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Phy 231
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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This is a collaborative lab activity with four participants. The four participants will take
on rolls of designer, experimenter, data analyzer, and experimenter.
As each experiment is in progress, each participant will follow the activities of the other
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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My first idea is a velocity / distance experiment which an object would be released from rest and timed to see how long it takes to hit the floor. This could be done from 3 different heights such as, a desk, the top of a persons head, and a door frame.
Since average velocity is Distance over time, the average velocity could be calculated for the three free fall positions.
The main point for the experiment would be to use free fall time to roughly calculate the distance down to a point of impact. It could be done with some kind of bell or noise maker to signal the end of an interval. The results would be given in meters and feet to make the experiment relate-able.
A second idea again would involve average velocity. It would be a short video perhaps on youtube with my small dog covering a measurable distance of say 50 yards or 20 meters.
My Dog plays fetch pretty good with a chuck it launcher, and I could take her to a football field and launch the ball and the student could time how long it takes the dog to cover a distance of 20, 30, or 50 yards.
She runs at a good clip, and the launcher easily propels the ball at least 80 yards.
Perhaps conversions could be included in the experiment.
A third idea could be based on a pendulum. A small pin tack, a paper clip, and a string with heavy object could be constructed. The line could be taught or stretched and released at a 90 degree angle.
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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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An object would be released from rest and timed to see how long it takes to hit the floor.
This could be done from 3 different heights such as, a desk, the top of a persons head, and a door frame.
Items needed could be a dollar store bell, a timer accurate up to 2 decimal places, and a measuring tape. Perhaps a conversion table could be given, with inches = cm, and feet = meters.
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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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My second idea would be analyzing a short video of a dog running at full speed fetching a ball. There would be 3 markers on the video at different distances, and the student could find average velocity between the furthest marker and start point, the second marker and the start point, the first marker and the start point.
all is needed is a computer with internet connection, and a timer program.
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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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Third idea is a pendulum and it could be seen how many oscillations from different lengths
could occur from a 90 degree angle. Lets say four different lengths with two measurements
each, one would be counting the number of periods that pass until the pendulum gets close to
equilibrium. The second could be a measurement of time for the same conditions.
Materials needed could be a door frame, dental floss or string, a mass of some sort, a push
pin and clip, and a timer of some sort.
Graphs could be constructed analyzing frequency, and period length.
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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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Thanks. Your ideas look good.
I'll get back to you soon on the collaborative labs, after receiving a few more responses.
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