Today Josh Mason did a lab on Resonance that demonstrated that every object has a natural frequency. This activity reinforced the content discussed in the Waves unit my classes have been working on 3rd quarter.
The presentation captured the attention of all the sutdents. At the beginning of the period, Josh showed a stunning video of a bridge swinging at its natural frequency ,as a result of the force of wind. During the exporation phase of the activity, Josh used a very creative model of 3 buildings and measured there frequency when excited. The students were able to visualize the property of resonance. To summarize, students were able to
identify what factors increase or decrease the frequency of objects (mass, height). During the lab, students recorded data, made observations, predictions, and conclusions. The lab was a great activity and tied in perfectly with the curriculum.
Last week Josh Mason presented a great lab on Heat. He demonstrated the process of Heat Transfer through conduction. This lab was directly related to what I have been covering in the classroom and reinforced the concepts extremely well. The students were able to see how heat was transferred betweeen liquid nitrogen and aluminum. He did a demonstration which involved measuring, calculating, observing, inferring, and drawing a conclusion. In the end, the students were able to see how “Energy was Conserved” within a system. (Again a concept we have discussed in class). The students enjoyed the demonstration very much. They were fascinated by the liquid nitrogen smoking and bubbling which helped to keep them engaged throughout the experiment. They did get a little confused when entering the data onto the worksheet but overall the demonstration was a great success!
I have 3 classes that are involved in the GK-12 project: 2 college level and 1 honor’s level. The college classes are made up of approximately 25 students. The student body is heterogeneously grouped and diverse. There are a few SpEd students in each class as well as English Language Learners. My honor’s class consists of 30 students, also heterogeneously grouped and diverse.
The Science curriculum includes a variety of topics: Motion, Forces, Energy, Heat, Waves, Sound, Light, and Electromagnetism. I use a variety of resources and teaching strategies to teach the concepts. For example, I have had great success with Key 3 techniques and the John Collins approach. During the year, students do many hands- on lab activities to reinforce the content.The year is divided into 2 semesters and students are given the Science MCAS test in June.
On Thursday, November 18th, Josh Mason presented a great demonstration of the Conservation of Energy. With the use of a multimeter, thermometer, a calorimeter, a beaker of water and a lightbulb, he showed how electrical energy is converted into light and thermal energy. Students then calculated the amount of energy that was conserved. He also discussed the fact that some of the energy was transferred to the air. The students seemed very interested in the as they asked and answered questions during the lesson. They also were asked to take 2-column notes based on the lesson.
The lab Josh conducted is directly related to the Freshman Science curriculum. The students were asked to reflect on the experiment and write any questions they had. As I continue to discuss thermal energy and the conservation of energy, I will refer back to this experiment. It is great that the students were able to visualize this process. It will help them to understand this concept better. Thanks Josh!
Last week we wrapped up the 1st quarter and during that time Josh Mason introduced several good labs that were aligned with the unit “Motion and Forces”. One example was the lab on “Graphs: A Visual Representation of the Real World”. The students worked in teams to recreate a graph given to them. They used several science skills while conducting the investigation such as measuring, modeling, communicating, and analyzing. It was a very engaging lesson that reinforced the goals of the unit. There was a lot of positive feedback from the students and was evident in their journals. I will definitly use this lab in the future and share it with other Science teachers! Thanks Josh.
Eileen Montbleau
Uncategorized | emontbleau | 
April 12, 2011 2:14 pm | 
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