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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.
** Collaborative Labs_labelMessages.txt **
6/17 6:15 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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There will be a team lab activity. Each person will have a specific job, designer, experimenter, analyzer, and interpreter.
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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.
Idea 1: Which things have more friction? Get a plain wooden board and put it on the ground. See if you can move the thing by blowing on it, or by pushing it just with one finger, or by pushing with one hand, or with your whole body, or even more than one person pushing. Try pushing a wooden block, a toy car, a scrubbing brush (on the bristles and on the wood side), an ice cube, a block wrapped in sandpaper, etc.
Idea 2: Will friction cause a glass to vibrate? Pour a generous amount of the dishwashing liquid to make a soapy water solution in a large pan. Wash the glass and your hands in the soapy solution and rinse thoroughly. Place the glass on the table. In a small bowl, pour just enough vinegar where you can dip your finger. Hold the base of the glass against the table with your left hand. Wet the index finger of your right hand with vinegar. Using your wet index finger, gently rub it around the rim of the glass.
Idea 3: Will a can roll back to its starting point? MATERIALS: cylindrical can with removable, opaque lid, rubber band, weight with hole though its center
A can is constructed with a rubber band strung between the center of its ends and a weight connected to the band so as to cause the band to wind up as the can rolls. The can comes to rest and then rolls back to where it started. The appearance is that the table is not level, but it can be rolled in either direction with the same result. It helps to rotate the can a turn or two before releasing it to compensate for the frictional losses as it rolls. This also allows the can to roll up a slight incline. One end of the can should be easily removable to reveal its contents and to explain its operation.
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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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One can choose one way to move different objects (blowing, pushing) then choose 4 or 5 objects to test. Measure the distance each object slides when force is added.
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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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This can be tested using 2 different glasses and various amounts of water.
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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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This idea can be tested by using different inclines. Begin with a level table, prop it up ½ in, then 1 inch and so on.
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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?
About 30 minutes.
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Very good. We'll be organizing these soon.
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