Emma's experiment(s)
As a workshop leader, I'm often asked for exemplar programmes of experimental work - a prefilled list of all the investigations my class engages with throughout the course. Well, we're up and running, and I'll try to record things here in real time. Wish me luck in this “experiment”! Go easy on me; these are SL classes.
DP1
- 25 August - running around outside with generic “objects” to provide length measurements (learning about distance, displacement, speed and velocity)
- 1 September - relationship between mass and volume for Play Doh (an example of the “scientific method” with a neat conclusion connecting to units)
- 3 September - relationship between distance and time for a body and direction of students' choice (using the skills from last lesson with our first concepts from A1)
- 8 September - introducing Algodoo (A1 practical: Motion of a cart) and PhET as offering different ways of modelling physics (Algodoo for DIY and “set your own conditions” experiments, and PhET if you want something built to recreate the equation)
- 10 September - using PhET's Moving Man to make graphs from set motion conditions and (for fun) playing detective with the record and playback function ("What motion led to this graph?")
- 22 September - projectile motion in the lab with students standing directly behind the path and under the path (to observe the two different dimensions' conditions), followed by video analysis on LoggerPro
DP2
- 27 August - investigating Newton's law of gravitation using PhET's Gravity Force Lab
- 3 September - investigating Kepler's laws using PhET's Gravity and Orbits simulation
- 8 September - there are some HL students in my SL-hours class, and I set them the activity on the photoelectric effect (which includes guidance on using the PhET simulation)
- 10 September - introducing the structure of the atom with PhET's Build an Atom and Rutherford Scattering experiment, and a lab gas discharge tube demonstration