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Monday, September 29, 2014

Force and Motion: Intriguing Wonderings!

Wondering: "How far would the bowling ball go if we had a taller ramp and a longer space to travel?"

We have begun our study on force and motion with our energy unit.  Last week, we conducted a test to see what would happen when we rolled five different spheres down a short ramp and measured the distance the objects traveled.  Then we recorded our wonderings and tested them the next day.  (Our wonderings are the things we are still wondering about- such as "what would happen if we did this...).  Some of our student wonderings led us to the hall and others led us outside to test a word we had not learned about yet, but introduced: friction!  It was a great engagement lesson and created more wonderings!  Once we had our data recorded, we used this nifty bar graph sticky notes and created a data representation.  Students created their own "scientific claims" and supported their ideas with the data they had collected!
 

 
(A wondering: what would happen if we rolled the marble and the bowling ball on a rougher surface and down a larger ramp?"