collaborative labs

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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.

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I'm not sure how this will work, but my biggest concern is that I will be on vacation and away from computers July 1-18. I don't want to be the weak link on a group project.

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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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There are two collabortive lab activities in this course. Four people work together on

the lab. There are four jobs: designer to create the experiment, experimenter to set

up and carry out the experiment, analyzer to analyze data collected the the

experimenter, and interpreter to tell what the results mean. You change jobs for each

activity.

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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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Do the period and frequency of a pendulum depend on its weight?

What is the affect of friction on the rotating straw?

When a marble accelerates down an incline, what is the affect of changing its size/mass?

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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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I would make a pendulum from string so that I could mark the length of the pendulum on

the string and make it uniform for all pendulums. I would find washers of varying

size/mass and compare the frequency and period of the cycles, keeping the length of the

pendulum the same. I think that I would also do this beside the edge of a table with a

ruler on it to see what happens with the length of the swing. Needed: string, 4

washers of varying sizes/masses, a meter stick or meter ruler. I would cut 4 pieces of

string, marking where they should be held and where the washer should be attached so

that they are as identical as possible. I would attach the washers and see if I could

get similar lengths on the swings of the pendulums first. Depending on what I find

there, I would time the frequency and period of the cycles, noting the range of the

swing.

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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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I would get 2 pieces of sandpaper, one very coarse and one very fine, as well as a piece

of wax paper. I would first count the rotations of the straw on the plain die. Then I

would cut a small piece of sandpaper and tape it to the die to repeat the test. I would

do the same with the second piece of sandpaper and the wax paper and compare the number

of rotations. It would be important to try to apply the same amount of force for each

trial. This would be difficult. Needed: 2 pieces of sandpaper, one coarse and one

very fine, wax paper, straw, tape.

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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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I would get some marbles that are small, medium, and large. I would create an incline

from wood. I would test the different sized marbles to see how quickly they went down

the incline and how far from the end of the incline they landed. I would place a meter

stick or ruler at the bottom of the incline to measure how far the marble was away from

the end of the incline when it landed. Needed: 3 sizes of marbles, wood piece to make

an incline, books to place at the bottom of the incline (1) and at the top of the

incline (2-3), meter stick or 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?

45 minutes

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Good ideas.

I'll be assigning and organizing these projects soon.

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