science methods 2

  This week in the lab we focused on energy. We talked about swings more but more so the energy used when the swing moves back and forth. We also looked at and used a pendulum simulation which helped me better understand how energy affects a swing motion. As groups, we then completed an egg activity. During the activity, we were given an egg and a bowl of different materials such as straw, sand, and tar chips. We then had to choose one material. We wanted to add our bowl to protect the egg from a drop. During the first trial, my group chose straw and tar chips, which kept the egg safe. During the second trial, we added sand to it and then dropped the egg from 2 m. The material we chose did not break the egg. One thing that we did notice is that a lot of the materials within the bowels fell out after the egg dropped. We then learned that this is because of the energy transfer between the items.  This week we took our first exam so we didn’t have a normal lecture. Instead, we we...

  9/22 Lab:  During  this week similar to the week before we tested out different variables and their effects that they have on swings. My group decided to test out whether or not wait has an effect on a writer's swing ability. And similarly to our last trial of weight and slides, we concluded that there is not a big connection between a writer’s weight and how many times the swing goes back-and-forth or how fast it goes back-and-forth. One thing that I found difficult during this week's lab was figuring out how to test out whether or not wait really affects the swing. This week in class, we began to focus on new playground equipment, which is the swing. We also began to discuss force in a different effect It has on objects. More specifically we talked about doing first the second law and how they relate to and explain force. During lecture, we also discuss the effects of gravity and what it has on a rider during sliding, but more specifically swinging this week. For exam...

9/14 Lab: This week in the lab as a class, we talked about different aspects that affect a rider's speed down a slide. Some of the things we talked about in class involved someone’s clothes, the height of the slide and more. We then worked with our table groups to come up with our own questions and then to answer them. My group's question was how does weight affect the speed of a writer? We used film canisters with different amounts of sand in them, so they each had a different weight and then did multiple trials to test how fast each weight took to get to the end of the “slide”. Our findings concluded that as the weight of a rider increases, the speed of the writer increases then stays relatively stable.  During Thursday's lecture, we talked about forces. More specifically we talked about what the force is in different aspects that affect forces. For example, we talked about how a force is a push or a pole and how a force is required for objects to speed up, slow down or c...