The best part about writing on a blog/website is the interaction with other educators. For example, I recently posted an investigation about rolling a marble toward an object and observing the path of the marble before and after it hit the object. The investigation models how scientists discovered the parts of an atom without being able to see them. You can see this investigation HERE.
Today I received an email from Amida, a homeschool mom who must love science as much as I do. The introduction definitely got my attention:
“Hey Janice,
Here’s how we played with your experiment. We wanted to actually see the path of the marble so we dipped it in paint.”
WOW! I was excited before I even read the ideas. I do so want kids to play and have fun with science.So, if you have ideas that will make my activities more “playful” please send them to me.
Enough of the chit-chat. Let’s see what fun ideas Amida has to share with us.
Below is the diagram that I used to illustrate the procedure for “shooting” a marble toward a found object. To the right is a photo with Amida’s idea. I used a ruler launcher and Amida used a paper tube that has been cut in half length-wise. I vote for using the tube.
The one change that I would make in Amida’s launching technique is to lower the tube so that one end touches the paper on which the marble will roll. If the marble drops from the end, some of the marbles energy is absorbed by the surface it hits.
Cut a notch in the side of the box so that the launcher is at an angle. –(The box is another one of Amida’s ideas as well as notching the box so that the tube-launcher is the same for every test. I love this idea.)
Amida said,” We used a tube because we can never find a ruler in this house. We also made a notch in the box to put the ramp to keep the starting point someone consistent. Place a sheet of paper in the box, plus your choice of object to hit. Dip marble in paint, roll it down the ramp, and it’s path will be recorded. We used different colors for comparison and wrote notes along the paths.”
“This was actually a lot of fun tweaking. The kids discovered the little marbles weren’t too effective because they didn’t ricochet off the object with enough force, so we got a bigger one. Then they thought they needed a control run, so rolled the marble without any target objects. We made a lot of runs and compared them (with notes next to the paths each time.)”
You are invited to “tweak” any and all of the investigation posted on this website. Notice that Amida points out that her children DISCOVERED that small marbles didn’t bounce off the objects very well. They solved this problem by using larger marbles.
This is everything that I want my investigations to be–instead of just being done and its over–Think!!! How can we make this investigation better?
Send your ideas to me, and I will share them with others. Send to: ASKVANCLEAVE@aol.com
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Chemistry For Every Kid |