In Class Activity Plan

Week six: Becoming Quantitative with Energy

120 min           Investigating Energy Conservation (Word, Pdf)

PURPOSE: Introduce equations for E_g and E_k, opportunity to design experiment

Teaching Notes:

o You should whiteboard after the first page (making pie charts).

- Goals here will be to push them towards the answers to the questions on page 2.

- Suggest energy at the top should be proportional to both mass and height.

o For many students this will be the first time they have ever had to design their own experiment. So this lab will both take a long time, and be difficult for some students.

- The proposal must have a model associated with it, and must identify what measures are going to be made and how the data is going to be analyzed.

- Also, the teacher must be very good at evaluating experiments on the fly. They may think of things that would work, but we haven’t thought of before.

o Possible experiments:

-  Drop the ball from different heights and record the speed at the bottom. They can then make a graph of E_Ig and E_k and get a linear fit.

- Also a possibility of rolling things on rails and measuring speeds.

20min              Whiteboard – Investigating Energy Conservation

PURPOSE: Share experimental designs and results for equations for E_g and E_k

            Video Example: (Whiteboarding)

1) What did you learn?

2) What rules can you make?

3) What questions do you still have?

45min              Board Meeting

PURPOSE: Compare experimental designs and results for E_g and E_k, reach consensus about how to calculate Energies.

Video Examples: (Discussion1, Discussion2, Discussion3)

o Need to define system (Schema)

o Use pie charts to help you determine what needs to be measured

o Strategy 1

- E_Igo – E_Igf

- Plot E_k vs. v

- Fit a curve in Excel

o Strategy 2

- E_Igo = ma_gh

- E_kf = m (Dv/Dt)( ½a_g(Dt²))

- E_kf = m (Dv/Dt)( ½(Dv/Dt)(Dt²))

- E_k = ½mv²

- Must be supported by data!

o Energy Pie Charts are a representation of the Equation of Everything (energy conservation)

20 min             Whiteboard - 1-d problem using both kinematics and energy conservation

PURPOSE: Compare and contrast strategies for making calculations on constant a model using kinematics and energy;

Problem:

                        Cubs fan throws his hat straight into the air at 7m/s.

10 min             Board Meeting

PURPOSE: Show how basic constant a models obey energy conservation and give same results.

                        Emphasize energy as an easy approach that works well in some situations.       

60 min             Whiteboard - Redo 2-d problems they’ve already done now using energy &/or additional problems

Energy Pie Chart Problems (Word, Pdf)

                        Energy Problems for Practice (Word, Pdf)

Video Examples: (Whiteboarding, Discussion)

Note: These are often done, but not discussed in a board meeting since they have done them previously.