Asynchronous Collaborative Investigations

These investigations are based on hands-on observations and collaborative analysis.

Materials for conducting these investigations will be mailed when the request is received by the instructor, according to instructions provided under Course Materials.

You will begin each investigation by setting up and observing a simple physical system and submitting your qualitative and quantitative observations.  Other students will be doing the same.

After the deadline for submitting observations, all submissions will be made available to all participants in a special portfolio page.

Participants will then analyze \observations using the tools and techniques developed in course assignments.  Every participant will analyze his or her own observations, and will be assigned to also analyze those of one other participant.  Results will be compared and discussion will ensue.

After another deadline all submitted work will be made available to everyone, and another round of discussion and analysis will follow.

Standards of etiquette, as previously defined, will be followed.  The instructor will mediate the exchange of information.

Discussion boards may at some point be opened, depending on the quality of interaction and the instructor's assessment of the potential benefit of doing so.

Third investigation:

Optimizing the horizontal range of a marble rolled down and incline before falling to the floor.

Complete instructions will be provided with your materials.

You will roll a marble down an incline whose lower end is at the edge of a table.  The marble will leave the incline and fall freely to the floor, where its landing position will be observed.

The slope of the incline will be varied gradually and the process repeated for each slope.

A table of the landing position vs. incline slope will be constructed, as will the corresponding graph.

Results will be analyzed and compared with theoretical expectations, based on optimization analysis.

Suspend

send materials

distribution of errors

flow expt

rubber band force vs. length, definition of energy, calculation of energy

marble down incline, optimization

pendulum period vs. length

rubber band chain supporting mass:  period vs. length of chain

kinetic or orbital simulation for PC users

sandpiles

etc.