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Phy 201
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.
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2/3/13 at 10:41 PM
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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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We will do two series of collaborative lab activities in this class. In this series of labs we will be doing four different investigations. One time I will be the designer which will require me to come up with an idea for the lab and let other team members know how we are supposed to do the lab. Another time I will be the experimenter where I will following instructions to do the experiment and collect the data. Another time I will be the analyzer and analyze the data. The last thing I could do is be the interpreter where I will describe the results from the experiment.
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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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Idea 1: If you have a series of rubber bands chained together, how does the resistance put on them affect how a pulse travels through the rubber bands?
Idea 2: How does different weights on the end of a pendulum affect the frequency, amplitude, and period of a pendulum?
Idea 3: Will different round objects accelerate from rest down the same incline at different rates?
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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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My first idea is: If you have a series of rubber bands chained together, how does the resistance put on them affect how a pulse travels through the rubber bands? You could test this by attaching about 15ish rubber bands together and pulling it to different lengths to put resistance on the bands. Then you could pull the rubber bands out on one side and let it go to send a pulse through the rubber bands. You could time how long the pulse takes to go from one side to the other and back. You could also see how the waves of the pulse changes with resistance change.
For this you would need rubber bands. Something to attach the rubber bands or you might be able to just tie them together. You would also need something to time with and maybe a ruler.
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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 is: How does different weights on the end of a pendulum affect the frequency, amplitude, and period of a pendulum? To test this you could attach objects to the end of the string to make a pendulum. You could attach different objects or different amount of objects to the bottom of the string to change the weight. You would have to pull the pendulum to the same spot each time before letting do. Then you would look to see how the different weights change the frequency, amplitude, and period of a pendulum.
I think for this you would need a string. Then you could use different amounts of washers on the end of the string to change the weight of the pendulum. So you would probably need about 10ish washers to be able to change the weight a few times. You would also need something to time with and a ruler.
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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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My third idea is: Will different round objects accelerate from rest down the same incline at different rates? To test this you could use different round objects or the same type of round objects with different properties to roll down the incline. You could time how long it takes for the different objects to get to the end of the incline from a set position. Testing one at a time and sending them down the same incline.
To do this you would need something to make the incline like a book or a board. Anything long and smooth than you can set up with an incline will work. Then you would need different objects to allow to roll down the incline. Those objects could be like different size marbles or any ball with a smooth surface. You would also need something to time with and a ruler.
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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?
1 hour
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Very good ideas. I'll be following up by the end of the week with specifics.
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