Online Assignment

For today's class, instead of physically going to class, Dr. E assigned a project online. The project that was assigned consisted of putting weights on a spring and watching the spring bounce up and down and observing the gravity of the weight. For the first trial run, I put the red weight on the spring marked 3 and timed to see how long it would take for the red weight to come to a stop. It took the red weight almost twelve seconds to come to a complete stop. While I was timing the red weight, I not only watched the weights movement but I also watched the gravity that showed an energy of three. For the next trial I took the 250 pound weight,placed it on springer 2 and observed its motion. For the 250 pound weight it showed no energy movement because when I began I chose the option of, only show energy of three. I did however observe that it took almost nine seconds for the weight to come to a complete stop. I then chose to try the 100 pound weight and placed it on springer one. The 100 pound weight did not show any energy level because once again it did not have energy of three. I observed that it took eleven and a half seconds to come to a complete stop. Finally, I chose the 50 pound weight and placed it once again on the springer 1, this time I was very shocked to see that it took almost twelve seconds for the 50 pound weight to come to a stop. The reason I found this complete odd was because it took longer for the 50 pound weight to come to a stop then the 100 pound weight; if I could have guessed, I would have hypothesized the complete opposite. For the experiment there were several different options that one could choose from and I chose for time to be 1/4 and for the place to be earth. This experiment was very interesting and fun to do. I will definitely have to keep this experiment in mind when I am planning science experiments for my students. I think that young students would get a thrill out of this experiment!

Web Seminar

For those of you that do not know this, the physical science class did not meet on Thursday in the classroom; instead the majority of the class had class online. A web seminar was being advertised and Dr. E really wanted us to be able to participate in it so this is where we spent our Thursday class period. I was able to easily access the web seminar whereas some of my fellow classmates found it extremely difficult. After logging on, the main person in charge greeted everyone, answered any questions that anyone had, and then immediately started asking questions to try and get to know us. Participants were permitted to look at the web site or do whatever they desired for about a half hour while other individuals tried accessing the web site. Soon after the half hour, the web seminar started in which everyone was asked particular questions and the answers were then graphed for everyone to see the results. Then the seminar began where the students learned interesting facts about stars the sun, and planets. I knew some of the simple facts such as the sun is five billion years old and stars do not move around in space in zigzag patterns. On the other hand though, there were also quite a few things I did not know: scientists classify stars based on their spectra, there is a point where a star needs a lot of light, atoms and molecules in the cooler outer layers absorb light so we can observe an Absorption Spectrum, when you are looking at a star there is a certain signature scientists look at to categorize them, planets form around stars form accretion of smaller bits after the central star forms, or from a clump orbiting the main star, and finally astronomy is a dynamic science; new discoveries add to our knowledge of the universe and our own solar system. As one can see, I learned a lot of interesting information from the web seminar. At first I was really regretting having to watch the seminar for an hour and fifteen minutes, but once it was over I was pleased to have seen it. I really enjoyed changing up the class atmosphere and partaking in the web seminar instead of physically going to class. I hope that we are able to do this again sometime; I think the web seminar was a very good experience!

Going over reading guide

On Tuesday during the class period, Dr. E's students discussed the reading guide. Dr. E asked a question and then she waited for someone to answer it or she called on that person. We spent more time on certain questions than others so we were not able to go over the entire reading guide. Thankfully, Dr. E made sure that before we left the classroom, every question was answered. It was very beneficial to go over the reading guide in class because then when it came to taking the quiz later that night, it really helped. The quiz that we took covered almost the entire reading guide and a little bit of information from the readings out of the book. The quiz was actually pretty easy but it did take me around forty minutes to complete it because I wanted to make sure that everything I answered was correct. After submitting the quiz I was a bit nervous because the computer results said I failed but then I found an email that Dr. E sent, telling us to not worry. I was very relieved to receive that email because I was concerned that I had failed after all the time I put into the quiz. I really enjoy the way that Dr. E does her quizzes because it does not cause any stress. The person taking the quiz can be free from worry due to the fact that the quizzes are not timed and you can take it twice. I think that when I become a teacher I might also do some of the quizzes like that because it allows for the student to truly think about what they are doing. It also does not cause worriment for the student and it allows them to be stress free!

"Graphing Your Motion"

Today in physical science class, Dr. E's students experienced an informational class. The reason I say this is because when we got to class the first thing Dr. E did was show us how to connect our blog to the rest of the class'. This was very helpful because there were only eleven students who had connected themselves, several people who did not know how to connect to each other's blogs, and still other individuals in the class that was unaware of the fact that he or she needed to have a blog for the class. Dr. E went on further to explain how to register for a Webseminar since several students had emailed her questions and concerns dealing with the seminar and she also provided an alternative for those students who are not going to be able to attend the seminar online. After Dr. E had made sure that each individual got his or her questions all answered, Dr. E explained the experiment that we were going to be doing. Two days ago on Tuesday, the class had tried to perform the experiment just mentioned, but the materials needed were not cooperating. Dr. E figured out why the experiment malfunctioned and then explained to each of us how to use the LoggerPro. It was very beneficial for Dr. E to explain how to use the LoggerPro because several of my classmates were unaware of how to use the technology. After Dr. E. thoroughly explained the experiment, the class began the experiment, anxious to see how it would turn out. The experiment was very interesting, each group had a motion detector that they placed close to the ground so it could read objects. The groups then measured out four meters, placing tape at each meter. One person would then push the collect button to start recording date while another person stood at the one meter marker, holding a clipboard and walked backwards, stopped, and then continued walking backwards. Our group went through this process several times just to see how each graph looked different. On one of our final steps we had a person once again record data while a different person walked backwards, stopped, and then ran backwards. It was very interesting to see how the graphs changed from just walking to then running. After we had finished the experiment, our group went back to the classroom and answered the questions together. I really enjoyed this experiment because it allowed the class to really interact with each other. I plan on doing experiments like this when I become a teacher because i think children would also enjoy the interaction and because this experiment allowed students to be active instead of just sitting at their desk!

D2L

On Tuesday, September 16 the physical science class discovered all of the benefits that desire to learn has to offer. Several of the students in class were confused on where certain things were located, how to submit assignments through dropbox, how to create a blog, and where to find future assignments. To solve this problem, Dr. E dedicated the first half hour of class to showing her students how to access all the things needed for physical science. I thought this was a very intelligent idea on Dr. E's part because numerous students had questions that needed to be answered in order to be successful in physical science. Coming from experience, i was very happy that Dr. E demonstrated to everyone where things could be found on D2L because otherwise i would have been lost for quite some time now. After Dr. E had answered everyone's questions, she decided to start an experiment called "Graphing Your Motion." Even though Dr. E had good intentions with starting the experiment, most of the students were not able to do the experiment because several of the LoggerPro's had run out of battery. Before leaving class Dr. E assured the class that when we came back on Thursday she would have all the glitches fixed so we could participate in the experiment. Even though i was upset that i was not able to do the experiment, i learned a valid lesson in class- things go wrong in the classroom and as a teacher you need to be prepared for it!

The Moving Man

The moving man was an experiment where the individual was able to click on a man and drag him back and forth across the screen in order to see where his position, acceleration, and velocity fell. To start off the experiment, the person doing the experiment could choose where he or she wanted him to start at and then that person could move him either forward, backward, or both ways for 20.0 seconds. When I first started the experiment the man was placed at zero meters so that is where I left him and then continued along with the experiment. I started to move him forward slowly and noticed that the acceleration graph moved twice as fast as the velocity graph which in return moved twice as fast as the position graph. I also observed that it if I was moving the man slow enough and going forward that acceleration showed up as negative which I thought was very odd. I always knew that if you move something backwards then the object will have negative acceleration but I did not know until the experiment that if an object moved slowly enough, acceleration would appear to be zero or negative. I also noticed that when the man is not moving, the acceleration, velocity, and position graphs all run straight across the screen until the man is in motion again. I found that no matter where I started the man on the position graph, the experiment was still very interesting to see how such small movements can affect position, velocity, and acceleration in such great amounts.

The Science of a Kiss

On Tuesday, September 9th the physical science class took part in a experiment revolving around a Hersey's kiss. This lab was very engaging due to the fact that the first thing we did was estimate if a rounded, stubby container or a skinny and tall container held more Hersey's kisses. In my lab group, we estimated that the rounded, stubby container held most Hersey's kisses than the tall container and come to find out, we were the only group that guessed that. All of the other groups hypothesized that the containers held the same number of kisses but my group spent a lot of time analyzing the two containers comparing them in every way we could to help us form a correct hypothesis. The lab was not only revolved around Hersey's kisses though, the lab was very useful in teaching the class the formulas for gravitational energy (GE= mgh), the formula for the kinetic energy of a moving object (KE= 1/2 mv^2), and also that the unit of energy is the joule (j). I was taught that information when i was in high school but it was very nice to have a refresher to remind me of those two things. The group finally participated in dropping the Hersey kiss from a height of 0.1 meter, 0.5 meter, and 1 meter and recording the results in order to find the gravitational potential energy. This lab was very interesting and i think it would be a good lab for elementary students because i think that the students would not only enjoy the lab because it deals with Hersey kisses but i also think the children would enjoy estimating to see which container fit more Hersey's kisses. This lab was great for those of us who are looking into becoming a science teacher!

Snowflakes Lab

On the first day of class, we were introduced to the criteria and then were provided with the experience of engaging in a snowflake lab. Each individual was set to a particular task, in which i was entitled to get the materials for the snowflake lab. I thought that by assigning each individual in the group a particular task on the first day that it showed structure. On days that we did do labs, each member of the group can be efficient on staying on task provided that they know what their job is in the group. I really enjoyed the snowflake lab but i did find it a little bit confusing. For certain parts of the directions it said to repeat that step a certain number of times which i thought could be pretty confusing for a second or third grader. Even though the lab was a bit confusing, it was also very enjoyable to see all the different shapes that individuals made their snowflakes. For the most part, the snowflakes were symmetrical and turned out, I only saw a few that were not symmetrical (including my own).