Roller Coaster Project

After the success shown with the Zippy Fun project, your design team has been asked to design and build a roller coaster for a new amusement park. The owners of the new park want to build six amazing rides and are hoping that your design team can help them meet this goal.

This is a quick project since the owners want to begin as soon as possible. Today, we will discuss the schedule, expectations and criteria of the project. To get focused on the idea of roller coasters, take a few moments to look at this video of coasters at other amusement parks.

What is the first question that comes to your mind?




Upcoming Schedule:

• March 5 - Project Introduction / Design Teams / Initial Thoughts and Design 
• March 7 - PhET Simulation (Satellite Lab) - We will use a skate park simulation to think about roller coaster design.
• March 11 - Design / Build of roller coaster
• March 13 - Complete construction / Test
• March 15 - Final Results - Group Discussion (Write-up due next class)
• March 19 - TBD
• March 21 - Science Inquiry Data Collection Day

Key Vocabulary:

Project Criteria / Information

Each person on a design/build team has skills that are valuable to the group's success. The most successful groups are those who equally share the work and constantly communicate about design, challenges and ideas. For this project, each person will have a "job" that provides certain responsibilities in addition to making sure the project is successfully completed.

• Project Manager - This person's job is to make sure the group is constantly moving forward on the project. He/she is responsible for attending the daily project meeting, organizing the work of group members and making sure that each person on the team is constantly contributing. This person also makes a point to listen to the ideas of all members on the team.
• Construction Manager - This person's job is to make sure that the construction site is a safe environment to work in and that materials are properly used. At the end of each day, this person makes sure that the construction site is as cleaned up as possible.
• Operations Manager - This person's job is to make sure that the activities of the group are well documented on the Team Whiteboard. Someone should be able to quickly glance at the whiteboard to understand the team's design and progress. This person assists the project manager in making sure that each person has a job (on the whiteboard!) and that the project moves along. There is a due date!
• Technical Lead (Note: this job is spread out in 3-person groups) - This person's job is to make sure data is collected with as much precision as possible. Spreadsheets /Tables are used to record data and create graphs. This person coordinates data collection activities.

February Inquiry Day

By now, each group is fully in the data collection phase. Your procedures were finalized last semester so please stick with the steps you wrote. When you go into the field, you should have the following:

• Procedure - don't leave anything out!
• Data Tables - record your data as you collect it. Record your data directly into your data table. Each time numbers are transferred, there is a chance of making a mistake so please write directly into the table. This also allows you to have all of your "original" data in one place.
• Photo-taking device - How are you capturing the story? Collecting data in the field is more than just the numbers you measure. 
• An idea of the story you will tell - How will you present your data? What will be the story?
• Question/wonderings - Where are you recording this information?

Today's Goals

1. Collect data - by now your group should be able to get this done within 45 min - 1 hour
2. 1:15 - all groups back in the class
3. Update wall space
4. Update electronic data tables
5. Write-up today's story
6. Discuss data trends. What are you noticing about your data so far? Is your data supporting your hypothesis or not? What are you not so sure about? What else do you need to do?

Groups:

	Dr. Leaf
	Dust How does the quality of air change through out the year?
	JArs of light science
	Soiltologists
	The Owl Observers How Does The Water In The Pond Changes Throughout The Year
	The Pond
	The Raindrops How does the pH in rainwater change through out the year?

What is a force?

Since last class, you have read about forces (unbalanced and balanced) and different types of forces. Today, we will continue with our historical journey. What does Newton have to say about forces?

How can forces be measured? Using a spring scale...


What ideas is the creator of this music video trying to get across? Did it work?

Next Class: Inquiry Day!

Historical views of force and motion

Thanks to the students who are coming in to reassess! I appreciate your efforts. Please remember to schedule an appointment by filling out the form in the side-bar.

Today, we will begin with the question set we did not get to yesterday:

The remainder of the class will be dedicated to "meeting" three historical figures: Aristotle, Galileo, and Newton. What were there thoughts on force and motion?

For next class, please read pages 41-47 in your Motion and Forces text. Answer questions 1-6 on page 47.

Speed & Position Wrap-Up

Welcome back to AST! I hope everyone had an enjoyable break. Before you left, we took an assessment on concepts related to position and speed. Today, you will do the following tasks to get your mind thinking about these topics again:

Tasks:

1. Review the assessment with your group members. Discuss the strategies that each of you used to solve the problem. If you did not correctly answer a question, rework it on another sheet of paper. For each incorrect question:
1. Identify what was incorrect.
2. Describe why this was incorrect.
3. Correctly rework the problem.
2. On a whiteboard, create a diagram and a phrase that distinguishes between each set of ideas: (Note - please organize your whiteboard in a way that gives enough space for each of the 5 ideas.)
1. Interval of Time vs Instant of Time
2. Position vs Change in Position vs Distance
3. Position vs Speed
4. Average Speed vs Instantaneous Speed
5. Acceleration vs Speed
3. 
   

Source:Physics by Inquiry

Making sense of graphs

Today, you and your partner will analyze a series of graphs. What story does each graph tell?


You will receive 5 graphs similar to the one above. On an A3 paper, arrange the graphs. Describe the motion in each one:

• Is it constant? 
• Does it change? 
• Between each meter interval, where is the speed?
• What is the speed?

Dimensions

Not quite what we are discussing right now but check it out.