Electric Circuit Construction Kit. I thought the Electricity and Magnets website was so interesting because there were a lot of creative games that an individual could play that allowed them to learn while playing. I think my favorite game was the hockey one, it was so intriguing. I actually found it very difficult for me to stop playing it because it was so much fun. I think this was really good for us to go on these websites because it allowed for us to experience a different way of learning. I think that other students would really enjoy this too because it is more interactive rather than sitting in class and listening to a lecture. This is a great way to learn and it is my belief that more teachers should try techniques like this in their classroom. If more teachers displayed websites for their students to use then I think more students would see learning as fun rather than something they are forced to do!

Cotten and Wool Socks

Today's class period was focused on the "A Good Sock" experiment. Last Tuesday when some of the groups tried to perform their experiment, they could not get it to work so we spent the whole class period on the experiments today. Our groups experiment once again would not work so we had to work with another group. We assigned roles for each of the individuals in the group and made sure everyone did his or her share. I really enjoyed this experiment because the results were not what I expected them to be. In the experiment, we took four plastic bottles and filled them up hot water. We left one plastic bottle uncovered, one plastic bottle covered in a wool sock, one bottle covered in a cotton sock, and the last bottle covered in a wet cotton sock. After we put the socks on the bottles, we took the temperature of the water bottles and left the probes in the bottles for twenty minutes and then checked the temperature again to see if there was a change. It was interesting to find out that each plastic bottles' temperature decreased besides the bottle that had a wet cotton sock covering it. I was astonished by this because I hypothesized that wool sock would have a temperature increase and not a wet cotton sock. I believe that this experiment was very interesting and I think numerous kids would be stunned by the results that they find!

"A Good Sock"

Thursday's class period was spent discussing the reading guide. Dr. E announced in class on Tuesday that we would be taking a quiz on Thursday so Dr. E wanted to go over the reading guide in order to help us with the quiz. We spent the first half of the class period discussing the reading guide and then the other half of the class period experimenting. I am not sure how the other groups did with their experiment, but my groups experiment did not work. Our groups logger pro first died on us, so we lost our data and had to go get a new one, and then one of our probes would not work and by the time we went to find a new probe, class was over. Dr. E said that on Thursday, our next class period, that she would make sure that each groups experiment worked so we could see the results we should be getting. Even though it was frustrating for our group because nothing was working, it was also a nice reminder that you need to be patient as a teacher because every experiment is not going to work like planned!

Heat and Temperature

Today in class we finished up the last two group projects and then began discussing the material that will be on the next quiz. Dr. E composed a lovely power point to help her students learn about: temperature, thermal energy, heat, and specific heat. Temperature is related to average kinetic energy of the particles of a substance. The SI unit for temperature is Kelvin which is also known as the absolute temperature scale. The next thing the class discussed was thermal energy, the total of all kinetic and potential energy of all particles in a substance. While discussing thermal energy, Dr. E decided to get the class more involved by asking an interesting question- which has more thermal energy, a swimming pool at 50 degrees Celsius or hot coffee at 100 degrees Celsius? As first some individuals thought that it would be the coffee because of its greater temperature, but in all actuality it would be a swimming pool because it is larger and therefore has more particles. The class then conversed over heat, the flow of thermal energy from one object to another. Dr. E then explained how heat always flows from warmer to less warm objects. To stay on the topic of heat, Dr. E then brought up a different type of heat that I had never heard of, specific heat. Specific heat is a comparison scale that tells that some things heat up and cool down faster than others. To help some individuals understand this definition more clearer, Dr. E explained how sand heats up very fast in the day and then cools down also very fast at night. After her explanation, Dr. E then decided to ask the class a few questions to get them more involved. The first question she presented the class with was, why does water have such a high specific heat? After several inputs from my classmates, the class figured out that water has such a high specific heat because particles are closer together, water molecules form strong bonds with each other and therefore it takes more heat energy to break them. Dr. E then ended the class with this last question, how do we calculate changes in thermal energy? No one in the class really had a response so Dr. E explained to us that heat energy is equal to mass times the change in temperature times the specific heat. This class period was obviously very informational but it was also interesting at the same time. Even though I already knew most of the material discussed in class today, it is always nice for a little refresher!