Model rockets: DRY MIX

Flying model rockets is a relatively safe and inexpensive way for students to learn the basics of forces and the response of a vehicle to external forces. A model rocket is subjected to four forces in flight; weight, thrust, and the aerodynamic forces, lift and drag.
There are many different types of model rockets. The first and simplest type of rocket that a student encounters is the compressed air, or stomp rocket. The air rocket system consists of two main parts, the launcher and the rocket.

http://exploration.grc.nasa.gov/education/rocket/rktstomp.html
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/295786main_Rockets_Adv_High_Power_Paper.pdf

WHAT STUDENTS DO: Test a rocket model and predict its motion. Curiosity about what lies beyond our home planet led to the first rocket launches from Earth and to many exploration missions since. Using simple materials (soda straws and paper), students will experience the processes involved in engineering a rocket. Conducting engineering tests, students will have the opportunity to answer a research question by collecting and analyzing data related to finding out the best nose cone length and predicting the motion of their model rockets. In this collection, this lesson builds on the concept of using models encountered in Lessons 1-3, and introduces the concepts of prediction and hypothesis.

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/participate/marsforeducators/soi/MarsSOI2012_Lesson5.pdf

When I teach dependent and independent variables I tie them into graphing and data collection.
When my students are looking at an experiment I tell them to ask the following questions to determine the variables.
1. What is being tested in the experiment? or What is the problem the experiment is to answer? (This directs you to the independent variable?)

2. What are the results in the experiment? or What are the outcomes in the experiment?

I also use the following Acronym DRY MIX.
DRY MIX also helps students create a graph from the data collect in experiments.
D-Dependent variable
R- Responding variable
Y- (goes on) Y-axis

M-Manipulated variable
I-Independent variable
X-(goes on) X-axis

Solar System to Scale

The Solar System to Scale

This is a classic exercise for visualizing just how BIG our Solar System really is. Both the relative size and spacing of the planets are demonstrated in this outdoor exercise, using a model to represent the size of the Earth.

Guy Ottewell has kindly given permission for this electronic presentation of The Thousand-Yard Model; his exercise is presented in its original form, indexed with a few anchors to help you find you way around the large file.

Build a Solar System Model | Exploratorium
Solar System Scale Model
The Solar System to Scale

Its only a paper moon

http://analyzer.depaul.edu/paperplate/Moon%20Finder.htm 

The sun indicates the time, rotating clockwise once every 24 hours.  When the sun is low along the eastern horizon, the time is sunrise (or simply AM).  When the sun is high and due south, the time is noon.  When the sun is low along the western horizon, the time is sunset (or simply PM).  When the sun is opposite the noon position and below the horizon, the time is midnight. 

When the sun is between those four positions, interpolate for time.  This will compensate for some inaccuracies that become amplified near the solstices. Using the sun as a time indicator, set the sky to an approximate time.  Though the sun indicates the time, refrain from referring to the sun as a "clock."  Users tend to envision a 12-hour clock face rather than determining the time from the sun's position relative to the local horizon.

When using the Moon Finder, focus on only one moon phase and the sun at a time.  Notice how the angle between the sun, the earth, and the moon remains the same whether the system is viewed from the earth or from the God's-eye perspective for the respective phases.

From a calendar or a newspaper or from observation, determine the current moon phase.  Use the Moon Finder to determine when that moon rises, transits, or sets.  Note how the full moon always rises as the sun sets and sets as the sun rises.  Also note why most people are more familiar with the first quarter moon than the last quarter moon by virtue of the practical hours they are each visible in the sky.

Whoops the last is for television, they have most of my shows.

Understanding Lunar Phases.

This is an  image taken in Marquette MI looking south on September 10th at 8:00 pm

 

 

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjdzEVAiXyGe7XX5W6GejMLkr91A-ZYIypbAFVgo094ZaPDNrdZ_ejKktk44gs12-evXBM3KfX8j6z-rQGxKo-HNGAB_4IQznWDE195Kbv92TeEo-tx3730Cd8mBn56_s16T7gFeXkJwc/s320/Moon.Phases.jpg


http://filebox.vt.edu/users/bhollenb/EDCI5314/portfoliobkh/html/Paper_Moon.html 

The Nature of Inquiry: The penny lab.

http://www.project2061.org/publications/sfaa/online/chap1.htm 

SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY

Fundamentally, the various scientific disciplines are alike in their reliance on evidence, the use of hypothesis and theories, the kinds of logic used, and much more. Nevertheless, scientists differ greatly from one another in what phenomena they investigate and in how they go about their work; in the reliance they place on historical data or on experimental findings and on qualitative or quantitative methods; in their recourse to fundamental principles; and in how much they draw on the findings of other sciences. Still, the exchange of techniques, information, and concepts goes on all the time among scientists, and there are common understandings among them about what constitutes an investigation that is scientifically valid.

Scientific inquiry is not easily described apart from the context of particular investigations. There simply is no fixed set of steps that scientists always follow, no one path that leads them unerringly to scientific knowledge. There are, however, certain features of science that give it a distinctive character as a mode of inquiry. Although those features are especially characteristic of the work of professional scientists, everyone can exercise them in thinking scientifically about many matters of interest in everyday life.

"Just a Theory": 7 Misused Science Words

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=just-a-theory-7-misused-science-words  

"Just a Theory": 7 Misused Science Words From "significant" to "natural," here are seven scientific terms that can prove troublesome for the public and across research disciplines.

1. Hypothesis
The general public so widely misuses the words hypothesis, theory and law that scientists should stop using these terms, writes physicist Rhett Allain of Southeastern Louisiana University, in a blog post on Wired Science. [Amazing Science: 25 Fun Facts]

2. Just a theory?
Climate-change deniers and creationists have deployed the word "theory" to cast doubt on climate change and evolution.

3. Model
However, theory isn't the only science phrase that causes trouble. Even Allain's preferred term to replace hypothesis, theory and law -- "model" -- has its troubles. The word not only refers to toy cars and runway walkers, but also means different things in different scientific fields. A climate model is very different from a mathematical model, for instance.

 4. Skeptic
When people don't accept human-caused climate change, the media often describes those individuals as "climate skeptics."

5. Nature vs. nurture
The phrase "nature versus nurture" also gives scientists a headache, because it radically simplifies a very complicated process, said Dan Kruger, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Michigan.

6. Significant
Another word that sets scientists' teeth on edge is "significant."
"That's a huge weasel word. Does it mean statistically significant, or does it mean important?" said Michael O'Brien, the dean of the College of Arts and Science at the University of Missouri.
In statistics, something is significant if a difference is unlikely to be due to random chance. But that may not translate into a meaningful difference, in, say, headache symptoms or IQ.

7. Natural
"Natural" is another bugaboo for scientists. The term has become synonymous with being virtuous, healthy or good. But not everything artificial is unhealthy, and not everything that's natural is good for you.

Science instruction should be designed to engage students in making and using models

http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/models/Usefulness.html

 

 "Scientific practice involves the construction, validation and application of scientific models, so science instruction should be designed to engage students in making and using models."

 

In addition:

• Models provide an environment for interactive student engagement. Evidence from science education research shows that significant learning gains are achieved when students participate in interactive engagement activities. Thus, it is important that the learning environment/activity created around a model provide an interactive engagement experience.

• Working with models can enhance systems thinking abilities
• Models and model development are useful for helping students learn quantitative skills such as graphing, graphical analysis, and visualization; statistics; computational skills, mathematics,
  
• Many models allow one to perform sensitivity studies to assess how changes in key system variables alter the system's dynamic behavior. Such sensitivity studies can help one identify leverage points of a system to either help one affect a desire change with a minimum effort or to help estimate the risks or benefits associated with proposed or accidental changes in a system.
• Earth System Models such as those at Earth-System Models of Intermediate Complexity (more info) allow us to perform experiments related to the Earth System without altering and potentially harming the actual Earth. Many experiments, like understanding the future effects of atmospheric carbon dioxide increase, are taking place in the actual Earth System today but the results of these will not be know for 50 to 100 years. An Earth System model can run several such simulations using different assumptions in a matter of hours to days. The same is true for most models.
• The knowledge gained while using models and the understanding of model development and implementation are transferable to other disciplines related to the Earth system.

 

In MSED 252, Earth Science, Students are using M & Ms to model the earth.