For the experiment this week, I decided to select the following easily assessable materials to act as covers for my glasses: saran wrap, aluminum foil, copy paper, and a piece of wool. I believe that of these materials, the saran wrap and the aluminum foil will be the best insulators. Despite this, I must also note my suspicions that all of the materials have some amount of insulating properties and as such the amount of heat loss from the different materials may be insignificant.   As I began to collect the items needed to complete this lab, I ran into one MAJOR problem, I did not have any mugs. In my house, no one drinks hot beverages; as a result, there were no mugs available. I asked several of my neighbors, only to receive similar responses, so I substituted the mugs for identical glasses. Next, I selected 5 identical glasses, four for the experiment and one to act as the control. To ensure that each cup received water at a constant temperature, a hot plate was used to warm up the water to 140° Fahrenheit. I poured 6 ounces of water in each cup, and I wrapped the top of each cup in one of the cover materials, the control glass was left without any cover. After thirty minutes, I came back, and I measured the temperature of all of the glasses again, and the results were quite interesting. In my original hypothesis, I suggested that the saran wrap and the aluminum foil would provide the best results. I also suggested that the temperature difference found using the different materials might be insignificant. The results from my lab showed that all the materials that I used provided the same amount of insulating properties. In the original temperature reading all of the glasses received water that was 140°F, at the conclusion of the thirty minutes, all of the glass had a temperature of 90° F. The only glass, which had a different temperature, was the control glass; in this glass, the water had a temperature of 80°F.  In the end all of the materials I selected seemed to be great insulators.

Materials	No cover	Plastic	Aluminum	Wool	Paper
Original Temp.	140°F	140°F	140°F	140°F	140°F
Final Temp.	80°F	90°F	90°F	90°F	90°F

How might you set up this or a similar experiment for students in your classroom? How could you make this experiment more fun, interesting, or engaging for your students? How might you design this experiment so that it is relevant to students’ lives?

In my classroom, I would set this experiment up like it was a cooking contest.  Students would be placed in groups and then they select one representative who would come up to the front who selected the materials they would test.  The selection process would be timed and the students would also be timed as they completed this exploration.  To make this experiment more fun and engaging I would take a student poll on materials and objects they would like to test.  I believe allowing students to select the materials they would like to test is one way that I could design the experiment so that it could show relevance in my student’s lives. 

 

Marble Madness

For my guided inquiry experiment I look at the effect a larger object will have as it collides with a smaller object.  To perform this experiment I used a juice carton (cut open), meter stick, large marble, small marble, tape, plastic roofing joint, and four text book.  

Procedures:

1- Constructed a raised ramp using the plastic roofing joint and the four textbooks.

2 - Place the smaller marble in the juice box and I placed it at the bottom of the ramp.

3- Tape the meter stick so that it is even with the end of the juice box

4- Release the larger marble from the top of the ramp.

5- Use the meter stick to measure how far the smaller marble traveled.

* 6- Repeat experiment at different heights. (Extension activities)

*7- Switch the placement of the marbles. Place the larger marble (Extension activities)

Results: 

My experiment showed that the larger marble would move the smaller marble. Regardless of the height of the books, the larger marble was able to move the smaller marble.  I was not surprised by the results because I had already covered these concepts with my students and we had done several labs on Newton’s Laws.

For the most part this experiment went very well, the only problem I encountered was trying to come up with something to keep the marble from going all over the floor.  When I first tried this experiment in my classroom he marble went across the room and I imagined 8 groups of students chasing their marbles and colliding with each other (not a good look).  Thus, I decided to use the old juice cartons that the students get with breakfast.  I went dumpster diving, cut the top off the box, and used it as the marble holder.  Using this allowed contain the marbles movement.  In constructing this holder I was worried about its affect on the experiment, but in the end everything work out well.

To get a modified result for this experiment I would allow the students to vary the height of the ramp, switch the placement of the marbles, and use other materials.  Allowing them discover how different material will react during this experiment is a great way to help them understand the underlying concepts. 

Since I did set this experiment up in my classroom (thinking of next year), I would rearrange my room so that I had a large open space in the middle of the room.   I would ask the students the guiding question and I would provide them with some basic materials to guide their lab.  To make this experiment more engaging and fun I might allow them to decorate their milk cartons and I would allow them decorate their smaller ball (maybe a Ping-Pong ball).  A neat way to engage students in this activity would be to have students do a gallery walk that depicts different pictures of objects colliding.  This activity could be used to activate students interest and as a way to gauge their previous knowledge.  Another way that this activity could be made relevant to students might be to tie it into sports (football) and have them look at the how force and motion effect football players.  Students could also extend this by looking at ways to reduce the opposing force, or they could look up how the forces that act on football players affect their lives after they retire from the game.   

From this experiment , I would hope that students would recognize how mass affects an object s acceleration, and I would hope that that would see that for every force there is an equal but, opposite reaction.  I believe that this experiment provides students with a great hands-on way to see both of those laws.  This experiment also will help students experience Newton’s first law.  This is the law of inertia which states that objects will want to resist change unless an unbalanced force acts upon it.