The lights went out! Plus everything else electrical so my blog for Wednesday didn’t happen. Most significant part were the Year 8s who carried out an exercise around a simulation called skate park energy from PhET – linked previously. They had fun I think and also got the idea about the exchange between potential and kinetic energy and the way friction converts kinetic energy into heat.

10 B Science: Analysed the graphs we’d created with the iPads last time. Here’s an example. Very useful especially if the students take care on the original video. Unfortunately I couldn’t get the data sent across to graphical analyser as I can on my iPad – have to look into that. Next we worked on calculating the acceleration of their cars from the graph – it was a bit of a struggle for some although lots got their quite quickly. Finally we started analysing a car journey and have constructed a distance vs time graph and answered questions about it – velocity vs time and acceleration vs time to go.

10 F Science: I handed out graphs to those who had not managed to do the practical and record the motion of an accelerating vehicle. Anaylsed as a above to determine acceleration. The group needed a lot of one-to-one to do this task.

Stage 2 Physics tute: We did some exam questions around their completed topics of projectile and circular motion. Some they found very easy, others challenging. We examined the returned practical reports (I’ll try and write up a sort of expectations sheet for their next one to help a bit with the detail of what they should do). Answered a lot of the conceptual questions around satellites. Overall the understanding seems good although they are a bit wary of derivation type questions.

Just joined edublogs as a pro member as I used up my storage entitlement. I’ve signed up for a year so hope it’s worth it.

Stage 1 Physics: Didn’t quite get to where I was aiming today but I think I can catch up. We completed our Domino speed practical from Conceptual Physics with four whole data points (some of the class just couldn’t get those dominoes to stand up). Despite this the graphs showed a clear pattern that we were able to use to analyse the concept of speed. I reminded the class that we will do lots of practical tasks but they are learning tasks and they are expected to keep their findings and use them to understand the physics we are learning. To that end I showed a demonstration to get across the idea that acceleration is proportional to the change in speed and inversely proportional to the time taken to make that change in speed – used a few car analogies as well. Finally down to some heavy maths. I wanted to introduce the class to the equations of motion in one dimension and give them a bit of an insight into the idea of deriving equations. So we derived the equations of motion on the team board (I’ve saved the derivations in case I need to refer back to them in the future). It was interesting because the suggestions of the students led to the derivations by discussing what variables were present or not. I’ve also prepared an audio PDF file using live scribe and the digital pen (which I’m finally finding the time to use – I think you have to give people the technology at least a year in advance before you expect them to use it to get useful things out, but that might just be me). Stage 1 Physics soln hw 5

10 B Science: I started off with demonstrations to show the role of energy in creating or removing speed of a vehicle. Interesting start – the instructions for them to observe and note what they saw were on the board and I just carried out the demonstrations, lots of times each. Eventually they picked up on what they were supposed to do. I’ll have to do this sort of thing a bit more often to get them observing and thinking about what they are observing. We then went on to the acceleration practical (see 10F on Monday). The room was pretty crowded with pulleys and trolleys and falling masses as they recorded their videos and then went about analysing them. Quite a few got ahead of me when I was explaining how to use Video Physics to analyse motion which was pleasing. We got as far as everyone calculating the acceleration so I got to where I expected to be. This was their first use of video physics and I hope to get them to use it for lots of our motion analysis work including those we’ll do with bikes and watching cars on the road and their own crash tests. Look out for a challenging homework on Thursday – they’re going to have to do calculations at home, without me.

Stage 2 Chemistry tute: We reviewed techniques for carrying out titrations and the reasons for them – mostly reducing errors caused by dilution or transferring more moles than measured. We revisited trends across the periodic table and looked at equations for the acid/base nature of a range of oxides. We also worked on their most recent assignment. Quite productive all told.

10 B Science: Finished and submitted How Fast Is My Hot Wheels? We only really got two single lessons on this but despite this a number of the class got close to completing the second more advanced part where they had to organise an experiment to determine if the car’s speed changed over the journey. Because of the lack of time I marked kindly (or at least that’s my opinion). Read some home works that I’d set about recording a journey through the speeds involved. Didn’t quite get what I expected … I got stories where exciting things happened and speed was the theme. Better work on my clarity.

10 F Science: We looked at the road accident statistics, each pair taking a different analysis, finding the important dot points, and then sharing with the class. In the end I had to do a lot of the sharing part – they were reluctant to speak to each other (not the usual situation). Some of the students recorded lots of points from their viewing of the material and we had a lot of small group conversations about what they meant. We started the practical investigation in to acceleration Accelerating objects requires a force Prac. A few groups put in the effort to get started and used the iPads to record their tests. The app then produced graphs  they will be able to use to look at acceleration. The app is called Video Physics and while not perfect (have to be careful marking points so that the video of the motion doesn’t jump ahead) the end result is a lot more comprehensible than a ticker tape and the class didn’t get bogged down in the ticker tape analysis.

8 Science: In Wednesday’s lesson we investigated energy in a large variety of situations, today I got the students to come up to the white board in pairs or threes or individually for some brave ones and show and tell about one of the situations they’d investigated (one student go up and explained one even though she hadn’t been there on Wednesday!). The end of each presentation was to write on the interactive white board (so I could save it) the energy transformation diagram (e.g. electrical energy –> heat energy) for their demonstration. I had a problem for them to work out at the end about how to make a rocket balloon go faster but we only got started – still not used to 90 minute doubles. Collected the books to remark their practical design from earlier as I’d given them time to reflect and improve. Lots did improve their reports – I was able to give lots of generous marks. Some students chose not to use the time to improve theirs.

10F Science: Last lesson for “How Fast is My Hot Wheels”. A few students got on to the more complex second part to achieve slightly higher than a pass. Too many students didn’t attempt to complete the first part to get a passing grade. Still working on ways to get them motivated to learn and demonstrate their learning. I’ve got motion analysers on iPads booked for Monday. I’m going to have to be really strict about their use for the task.

Stage 1 Physics: Had to do some last minute chopping and changing here due to a lack of dominoes. So we did a range of things, a speed investigation using the dominoes. We only got three data points across the class – it was a struggle to get them to stand up and we’ll have to analyse them on Tuesday. We worked out how long space shuttle trips would take to various planets – using speed formula, discussing vectors again and using calculators with really big numbers (I think they’ve got the hang of it now). Students also did some noting around relativity – this is prior to next weeks homework which is to produce a monograph about this topic to present to the class.

10 B Science: Only one of our two lessons today due to the visit by the Prime Minister but we did get the first part of our investigation into speed completed . Completion of this part is at a C- grade level, just showing they understand speed, its units and methods to calculate. The next part is trickier as they will try to show how the speed of the car changes through its journey. We did a practice exercise last week which should give them some ideas. Home work this week is to describe a journey using the speed at different points.

10 F Science: We were listening to the Prime Minister.

Stage 2 Physics Tute: Reviewed the ideas about circular motion presented at SMAF. Used a couple of demonstrations to do this. Discussed what circular motion meant and the difference between centripetal force, causes circular motion, and centrifugal force, what you experience when something is trying to move you through a circle. Revisited the derivation of road banking and discussed examples and why banking was necessary. We also did a lot of the questions set for this week but there are still some to do which should be finished off for home work.

Yesterday was a staff conference day where we looked at differentiation and came up with some interesting tweeks on how we practice.

Stage 1 Physics – the tute time as three of our number are unable to attend this particular lesson. As we didn’t have a lesson yesterday we had to look at new material which I posted on edmodo for those who couldn’t be there. We looked at vector and scalar quantities particularly focusing on distance/displacement and speed/velocity. We examined some graphs of 1 D motion until we could identify clearly what was happening to the moving body in each case. We started to look at some of the questions I put up on edmodo and now can use the average velocity formula pretty convincingly and convert between km/h and m/s.

10 F Science – We got far more organised around our “how fast is my hotwheels’ investigation to the point where all present collected distance/time data and used it to find the speed of their car – averaging as usual to reduce the impact of random errors. There were also some weird and wonderful tracks created which weren’t quite part of what we were doing. Next part, after doing some analysis, is for students to work out a method of finding whether the car’s speed is constant after it leaves the track. We’ve already carried out a similar investigation with battery powered cars and I plan to scaffold carefully to allow them to be successful. Looks like we might miss tomorrow’s lesson due to our special assembly.

8 Science – We reviewed and added to the practical reports from the investigation carried out last Friday. About half the class produced good reports, the others were slapdash and didn’t follow the practice we’d done earlier. I had written detailed information for them about what they needed to do so when I pick them up on Friday I hope to see improvement. I’ll have to repeat this process a few times before they’ll regularly prepare quality reports. The rest of the lesson we investigated energy changes through a round of short investigations. We had a steam engine, a lemon, water turbine, solar panel, and hand generator producing electricity, creating heat and light and using them to create other forms of energy and we had vehicles converting potential energy into kinetic. Students answered some questions about the energy they saw at each investigation before moving on. Some had favourites and spent a long time at them. I had to keep moving so no photos. Their homework is to describe an energy conversion device at home.

Stage 2 Chemistry Tute – looking at electron configuration and its role in chemical and physical properties through a question paper from SMAF. Took a little while for my brain to get going this morning but we got there in the end. Looked at some of the students results for their practice titrations – apparently some used the undiluted HCl which led to very brief titrations. Also because we missed the tute last Thursday we looked at the Physics assignment about using 1D motion equations and discussed the practical report on projectile motion – this is a practice one but will give us a good idea of assessing intent on which to base our real assessment pieces. Students seem to be coping well so far.

10 B Science – Looking at a reason to study road science and how to use existing information by studying some road accident statistics for South Australia. They were like this Alcohol_-_Road_Crash_Fact_Sheet but each pair in the class had a different set of statistics. The task was to summarise in writing and then verbally to the whole class. Mostly the pairs just retold the facts rather than drawing conclusions – so I’ve got a way to go on this particular skill. The whole class was willing to be involved and spoke about their findings so no complaints about effort.

10 F Science – A very angry class for our double today and while I’m sure the temperature didn’t help I can’t quite pin down the reasons for the mood. We finished the practical from last lesson where I’d locked stepped the class through a measuring speed investigations by drawing graphs of their results, the lines showed clearly what I’d hoped for a constant speed (our battery driven cars). It took the first lesson of our double and lots of individual visits to each student as well as modelling on the board to get this done, there was obviously no rushing it so I took my time. Next we were going to do what I thought of as the fun part but it pretty much blew up in my face. It was a measuring speed practical they had to guide themselves through How fast is my hot wheels car revamp – the reason I’d done the previous practical so carefully with them – using car tracks and hot wheel cars. One group collected the data and had a bit of fun. Oh well back to the drawing board again, maybe they hadn’t slept well because of the hot weekend but I’ve got some issues to deal with on Wednesday.

Year 8 Science: Today was about applying the learning we’d been doing about working scientifically. The students designed an investigation and wrote an aim, hypothesis, equipment list, method and a way to collect their results, carried out the investigation, recorded their data and made a conclusion. Most groups made a good fist of deciding what to investigate and how to do it. Only a few managed to construct a complete practical report however so we’ve got a bit to work on next Wednesday before we get into our learning about energy.

Year 10 F Science: Today we looked at measuring speed as a starting point using toy cars and stopwatches (I have to follow up about the iPads and the app I want to use). The groups all managed to find the speed of their toy, collected sets of data and averaged them to reduce the impact of any errors. We have a bigger speed investigation to do on Monday where the students have to take more control over their methods.

Stage 1 Physics: Final part of our brief Astronomy unit. Poster presentations. Most chose electronic methods but also a few traditional ones. Students could choose what to present about their learning and there were lots of different topics. I’ve still got to look at them closely so I’ll post some examples next week. The class also had a speed task – 1 D motion is our next topic – but I provided no clues at first. Most worked out they needed distance and time and effectively measured them, a number of times to reduce the impact of errors – very pleasing. The majority needed prompting on how to calculate speed, which was okay as that’s where we’re going next. I now have an image of the result of our Kepler’s laws lesson.