Over the last 500 years humans have gone from seeing a man in the moon to seeing a man on the moon. This phenomenal advance in collective learning has taken place thanks in large part to a group of strategies which have come to be referred to as The Scientific Method. If humankind has made so much progress by using the Scientific Method, then why not teach all our children to use it at an early age rather than waiting until high school or college to teach a few who are fast-tracked into science and technology careers. If we have made this much progress with a few humans using these strategies, then what will our collective learning curve look like if we are all trained to make science discoveries and/or to appreciate the discoveries of others?

Sunday, March 16, 2008

IT'S A DRAG

PROBLEM: How does shape affect the time it takes for a piece of clay to fall through a fluid?

VOCABULARY: Gravity, Buoyancy, Drag,

MATERIALS: P 11 of 2005 8th grade exam
http://www.nysedregents.org/testing/sciei/ils605.pdf

1 liter graduated cylinder
4 pieces of clay of equal mass but different shapes
1 gallon bottle of detergent


OPENING:
1. The teacher presents the definitions of the words Gravity--force that attracts all things to the center of the Earth, Buoyancy-- the upward force on an object produced by the surrounding fluid; Drag--the force that resists the movement of a solid object through a fluid. Listening Groups copy the words and definitions into their journals.
2. Students in the Presentation Group present their Problem to the Listening Groups.
3. Each student in the class writes the problem in his/her science journal and then states a hypothesis to answer the problem.
4. Students in Listening Groups identify and write in their journal
Independent Variable: Shape
Dependent Variable: Rate of fall
Constants: Mass, Detergent,

GROUP WORK

1. The Presentation Group drops the shapes into the graduated cylinder and writes the times it takes for the shapes to fall through the detergent.

SHARE

1. The Presentation Group shares their hypothesis with the Listening Groups and states their conclusion.
2. The Presentation Group shares their sources of error.
3. The Listening Group asks questions.
4. The teacher and Presentation Group ellicit the explanation of the results using the Template
Vocabulary Word-Definition-Application.

5. All Students answer related review questions taken from the New York State 8th Grade Science Exam

HW: Write your own exam question using the concepts presented today.
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