Hello MJDS friends and family!
This week I have had the honor (and the pressure) of filling in for the finest science teacher around, Gev Jirovetz, as she is in Israel with the 8th graders.
This week we are exploring energy and physical science, specifically kinetic energy, potential energy, and gravitational energy. Although my background is in ELA, I began my college career in science, so being back in the science classroom has been a treat. Yesterday, as a class, we had relay races amongst the rows of students to see who could quickly and thoroughly respond to the discussion question,”Does a heavy object and a light object fall at the same rate if dropped from the same height? Use evidence to support your claim.” Victory was granted to the row whose members quickly wrote their responses on the white board and whose responses were thorough.
Here is an image of student responses following our relay race activity.
Students raising the bar as they write their responses for our relay race activity.
Following our relay race, we decided to test the predictions made using a dry erase marker and a pencil. Noah R. dropped both objects from the same height for three trials. The student weighed the marker (13.9 grams) and the pencil (3.3 grams). Following their initial measurements, we watched as the pencil and marker hit the ground. Most of the students assumed that both objects hit the ground at the same time, however, we took a slow motion video to investigate our results (see the video below). Before examining our results, the students considered potential factors that may have eschewed the results such as shift in wind or if Noah dropped both objects at the exact same time. Ultimately, the students tried to control these variables as much as possible. The students successfully determined that it was gravitational energy acting on the two objects and this launched us into further investigation regarding gravitational energy, which we will continue explore throughout the upcoming week.
But, did the two objects hit the ground at the same time? You be the judge…