Maggie Conrad's Elementary Science Methods Blog

  The big question addressed in the lab, and a description of what you did. A description of what you learned in Thursday's lecture. Answer questions about the weekly textbook reading: What did you learn? What was most helpful? What do you need more information on? What questions/concerns/comments do you have?        The question that we addressed in the lab was "How can we design a safe and durable playground surface?" Our challenge for this lab was to prevent an egg from breaking when dropped from a height of 1 meter. Our groups got to pick what materials we got to use. My group decided to use plastic wrap, sand, and straw. We started with the sand at the bottom of the bowl and then topped it with a heavier layer of straw. We then put the plastic wrap surrounding the top of the bowl. We then dropped the egg from 1 meter. The egg ended up bouncing out of the bowl and cracking. We looked at our video and noticed it hit a weird spot on the bowl too. We decided we...

  The big question addressed in the lab, and a description of what you did. A description of what you learned in Thursday's lecture. Answer questions about the weekly textbook reading: What did you learn? What was most helpful? What do you need more information on? What questions/concerns/comments do you have?   The big question that was addressed in the lab was "What affects how long it takes for a swing to go back and forth." We looked into this question by doing an experiment on whether a rider's position affects how fast a swing goes back and forth.  Our question was "Does the position of a rider affect how fast a swing goes back and forth in 10 swings."  Our hypothesis was "If a rider is leaning back they will swing faster, but they will not go back and forth as much as someone who is fitting straight up.  We used a string, washers, a small pencil lead container, and a binder clip. We tested our question by using the washer at different spots in th...

  The big question addressed in the lab, and a description of what you did. A description of what you learned in Thursday's lecture. Answer questions about the weekly textbook reading: What did you learn? What was most helpful? What do you need more information on? What questions/concerns/comments do you have?  In the lab this week, we did an experiment about how certain variables affect how fast you go down a slide. You could choose from the clothing you wear, the steepness, rider weight, rider height, surface, and rain or sunshine. You were to work in your group and choose one variable to test. My group chose to test the steepness of the slide.       Our question to figure out was, "Does the steepness of a slide affect how fast a rider goes down the slide?"      We did five different tests all at different steepnesses. The tests were done at 0.55 meters, 0.75 meters, 1.0 meters, 1.7 meters, and 2.1 meters. We laid the "slide" on each part o...

  The big question addressed in the lab, and a description of what you did. A description of what you learned in Thursday's lecture. Answer questions about the weekly textbook reading: What did you learn? What was most helpful? What do you need more information on? What questions/concerns/comments do you have?  The big question that we addressed in the lab was "How can we ensure that a race is exciting by having them finish at about the same time?"        My group discussed how we could model the race to make sure it was fun but also fair for each student. We decided having a one-legged race would be fun but also challenging for each student because it would be more difficult to jump on one leg compared to running normally. It could increase the chances of both students finishing around the same time. We created an 8-foot course and each started on one end. We wanted to compare our times to see how fast each one of us went to determine the head start t...