Lab Write Up

Sorry to get to this so late, but here is the bit about formal labs mentioned earlier in class. It's not a perfect lab or anything, but it gets the point across. Your main goal in writing a lab report is to explain the relationship between our experience and our interpretation when we do an experiment. Treat it as though you were explaining it to a mystical magical person known as "the reader." This fellow isn't the brightest chap, and he gets distracted and bored easily. Keep him entertained by focusing all of your sentences and writing to prove a point or show him something important to the overall purpose. Treat him as though he knows nothing about mechanics unless you've explained it earlier in your MLB.

HOW TO WRITE UP A FORMAL LAB – Instructions and Sample


Note: This is an oversimplified example, designed to just communicate the basic idea. Your lab write-ups will be more detailed and will included drawings as well.

When creating an entry for your Main Lesson Book that is required to be in ‘Lab Write-Up Format’ you will need to include the following aspects:
Title
Introduction (purpose, original observations/question, and hypothesis if applicable)
Materials
Procedure
Observations and Data
Analysis
Conclusions

Note: I am not rigid on the order of these things, because I am more interested in seeing you explain what you did and with what materials, and then moving from what you saw towards understanding it through laws. Many labs read more intelligibly if your procedure section and you observation section bleed together.

I will be working together with you throughout the block trying to work with your scientific writing..


Title
Usually the title is given in class, otherwise make one up that succinctly describes the experiment.

EX. Banana Slip Experiment


Introduction
State in a sentence or two the overall purpose of the experiment. Include any background information that would help someone to understand the context surrounding the experiment.
The question to answer is: “Why are you doing this particular experiment?” and “What are the primary phenomena you are trying to explore?” Document any original observations that give rise to these questions.
State your hypothesis (if applicable) that you are trying to test. Sometimes you don’t have an explicit hypothesis and you are just performing a particular procedure to ‘see what happens’.

EX. This experiment is designed to test whether or not a passer-by will slip on some banana peels placed on a slick tile floor.




Materials
List all materials used, and any pertinent information about the materials as well.
The question here is: “What are the things involved in the experiment?”

EX. 1 long hallway with 90° turn. Tiled.
5 banana peels, fresh
1 unsuspecting passer-by


Procedure
Explain how the materials are set up in relation to each other, and what you did with the materials so that any other reasonably intelligent person could fully re-create your experiment. Include a drawing of the setup. DO NOT tell “what happened” when you performed the experiment, just explain how it was set up and the steps needed to run the experiment. “What happened” goes in section 3, observations.
The question is: “How are the materials set up in relation to each other?” and “What did you actually do with the materials?”



EX. The banana peels were placed in the middle of the tiled floor just around the corner of the hallway, making sure to keep as much of the inside of the peel in contact with the ground as possible. I then waited until an unsuspecting passer-by walked down the hallway and made contact with the banana peels, and observed what happened.


Observations and Data
State exactly “what happened” when the experiment was performed. Tell only what you observed with your senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch, etc). If you have direct technical data (measurements), please record the data in a table that is clearly labeled. Include drawings (with labels) and graphs (with labels) if they help communicate the facts.



EX. At 5:02pm a passer-by started walking down the hall. The person turned the corner and stepped on one of the banana peels. The person slipped a little but quickly regained balance, and immediately noticed me observing nearby. The person approached and glared at me, then walked off. The banana peels left sticky trails on the tile where they had been stepped on.


Analysis
Here is where you can “interpret” and explain your results. Include any ideas on why you observed what you did, and any ways you could improve the experiment by noting sources of error. In particular, include any unexpected, unusual, or important aspects, as well as reasons why your hypothesis was or was not accurate. This section will be based primarily on in-class discussion carried out on the following day, and you should include much of the in-class discussion in your own lab write-up.



EX. The person slipped a little because when trying to move forward while stepping on the banana peels, they could not gain much traction. This happened because the banana peels reduced the friction between the peel and the floor, so that instead of remaining in one place, the peel slid across the floor in a direction opposite to the direction in which the person was trying to move. Because the person had two legs, it was possible for the person to stabilize himself with his other leg. Additionally, the person seemed to suspect that I had purposefully placed the peels there, and gave me a dirty look. I think I could have made the slip-factor increase if I had let the peels sit for a few days, to get more mushy. I could also use many more peels, perhaps getting the person to step on one with each foot. One source of error was that the walking speed of the person could not be controlled. I suspect that the faster they walk, the more likely it is that they will slip.


Conclusion
Here is where you sum up the major conclusion of the whole lab in one or two sentences. In other words, state here the most important thing that we learned.
EX. The banana peels did not make the person fall, but the banana peel did cause some slipping to occur.

Here's a few cool videos related to gravity and tomorrow. The last one is the best. The teachertube ones have commercials in front of them which sucks.

http://www.bharatstudent.com/ctv/watchvideo.php?vid=kfbqpchoogim

http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=52258

http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=41342&title=Hammer_and_Feather_Drop_on_Moon

Question:

Teacher forgot to write down how far the roof was from the ground? I think it was 28 feet but am not sure. Does anyone have the right number?

Welcome!! (and syllabus)

Hiya 10th graders!

This is still mostly an experiment. It was suggested today that I didn't post that many things of interest on my last blog and I'm trying to think of how to make it more useful, so in addition to posting homeworks and handouts to print at your leisure (If i can make google docs work with it I probably won't give y'all handouts but will just post them on the blog so they can be printed directly on MLB paper and save some paper) I'll try to post random links to junk I get interested in that's related as things go along and hopefully it will entertain and be at least somewhat educational. If anyone has an idea of what else I could do to make it better, they should let me know. For starters I might try to write a few notes here about a classroom discussion, or answer questions I don't know the answers to in class.

I'm looking forward to working with you guys again and hopefully we can have some fun as well as learn a little. Don't be afraid to leave comments on a post and I'll respond as quickly as possible.

The writeup at the beginning of this syllabus is different than the one I handed you because I edited it at the school. The two are close enough, but treat the one I handed out as the official one. Here's this syllabus:

Bertrand Russell suggested that every high school student should have a course on the history of science. He said so because in the span of three generations, from Kepler to Newton, modern science was birthed (Copernicus was of the 16th century, but mattered little until these men), and few periods in history have had such profound influence over thought. In this block we will look at the lives and ideas of some of the great western thinkers and use modern mathematics and equations to help us to understand them. The main lesson book will consist of a variety of essays, lab write ups as well as several handouts which will be given to students throughout the block. We will spend a couple days building bridges to more practically see how force vectors can be spread out so that apparently weak objects can hold large amounts of weights. Participation in class discussions and experiments as well as creative thinking will be imperative. Below is a list of things we will study, and most will be covered in our MLBs by handouts, essays or lab write-ups. We will discuss all changes to this syllabus in class. Feel free to contact me at any time by phone, text or email at either (303)881-5865 or jjspottsfox@gmail.com.
Grading Guidelines:
Main Lesson Book: 40%
Homework (lab write-ups, essays and problems): 25%
Class Participation: 15%
Quizzes and Tests: 20%

Aristotelian Physics:
- Naturel
- Force and the velocity of earthbound objects
- The chaotic earth and the perfection of the celestial spheres or Physics, Astronomy and Mathematics
The Scientific Revolution:
- Galileo: his life and times
- Conceptualizing inertia
- Force proportional to acceleration
- Measuring force i.e. vectors
- Gravitational acceleration
- Projectile motion
- Force as vectors
- Breaking down and constructing vectors

Bridges and Architecture:

- Designing bridges
- Structure and force points
- Building

The Physics of Astronomy
- Ptolemy
- Copernicus
- Uniform velocity in circular rotation
- Kepler’s laws
- Newton and his rules for scientific thought
- The inverse square law

The World According to Mathematics
- Force over distance i.e. work
- Energy
- The conservation of energy
- Momentum