Alyssa B's- Blog on Science Methods

 What did you do in the lab?  In the lab, we looked at the scale of our solar system. We took playdough and a tape measure to create an accurate scale of the sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. After doing this we saw how small and far planets actually are compared to each other and the sun.  The big question:  How big is our solar system? What did you learn in Thursday's lecture?  We learned about the seasons and how they occur due to the tilt of our axis. We also learned that the moon's rotation is identical to the rotation of the earth. Which means that the moon does rotate. The best explanation as to why the moon was created is that a giant mass the size of Mars hit the Earth, this also tipped us over causing us to have seasons. We now know that the Earth has gravity however it is 1/6 that of the Earth. The moon is a quarter the size of the Earth. People are always looking for new answers about the moon. The moon has layers, an outer layer that is light and rocky and then

 1. What did you do in the lab today?  In the lab, we took a globe and a smaller ball to resemble the Earth and the moon. There was a light in the middle of the classroom that modeled the sun. We then tried to answer the big questions in our group. We took the "moon" and moved it around the "Earth" to see what portion of the moon we could see. This helped us understand the moon phases. Next, we looked at the lunar eclipse. We observed that the lunar eclipse is caused by the alignment of the sun, Earth, and moon when the moon is hidden in the Earth's shadow. After this, we thought about the seasons. My group struggled with this a little bit. How can we see the seasons? That's when we were told that seasons and weather are not the same thing. We learned that the axis of the earth and its position in correspondence to the sun is what causes seasons. The last thing we did was take notes on a story Ted told us about astronomy.  2. What was the big Question?  How

 How do the phases of the moon occur?  The phases of the moon occur based on the earth's shadow from the sun. So as the earth rotates around the sun and the moon rotates around the earth, the mood may be hidden at some points and you cannot see it or it is between the sun and the earth causing it to be full.  What causes the seasons?  The seasons are caused by the tilt of the earth and where it is on its rotating axis according to the sun.  What causes a lunar eclipse?  I think the lunar eclipse is caused by the way all the planets align with the sun. 

  T he big question addressed in lab, and a description of what you did: How do you design a safe and durable playground surface?     In the lab, we made a model of a playground surface. We put hay on the bottom, rubber mulch in the middle, and topped it off with hay. We then dropped an egg from 1 meter into the bowl. The egg bounced out of the bowl but did not crack! We learned that it was too bouncy of a surface and if we were going to do it again we would take out some of the rubber mulch. We also wouldn't fill the material to the top of the bowl so that there is some buffer room if it is bouncy and hopefully the egg would be stopped by the small buffer zone. We tried again from 2 meters, Where there was less rubber mulch, and added a little sand. We also left room for the buffer to see if the egg wouldn't bounce out. However, the egg still bounced out but he did survive!  A description of what you learned in Thursday's lecture.     It was test day so we did not have a

The big question addressed in lab, and a description of what you did: What affects how long it takes a swing to go back and forth?  A description of what you learned in Thursday's lecture. We learned the definition of the period of a swing, which is the time for a swing to go back and forth once. We then discussed the effect of rider weight and the length of the swing. We learned in the lab that rider weight does not affect the time a swing goes back and forth because of Newton's 2nd law.  We learned about the first two of Newton's laws and how they affect the force of something. F=MA. This makes it clear that larger masses are harder to accelerate, slow down, or turn. We learned that the longer the rope or chain of a swing, the longer the period of the swing.  Answer questions about the weekly textbook reading?       What did you learn?      We learned a fancy word for a swing which is a pendulum. This was a nice reminder that there are bigger words for things just like th

The big question addressed in the lab: How is a rider's speed affected by different things such as slope, weight, clothing, etc.?  Description of what you did     In the lab, my group decided to test how slope affected the speed of a rider. We recorded data from three different slopes and measured the time it took for the rider to get down the slide for each different slope. We found that the bigger the slope the faster the rider went and vis versa the smaller the slope the slower the rider would go.  A description of what you learned in Thursday's lecture. In the lecture, we learned about force. We know that things accelerate because of force. A lot of people think about this as gravity. When thinking about the effects force or gravity has on a slide it helps us understand why a steeper slide is a faster slide. This is because objects accelerate in the direction of an unbalanced force so when a slide is steeper the unbalanced force is higher which causes a rider to go faster.