Week 1- Why Should We Learn Science?

 


 Week 1- Why Learn Science?

Big Q of the Week:

This week during lab we looked at two different "big questions". We started our discussion with, why should we learn science? Our table discussed that science covers a variety of topics and involves many areas of schooling. Through science we read, write, problem solve, conduct mathematical equations, create and test hypotheses, collaborate with others, etc. During science, students are feeding their curiosity, asking questions and creating solutions, and discovering the world around them. Science is not only essential to school, but also allows students to study real life experiences. The other major question we looked at was, how can we ensure that a race is exciting? We watched a video of The Freeze from the Atlanta Braves baseball games and studied what they did to make the races against the freeze, close. We noticed that he would give his opponent a certain head start and the races were close and exciting. Then, we were tasked with making a race exciting by determining how much of a head start someone should get before their opponent goes. To figure this out, my group individually timed ourselves hopping 8 meters. Then, we calculated how many meters/second we hopped. The person with the fastest time would not get a head start, and the others would determine their head start based off of their m/s time. 

Gathering Data for the Head Starts

Learning in Lecture: 

This week during lecture we looked further into how students should explore, describe, and predict motion. In groups, we worked through different problems and figured out how much of a head start someone should get based off their speed and the distance they need to go. While we were given an equation to help us, we should encourage students to think through the problem realistically, rather than just using the equation. Students should also collect data through their observation. One way they can recognize patterns is by creating a graph of the two speeds different subjects are moving at and notice which line is steeper. Some key takeaways from this week are, students having the ability to design investigations, collect data, identify and describe the patterns in the data, and measure the key characteristics. 

Testing out our Head Starts

Textbook Connections 

1. This chapter of the pressbook described motion, positionality, distance, velocity, and acceleration. We can predict where something will be in the future by understanding the distance from a reference point and the direction of which something needs to travel to reach that point. We also learned that speed is different from velocity. Speed is simply put at how fast something is moving but velocity tells us how fast and in what direction something is moving. The pressbook uses the example of the rollercoaster in Japan that had to shut down due to injury, while this rollercoaster is not the fastest moving roller coaster speed wise, it was the fastest accelerating which caused it to be more dangerous. Overall, these quantities help us predict where things will be in the future and describe motion. 

2. I think that the real-life examples that were given in the pressbook such as the rollercoaster and the marathon runner were most helpful. It allowed me to visually represent motion by relating these examples to my own experiences. 

3. I think I need more information on differentiating all of the terms such as velocity, speed, and acceleration. In my mind, they all seem the same even though they mean different things. 

4. I enjoyed watching the videos as another visual representation of what the pressbook chapter is talking about. 


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