"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!