Recap up through Week #2, Day #4

Week #2 – Day 4 – Recap – 

B1 – Grade Seven – Forbes – 

 Current Events: Our class usually begins with a current events connection or science video clip. So far, we’ve asked for the following:

A hurricane on the eastern seaboard: It’s unusual for hurricanes to reach land so far north.

ISS:  The International Space Station may soon be the venue for a Hollywood movie.

Robotics:  As engineering is among the new science standards, we saw a bit of the new Boston Dynamics robots.

Fires:  Because of extended drought there are fires in California, Oregon, Brazil, and even Siberia. These fires are an indication of climate change and are releasing more Carbon into our ATMOSPHERE.

The Metric System:  Based on the number ten the Metric System is much more straight forward than the Imperial System, which is used in the US. 

The units we use in science.

Meter. (One meter is 100 centimeters. 1000 meters is a Kilometer.)

Liter: Used for volume.  (1000 mL = one Liter)

Time: (Seconds.)

Mass: Kilograms. One kilogram = 1000 grams.

Science as a process.  While our books may contain many facts, we’re in science class to learn to evaluate theories and make good decisions based upon the Scientific Method.

Aristotle:  (384 – 322 BC): Many “pre-scientific” ideas were based upon Aristotle’s writings. While he started us down the path towards modern science, many of his ideas lacked evidence.

Galileo:  (1564 – 1642): Credited with TESTING hypothesis. For example, where Aristotle claimed that heavier objects fall faster than lighter object, Galileo used EXPERIMENT to prove that object of different MASS fall at the same rate when air resistance is not a factor.

Richard Feynman:  (1918-1988) A personal favorite; Feynman said … “It doesn’t matter how beautiful your theory is. It doesn’t matter how smart you are. If it does not agree with experiment, you’re wrong.”

Key Terms: Each Week we have ten (10) Key Terms to define in our notes. The ten for this week are:

Meter

Centimeter

Kilometer

Experiment

Control Variable

Independent Variable

Atmosphere

Theory

Volume

Cartesian Coordinate System

Example: As an example of testing a theory we used a clip from “Mythbusters – Helium Football.” – The team was testing to see if a standard football, filled with Helium instead of air (atmosphere), travels further when kicked (or thrown.) It’s an excellent example of CONTROL VARIABLES (Usually, simply called, “Controls.”) Some of the Controls from their experiment were:

Weather. (They brought their experiment indoors.)

Removing a human punter. (They used a machine to launch the footballs)

PSI – Each ball was filled to the regulation 13 PSI (Don’t tell Tom Brady.)

Launch Angle: Each ball was launched at a consistent angle.

Etc…(Try and think of one more Control Variable.)

LAB: We conducted our own lab. A data-gathering lab where we want to compare a person’s height (in centimeters) with their “wingspan;” (The distance covered by their outstretched arms.)

The Goal:  Introduce students to graphing results and see if we can predict one value given another. In science, the ability to PREDICT is one of the most important aspect in developing a theory.