Inertia

Inertia activity: pull the cloth from under the dishes (and, yes, they will break!)

Constuction

Students were pretty inventive on ATV and racer design. Check it out.

Rubberband Cars

This is a picture of the rubberband all terrain vehicle course; a flat surface leading to a water hazard that leads to a rocky slope and then to a slick surface slope.

Oops, My Bad!

Please disregard the dates on the photos--I forgot to reset the date on my camera when I switched the batteries.

Cause and Effect

I am including a photo taken during class that shows the basic set-up of the class room with 3 of the 6 lab stations on the perimeter in use. Currently, we only have 3 sets of equipment, but we hope to have the funds to purchase 5 more. I would like to get a grant for flip cameras so that students can film their experiments for posting.

Experimental techniques

Today students used the timers, photogates, cars, weights and ramps to determine and modify the variables in a self designed experiment. Students varied the slope of their ramps, added weights to their cars, varied the distance between photogates, and practiced different release techniques. The class then established degree of slope as their independent variable, and made all other variables constant.

Time Flies Like an Arrow

...and fruit flies like a banana (OK, it's an old joke, but I'm a geezer).

Today we learned to use the CPO digital timers and photo gates. Students learned how to operate a single photogate and tandem photogates. The students discovered that an object must be large enough to completely sever the photobeam in order to start or stop the interval clock.