#$&*
Phy 241
Your 'collaborative labs' report has been received. Scroll down through the document to see any comments I might have inserted, and my final comment at the end.
** Collaborative Labs_labelMessages.txt **
915pm 9/5/2012
** **
Copy this document into a word processor or text editor.
Follow the instructions, fill in your data and the results of your analysis in the given format.
Any answer you given should be accompanied by a concise explanation of how it was obtained.
To avoid losing your work, regularly save your document to your computer.
When you have completed your work:
Copy the document into a text editor (e.g., Notepad; but NOT into a word processor or html editor, e.g., NOT into Word or FrontPage).
Highlight the contents of the text editor, and copy and paste those contents into the indicated box at the end of this form.
Click the Submit button and save your form confirmation.
You will participate during the semester in two series of collaborative lab activities.
The first is designed to be relatively painless, and to begin to develop a degree of teamwork and collaboration.
These activities are designed for teams of four individuals, each with a specific function:
The designer will come up with the idea for the activity and will specify for other team members how the activity is to be conducted.
The experimenter will follow the designer's instructions to set up the experiment and collect data.
The analyzer will analyze the data.
The interpreter will describe what the results mean.
For each series of activities, you will participate in four different investigations, one as designer, another as experimenter, another as analyzer and another as interpreter.
As each investigation progresses, you will follow the work of your fellow team members.
Please summarize the above, as best you can, in your own words:
****
There will be a collaborative lab for four team members in this class. Two seperate labs. Each team member will have their own role.
#$&*
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.
****
Which of the Key Systems have the least amount of room for error and how do you improve accuracy?
What is the breaking point of certain materials, ie. paper, wood, metal.
When dropped from a certain height, does a flat plain piece of paper pick up speed?
#$&*
Discuss your first idea. How do you think it might be tested? What sort of items do you think might be required?
How do you think your idea might be tested?
****
The pendulum, marble, water, straw experiments can all be analyzed in figuring out which has the least amount of room for error. It would be tested
by stating the givens and constants, making assumptions, Establish, compare, anazlyze and define each set of labs, the way they are measured and how they
can be improved upon by removing human error and other factors.
#$&*
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?
****
Items to be used could be toothpicks, cardboard, styrofoam and find the point that the break under stress, whether it is temperature, pressure or force.
This idea can be tested by running each material through a standard of tests and ranking each material based on how it performed under the stresses.
#$&*
Discuss your third idea. How do you think it might be tested? What sort of items do you think might be required? How do you think your idea might be tested?
****
This lab would be tested very similar to the Hot Wheels Racer lab when finding the velocity of the racer as it raced down the length of a test book.
A timer, some stairs and a piece of paper is all that is needed. The controls would have to be worked out, for instance the stair well would have to be inside with no wind.
This idea can be tested by dropping a piece of paper down a stairwell, racing down the steps before the paper landed, being sure to time the entire event. In order to find if the paper picked up speed,
there would have to be a point in the middle where we can not only find the initial and final velocity, but this middle velocity as well.
#$&*
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?
20 minutes
#$&*
*#&!
@&
Great ideas.
You're working ahead of the rest of the class, but we'll come back to this when they get there.
*@