Classroom Update: February 2012
We are currently working on finishing up our unit on Motion by learning about Newton’s 3 Laws of Motion. We have explored inertia through a lab titled "The Magic Quarter Trick" were students were able to observe the 1stLaw of Motion at work. We also saw many examples of the law of motion in work on You Tube videos.
Currently we are learning about Newton’s 2ndLaw of Motion which states that "the acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the force applied to the object and inversely proportional to the mass of the object". Students were able to prove the above mathematically using the equation a = F/m in the classroom.
Back in the lab students will complete the "Marble Mania" Lab. In the lab students will be able to change the force applied to an object and see how it affects its acceleration rate. Then, they will be able to change the mass of the object and see the affects on its acceleration rate. By graphing their lab results students will be able to clearly see the relationship between acceleration and force as well as the relationship between acceleration and mass.
For the 3rd Law of Motion students will create Balloon Rockets to reinforce the concept of action/reaction pairs. This mini-lab is a great way to see the 3rd Law of Motion in action.
We will wrap up Chapter 10 with a Unit test before February vacation. Our next unit of study will be Energy.
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