Thursday, Dec 11, 2008 - Block 4A

Started by giving guided notes for Newton's 3 laws. Went over content objectives for Newton's 2nd Law and 3rd Law.

Explained the lab on rocket balloons. Students were to set up a string track across the room, blow up a balloon, attach pieces of straw to the balloon with Scotch tape, and then launch the balloon.

Students were to run trials with 25 pumps, 20, 15, 10, and 5, measure the distance, and plot distance vs number of pumps.

For part 2 of the lab, students were to repeat the lab, but this time keeping the number of pumps constant but taping pennies to the balloon. Students were to plot the distance vs number of pennies.

I demoed the lab and shot a balloon across the room. Students gathered kits with the string track, balloons, straws, and pennies. After 40 minutes, very few students had made a single successful launch. Students either didn't even try and just socialized, or had difficulties with the set-up. One of the pumps was defective and students seemed more intent on finding out how many pumps would cause the balloon to burst than in doing the lab. I called off the lab, discussed results I thought they might have gotten, and then showed the video on car crashes.

The class did not go well at all. Thought it would be fun but it just didn't work.

Informed students that there would be a test on Newton's Laws Wednesday of next week.