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Phy 121
Your 'collaborative labs' report has been received. Scroll down through the document to see any comments I might have inserted, and my final comment at the end.
** Collaborative Labs_labelMessages.txt **
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You will participate during the semester in two series of collaborative lab activities.
The first is designed to be relatively painless, and to begin to develop a degree of teamwork and collaboration.
These activities are designed for teams of four individuals, each with a specific function:
• The designer will come up with the idea for the activity and will specify for other team members how the activity is to be conducted.
• The experimenter will follow the designer's instructions to set up the experiment and collect data.
• The analyzer will analyze the data.
• The interpreter will describe what the results mean.
For each series of activities, you will participate in four different investigations, one as designer, another as experimenter, another as analyzer and another as interpreter.
As each investigation progresses, you will follow the work of your fellow team members.
Please summarize the above, as best you can, in your own words:
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For this lab, we will be working in a group of 4 people. There will be a designer, an experimenter, an analyzer, and an interpreter. I will participate in 4 different rounds of investigations and stay working with the same team members.
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The first series of activities will be spread out over the first half of the semester, the second series over the second half of the semester.
The first series will be based on systems you have seen in the Key Systems videos.
You will begin by describing at least three ideas for investigations related to the Key Systems videos. Valid ideas will ultimately be developed proposals, each of which will describe a question that could be investigated and tested using simple materials such as those seen in the videos. You will eventually develop three proposals, one of which will be chosen for an investigation. You will be the designer for that investigation.
At this point we're just beginning to explore ideas for the first series of investigations. Your instructor will work with you to further develop your ideas, and perhaps to explore other related possibilities.
Right now you don't have a wide variety of experimental techniques available to you, so this first series of investigations will be relatively simple.
List below three ideas for things you think might be fairly easy to test, based on the systems you have seen so far.
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I1: Will different types of round shaped objects have the different rates of acceleration and deceleration at the same incline level?
I2: How does the weight on the string of the pendulum alter the total number of oscillations?
I3:How will rubber band elasticity alter the resulting pulses throughout the chain of bands?
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Discuss your first idea. How do you think it might be tested? What sort of items do you think might be required? How do you think your idea might be tested?
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You would gather 3 different types of round objects, a smooth incline to roll the objects on, a timer, and a ruler to measure the distance traveled. You could time how long it took to get from one end of the book to the middle, or to the end. Then follow that procedure for the other 2 objects.
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Discuss your second idea. How do you think it might be tested? What sort of items do you think might be required? How do you think your idea might be tested?
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Make sure to keep everything constant except for the change in weights on the pendulum string. You could put a washer on one, a paper clip on another, and a magnet on the third one. You could then set a specific time to count up the oscillations. For example: 2 minutes, and then you could count how many oscillations occurred in those 2 min and compare the results to the other two.
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Discuss your third idea. How do you think it might be tested? What sort of items do you think might be required? How do you think your idea might be tested?
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You could put together a chain of about 6 rubber bands and pull them at different lengths for three trials. You could stretch the chain for 3 separate lengths, 12 cm, 24 cm, then 36 cm. You are able to test the effect of elasticity on the number of pulses before the chain stops moving.
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Your instructor is trying to gauge the typical time spent by students on these activities. Please answer the following question as accurately as you can, understanding that your answer will be used only for the stated purpose and has no bearing on your grades:
• Approximately how long did it take you to complete this activity?
45 minutes
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Very good. All excellent ideas with clear experimental design.
I'll be getting back to everyone as soon as I receive a sufficient number of replies.
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