AND WHY ARE WE DROPPING SPOONS AND PENCILS AGAIN???
Along with looking at the speed of an average 8th grader this week, we are also heading to no place else, but the football field! On the football field, you and your groups will be determining the rate of ACCELERATION (new big word, huh?). Acceleration is basically the speeding up, slowing down and/or changing direction of an object in motion. For the acceleration lab, you (or a group member) will be walking/running/sprinting for 30 seconds and every two seconds you will drop a spoon, pencil, or eraser to mark your distance traveled. When you complete your path, you will measure how far your travelled between each marker. To know your acceleration, you can find the speeds between each dropped spoon or pencil to know if you had sped up or slowed down at particular points in your trip. Here are some pictures from this activity!
Last week we looked at finding the speed of a variety of cars speeding down a path. We built a wheel of calculation in our notebooks and then used it as a tool to calculate the speed of the cars on their pathway. We became experts in recording data as well as creating a graph to display the data from the cars.
This week, we are determining the average speed of an 8th grader, again practicing the measurements distance and time, to then calculate speed.
Students determined a set course length to find the speed of a person demonstrating 4 methods of travel to the finish line. Students then timed that person in each trial and found an average speed for 4 methods of travel (walking, running, hopping, crab walk, cartwheels, etc.)
Students used metric measurement for this distance measurement and had to pay close attention to units and converting between centimeters and meters. Also this week, students demonstrated their understanding of the 3 units of metric measurement: meters, liters, and grams. They converted numbers from kilometers to meters, centigrams to kilograms, and even, milliliters to liters.
Entries into the table of contents for this week include:
9/20-21 Metric Notes
9/20-21 Average 8th Graders’ Speed Lab
Students will finish this week by using what they have learned to complete their motion graph. Also, students will have their first quiz over motion and the scientific process and problem-solving.