Setting the stage

Although it was a short week, it was a busy week for our students. One of the goals with our STEM curriculum is to better understand science is a process and to develop better scientific thinking in the way we approach asking questions and designing ways to investigate them. To that end, our first investigation was a qualitative study trying to understand the behavior of a system of a water fountain (see picture below).

When liquid was poured in the final on the bottom, water started running out of the spout on the top and back into the funnel and ran for a substantial amount of time – many minutes before it eventually stopped. The goal for the students was to see if they could create a model that would behave the same way as the system. They first discussed and mapped out ideas on a whiteboard, and then eventually were given equipment that allowed them to build a model and test and see if it behaved the way the system did.

For many students, it was frustrating when they found out that they could not see what was inside the original system, but this was very purposeful. When we investigate the real world and try and develop models that explain the phenomena we see, ultimately we know we are getting close to understanding what our model behaves as the actual system. In this activity, and in real life, we are never really sure if we’ve got it exactly right, because we are never able to confirm that our model behaves exactly as the system, just that it behaves within the constraints of what we can design. That is science!

Our second activity was a quantitative activity that also wove in the ideas of linear systems from Algebra. As a class, we designed an experiment to investigate the motion of a battery-powered car. The students design the constraints of the independent and dependent variables: Time and position, and conducted the experiment with the intensive analyzing the motion graphically and mathematically to determine what model best explained the motion of the vehicle.

This activity also give the students the opportunity to become familiar with the proper means to write up an report experimental results – the structure of a standard science lab report.
As we move into week two, we are moving towards our first big project and scene which is on the topic of energy and energy conservation. More of that the common the next blog post!