Noor's Science Methods Two Blog

  Week 7  Lab We began by discussing our homework on misconceptions. We talked about strandmap and the purpose of it, and how we can combat misconceptions. We then as a group created a model of the solar system with playdough. We calculated the numbers to try to ensure that they were to scale for distance and size. It was so interesting and shocking to see how far we had to place each planet. Our group had to go into the TLC to measure the distance and it was so surprising how far they were from each other. This was a great activity to use in the classroom to help children understand the distance between each planet.  This activity made all of the misconceptions of what we learned in elementary school seem crazy. The solar systems we would make in class on hangers were no where near accurate in size, or distance. This activity is a great alternative for children to see the accurate sizes and distances. Especially the distance between the sun and the planets.  The vid...

Week 6 How the phases of the moon occur? The reason we have moon phases is where the sunlight is hitting the moon.  What causes a lunar eclipse? A lunar eclipse is when you cannot see the moon, when the sun moon and earth perfectly line up and the moon is blocked out.  Solar Eclipse When the sun is blocked out, when we cannot see the sun. When the earth sun and moon all line up in orbit and we cannot see the sun.  What causes the seasons? The tilt of the earth is what causes the seasons. The orbit of the earth is almost a perfect circle. The earth is never at some point closest to the sun. We do NOT have summer because the earth is closest to the sun. When the northern hemisphere is tilted away from the sun. Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn: These lines pinpoint the direct sunlight. The longest day of the year is when the sun is directly hitting the tropic of cancer or the summer solstice.  Spring and Fall Equinox: When all of the direct sunlight is on the equator whi...

  Week 5 Big Question: How can we design a safe and durable playground surface?       A swing slows and stops from the energy lens because as the swing goes back and forth, the mass is hitting into air particles and creating thermal energy (Etherm), or friction. If the swing starts off with 10 units of energy and the motion goes down to 8 units, the two units of energy aren't lost, they are just transferred into the thermal energy which causes the air particles to move faster creating friction and causing the swing to slow.      The force lens on motion tells me I need a force to accelerate something, speed up slow down or change directions. The force of gravity pulls down, air drag points the opposite of velocity, the force from the rope is pulling in the direction the rope is pointed.  Forces come in equal pairs  (each acting on a different object) We then looked at what we do in science vs. engineering.  Science: Investigate phen...

  Week 4 Big Question: Main Takeaways on slide and gravity: Weight is how much gravity is pulling down on an object.  When thinking about how things fall weight matters. But air drag also has a huge effect. a crumpled piece of paper, and a loose crumple of paper fall at different rates but have the same mass. The tight crumpled piece of paper has less air drag than the loose paper.  Air drag can cancel almost all or most of gravity on the loose paper. The heavier an object is the longer it takes to slow down or speed up. Gravity does pull harder on objects with more mass, but adding air drag and the time it takes for heavier things to speed up and slow down cancels the forces and makes it even. A rider who weighs more will finish the slide at the same time as a light rider. Because the time it takes to speed up or slow down an object of greater mass, and air drag cancels out the competition. How can we support play that is exciting and not dangerous? What affects a riders...