Nature Journaling - Perennials in your Nature Area

 The perennials have the advantage of having all the food they stored last year so they can grow early and very quickly in the spring when they wake up. 

Your job this week is to find two interesting perennials in your natural area and draw what their growth looks like so far this spring.  

One should be Woody Stemmed, and one should be herbaceous stemmed with new growth coming from the ground since only the roots survive the winter. 

Be sure to take note of which plants you draw so you can come back in a month and revisit the same plant to see how it has progressed.  Try to really capture details! Look close! Use words to describe them because they will be changing a LOT in the next few weeks.  

Here are my examples: The first is in progress, showing how you should use a regular pencil to capture the shape and proportion and to label you drawings. 

The second is closer to being finished with some added color and more labels describing what I was seeing. 

Choosing your Natural Area to study

Over the next few weeks we will be studying Ecosystems in class and thinking about how organisms can still be wild and live and grow even in the City of Chicago where humans have changed the environment drastically. 

In order for you to do your own study, your homework this week is to identify an interesting natural area near your house that you can get to without any trouble at all. As you think about what spot to choose, keep these things in mind. 

 - Easy Access  - Be sure that you can get to this location easily and quickly so that you can visit it when your family's schedule and the weather give you a window. Don't choose an area that is going to be a hassle for you or your family. Good options are your yard, your neighborhood park, or areas along your street where animals and plants are growing and living wild. 

 - Make sure you can identify a number of different plant and animal populations that live in your natural area even if it's very small. (We will try to identify the organisms you are observing, but it's ok if you are not sure the actual species names. "Tall grasses, red ants, a rabbit, Pine tree, moss"  - these can be specific enough for this project. 

 - Make sure that your natural area has at least one woody stemmed perennial like a bush or a tree. Something that has bark. 

- Spend some time in a few different areas before choosing so that you know you have found an interesting natural area to spend time observing. 

Once you have chosen your location, complete the description page we set up in our journals. 

If your natural are is very large like a park, be sure to describe what part of it you will be focusing your work in. 

Here is a picture of the blank journal set up if you forgot to take yours home. 

Writing your conclusions from the Turbine Experiment

Data collection is over, we've analyzed the numbers using some math skills and by drawing and interpreting our graphs, so and now you know a few things.  The data is your  Evidence to use to support your conclusions.  Use it!

First - You know which blade design produced the most voltage and at what angle.  You also know if that set ALWAYS produced more voltage or if your data overlaps at the other angles

Second - You know if your blades followed the trend we noticed in the lab.  The most voltage was often produced by blades tilted at a small angle. (For just about every blade design)

As you think about WHY your two sets of blades worked the way they did, keep these things in mind:

Putting the blades at a small angle increases the area that the wind is hitting, increasing the force that is helping to spin the generator.

but.....

When the hub spins, the blades have to work to move sideways through the air because they produce drag (air resistance/friction).

and.....

Blades that are tilted at larger angles have to push through more air so they produce even more drag than small angles.

and.....

Newton's 2nd law says it will take more force to spin larger and more massive blades, but if they get spinning, they will have more MOMENTUM to help fight through the drag of air resistance.

and.....

The tips of longer blades have to travel around a larger circle than the tip of smaller blades. 





Start your draft in class once you are done with your graph. 

Paragraph 1 - Describe the experiment, Summarize the results and explain your thinking about them.

• Describe the variable you and your partner tested and the design of your blades. 
• Restate your hypothesis. 
• Which set of blades was able to produce the most voltage and at what angle?
• Did this set of blades produce more voltage at ALL the angles we tested? If not, which angles did the other set of blades "win"? 
• Was your hypothesis supported?  Did the variable you changed about the blades have the effect you thought it was going to or did the results surprise you?
• Use what you know about Forces, Drag, and Newton's laws of motion to try to explain why one set of blades was able to spin faster and produce more voltage than the other.  

Paragraph 2 -  Data Analysis. Describe patterns in the data and use calculations to compare the data, along with your own observations, to explain how clear and convincing your data is.

• Is there a clear difference between the amount of voltage your two sets of blades were able to produce or did they produce almost the same voltage?
• How big was the difference between the two sets of blades and the MEAN voltage they were able to produce at the angles we tested? (Use Subtraction to compare!)
• Which set of trials had the HIGHEST range and how high was it?  
• Do you think the data is consistent enough for us to trust  or are there patterns that make you skeptical? 
• What were some of the issues with our equipment that you and your partner encountered when running the tests that might make us trust your results a little less? 

Paragraph 3 - What are your thoughts on how we could improve or change this experiment? 

• What variables were the hardest to control when running this experiment?
• Were there problems with your blade construction?
• How could we fix any problems we had with our equipment to make the test more fair?
• What other blade designs would you be interested in testing if we were to start this process over again?  
• What other variables besides the blade design could we test to see how much they affect the voltage a turbine can produce?

Your conclusions tell the story of the experiment and what you were thinking along the way. 

Be sure to use specific language to clearly explain yourself and include the evidence and FACTS that you think are important to support your ideas and opinions. 

Here are some examples of how to write about the results:

"My partner and I decided to test the overall size of the blades in the turbine. We used a thick cardboard and made our blades rectangle shaped. The control blades had an area of 50 square centimeters and the experimental blades were larger with an area of 90 square centimeters. My hypothesis was that the larger blades would spin faster because.....(thinks about Newton's laws and where the air is going)"

"When you look at the results you can see that the larger blades spun faster at 40° and produced 0.025 more volts at that angle. The smaller blades produced more voltage at every other angle. The most voltage the small blades produces was 0.895 volts at 15°which is 0.090 more volts than the large blades were able to produce. This is not a big difference, but I think it is a clear one because all three trials from the small blades were had more volts than any of the trials with the long blades. The large blades best angle was also 15°."

Our data was mostly consistent with small ranges of only a few thousandths of a volt. The largest range in a set of trials was our large blades at 30° with a range of 0.125 volts. If we had more time i would have retested that angle. I think that we might not have used the protractor correctly and one of the blades might have been at a different angle.

We noticed that our generator and tower wobbled whenever we tested our larger blades. This could be because....

One of our smaller blades was damaged during the testing and we had to re-glue the dowel rod two times. This might have changed how much the blade weighs.

If we started over I would like to design blades that have a curved edge. I also noticed that some other blades had shorter dowel rods and I think that might be interesting to test as well.

Graphing your Turbine Data

 In case you forgot your graph at school or didn't have time to get strated, here is how we set up the axes so you can create your graph before your next class.   

Choose how to label the y-axis so that your highest mean voltage will be graphed near the top of the graph paper. (Many students are numbering by .1 volts.) 

You might need to add your extra angle if you tested one. Be sure that it is in the correct location on the x-axis. 

Graph your means for each angle on the graph by placing TWO dots on the line above each angle you tested. Choose two different colors for the dots showing the data from your Control and Experimental Blades and make a key so we know which is which.

You and your partner collected the data so YOU two are the source for the data.   

Remember, we are going to talk about how to connect the dots using a "best fit line" in class so 

DO NOT CONNECT THE DOTS OF YOUR GRAPH!

Turbine Hypothesis - homework.

Now that you and your partner have your question clearly stated and your blades are (mostly) constructed, and we have a good idea of how the trials will be run, you need to formally write your hypothesis.

A hypothesis is both a prediction of the results and your reasoning. Remember, we've learned a little bit about how the blades interact with the air. We need to angle them to get that unbalanced force to get them moving.   The farther you angle them, they will have more drag they will experience as they cut sideways through the air. Larger blades will both catch more air (more force) and have to fight through more air (more drag).

Use the page in your journal that we set up to detail your Hypothesis:

1. Clearly sate your experimental questions:

We designed a set of blades to answer this question:

Does ______________________________  (fill in the blank with your detailed Independent Variable) affect how fast the turbine will spin and the voltage it will create?

2. Draw and label a small diagram of your blades that details Shape, Area, Material and Dowel Rod Placement, 

3. Predict the results of the experiment:

Which group (Control or Experimental) do you think will spin the fastest and WHY you think it will spin faster than the blades in the other group.

BE SURE TO EXPLAIN YOUR SELF FULLY! Use some factual evidence, either from your observations of your blades or from what you know about how turbines work or what you know about Newtons Laws.

We other scientists need to know exactly what you think so we can decide if your ideas are the same as ours or if we want to argue with you.

Bring in your thoughtful hypothesis (in your journal) to your first science class next week when we will begin testing the turbines and measruing how much voltage they create. 

Experimental Design Vocabulary -

Experimental  Design Vocabulary List

Experimental Question – A testable question that asks how a change you make might affect the results or what happens. 

“If we change this.... does it affect that?”

Hypothesis – What you expect to happen to the results based on the change you will make and

other evidence you have gathered.

Variables – Anything that could change during an experiment that might affect the data and results.

Dependent Variable – What scientists measure to see if it has changed during the trials. This becomes your data f

or the experiment. 

Independent Variable – The variable that is being tested. Scientists carefully change it on purpose to see the effect

it will have on the data and results. 

Controlled Variables – All the other variables that are kept the same to be sure that they do not have any effect.

This makes the experiment a fair test. 

Procedure – Step by step directions for how to run a set of trials. Each trial gathers one piece of data

and observations 

Control Group – A set of trials where the Independent Variable is NOT being changed and tested. 

Experimental Group – A set of trials where the Independent Variable IS being tested. The I.V. is changed on purpose

and the results are then compared to the control group.

Data Table – A chart for recording and organizing the data and calculations.

Graph – The data presented in visual form using bars or lines. 

Data Analysis – Objective, mathematical thinking about the data.

Observations – Objective Statements about what scientists noticed during the trials.  Can be used as evidence.

Conclusions – Subjective thinking and analysis of the results. What scientists think about the results of the

experiment. 

Repeatability – The ability for other scientists to follow a procedure and get similar results.

Solar Panel Experiment Conclusions

Your experiment testing variables that affect voltage from our Solar Panels is over!

Now it is time to use your writing skills to explain to other scientists what you think about the experiment we just did.  

You are trying to communicate your ideas to other scientists so clear and complete sentences are absolutely necessary.

You can hand write your paragraph but most of us are using our drive account and a google doc in your science folder on drive. Don't print it out! We will be having a peer review session to help improve our writing and to help us make sure that we are thinking clearly about the results of our experiments. Then we will print them in class.

CONCLUSIONS INSTRUCTIONS:

Write a paragraph for each of the three sets of questions to discuss what you think about the experiment we just completed - You don't have to answer every question, but think about each one as you choose what to write.

Wherever you can, USE EVIDENCE to support your ideas. "I think this because....facts." Evidence can be from the data, from your own observations, or what we learned from our research in the sciencesaurus books about light which has a lot to do with the voltage our panels produced.

For this to make sense to someone who reads it your sentences should restate some of the questions in your paragraph.

Example: 

Instructions Question: Do the results support your hypothesis?    

your paragraph:  My hypothesis was not supported by the results of the test. 

Paragraph One Theme: What do you think about the materials now? Has your thinking changed or been reinforced?

Tell us about your hypothesis first. then think about these questions:

Did the results of this experiment support your hypothesis or do you think something different now? 

Which materials didn't behave like you thought they would?

Which results surprised you?

Which materials surprised you? What do you think about how light interacted with that material now?

What new things did you observe during the test that might help explain what happened to cause the different voltages we measured?

Paragraph Two Theme: Do you think that we can trust the results of the experiment? 

First look at your own teams data all by itself.

Does the data show a clear difference between the experimental groups and the control group? Did some tests clearly produce more voltage than others? How much more? Are some groups very close together (How close?) with data that overlap This can make it hard to know which one actually produced the most and may mean we would need to run more tests to learn more.

Are there pieces of data or groups of trials that look strange and don't follow the pattern/ These might be outliers and make you trust the result a little less. Are your ranges small enough to trust?

Did other teams in other classes do similar experiments that could support your results?

Think about your procedure and your testing setup:

How well did your team do at controlling variables that might have affected the data? 

What are some variables that you know were not completely controlled between your groups of trials?

Are there problems with our materials or procedures that make you trust our data less? Describe them in detail.

Paragraph Three Theme:

How could we improve or expand on this experiment if we were going to do it a second time?

What could we change about our procedure and how we ran our trials to improve the fairness of your test and make the results more consistent and trustworthy or more clear between the materials that seem similar. 

Should we have run more trials?

What other materials could we use to design a better testing setup or a new experiment to learn more about how the things that affect our solar panels? 

Beginning to analyze our Solar Panel Experiments

Now that your team has finished collecting data it's time to start thinking about the results and how you think we did conducting a Fair test that tested just a single variable. 

Your first work should be to finish the graph that your team set up in class if you did not get done before the period ended. (Don't rush! A graph is only useful if it allows us to see the data clearly. )

Before we start writing our conclusions, you should do some thinking about the experiment your team designed.  

Complete the questions on the Variables Homework Sheet. 

Here are the questions if you lost your copy. 

Controlling Variables: Solar Panel Experiment

Name: _________________________ Homeroom Teacher: _______________Team Number: ____

Instructions: Please answer the questions below to prepare for next week's team discussion on writing conclusions.

---

1. The Independent Variable

Question: Which specific variable did your team choose to test? (This is the one thing you changed on purpose).

• Write your answer here:

  ---

  ---

---

2. Controlled Variables (Successes)

Question: Which variables did your team successfully keep constant (the same) throughout the experiment so they would not affect your data?

• Please list the variables and explain specifically how you ensured they stayed the same.

• Variable 1: _______________________________________________________

• How we controlled it: ___________________________________________

• Variable 2: _______________________________________________________

• How we controlled it: ___________________________________________

---

3. Uncontrolled Variables (Sources of Error)

Question: Which variables did your team struggle to control? (These are factors that may have unintentionally changed and affected the voltage output of your solar panels).

• ---

  ---

  ---

  ---

  4. Experimental Design Improvements

Question: Look at the variables you listed in Question 3. For each one, describe how you could redesign the experiment to control it better next time.

• Idea 1: _____________________________________________________________

  ---

Idea 2: _____________________________________________________________

---

Time to propose an experiment!

 Look at the list of variables that we think might affect the voltage our little solar panels can produce. 

Choose one that you think would be interesting to test. This variable becomes your Independent Variable, the one we change on purpose to see how much it changes our data. 

Draw a clear diagram (labels!) that would show how you would set up the equipment to run a fair test. This diagram can serve as a materials list too, so we know what things we need to get from the store room or from home. 

Also think about which variables we'd have to work to control so that they don' t change the voltage while we are testing your Independent Variable. What do we have to do the same way every time so the test is fair?

Voltage Variables!

 In the next few weeks we will be trsting some variables that affect how much voltage our Mini Solar Panels and Mini Wind Turbines can produce. You job is to come into the discussion next week with a list of variables that we could test (or control) to learn more about what things affect the electrical output of our Panels and Turbines. 

Here are the notes we set up in our journal in case you forgot yours at home:

Light Absorption Conclusions paragraphs

The experiment is over! Now it is time to use your writing skills to explain to other scientists what you think about the experiment we just did.  

Clear and complete sentences are absolutely necessary. Be sure to have a good draft of all three paragraphs ready to show to other students at your first class next week. 

You can hand write your paragraph but most of us are using our drive account and the google doc you set up. Be sure to have something to share with your team.   Don't print it out before class. We will be having a peer review session to help improve our writing and to help us make sure that we are thinking clearly about the results of our experiments. Then we will print them in class.

CONCLUSIONS INSTRUCTIONS:

Write a paragraph for each of the three sets of questions to discuss what you think about the experiment we just completed - You don't have to answer every question, but think about each one as you choose what to write.

Wherever you can, USE EVIDENCE to support your ideas. "I think this because....facts." Evidence can be from the data, from your own observations, or what we learned from our research in the sciencesaurus books about light.

For this to make sense to someone who reads it your sentences should restate some of the questions in your paragraph.

Example: 

Instructions Question: Do the results support your hypothesis?    

your paragraph:  My hypothesis was not supported by the results of the test. 

Paragraph One Theme: What do you think about the materials now? Has your thinking changed?

Tell us about your hypothesis first. then think about these questions:

Did the results of this experiment support your hypothesis or do you think something different now? 

Which materials didn't behave like you thought they would?

Which results surprised you?

Which materials surprised you? What do you think about how light interacted with that material now?

What new things did you observe during the test that might help explain what happened to cause the temperatures to change the way they did? 

Paragraph Two Theme: Do you think that we can trust the results of the experiment? 

Look at your data, the class data, your graph and the GRADE wide means. 

Does the data show a clear difference between the experimental groups? (Did some materials clearly warm up the thermometer more than others, no matter who was running the test?)

Look at the graph showing the maximums and minimums for each experimental group.

Does some of the data overlap and show that sometimes one material heated up more than others, but not always? (This can make it hard to know which one actually heated up the most.)

Are there pieces of data that look strange and don't follow the pattern/ These might be outliers and make you trust the result a little less.

Did other classes in the grade get similar results and show repeatability? 

Are the results "too close to call" or can we be sure that we know one material heats up more?

Think about our procedure:

Are there problems with our materials or procedures that make you trust our data less? 

Paragraph Three Theme: How could we improve or expand on this experiment if we were going to do it a second time?

What could we change about our procedure and how we ran our trials to improve the fairness of our test and make the results more consistent and trustworthy or more clear between the materials that seem similar. 

Was there a problem with our location or our materials? 

Should we have run more trials?

What other materials could we use to design an experiment to learn more about the absorption of light? 

If you designed another test to study the absorption of light and how it heats up materials, what could it look like?

3,2,1 Hypothesize! Light and Materials Experiment!

 In class we have gone over the experiment we will conduct next class. 

The experiment is designed to test 4 materials to see which one will cause a thermometer to heat up the most when they are all placed into the sunshine for 5 minutes.  You can look in your journal to see the procedure and our data table that we will use. 

Your homework is to make a prediction based on evidence and to explain why you think the experiment will turn out that way. This will be your Hypothesis. 

To make your hypothesis you must:

Figure out which of the 4 materials you think will heat up the thermometer the MOST. 

Figure out which material you think will heat up the thermometer the LEAST. 

Explain your REASONING for both predictions using FACTS about light and other evidence.

Write your Hypothesis in the space we created in your journal and be ready to talk about it with your team in class next class before we run the trials.  (You can use a google doc to write your hypothesis if you wish, then print it, cut it out and secure it in your journal on the page we set up. )

Your hypothesis will sound something like this:

"I think the thermometer wrapped in _________________ will heat up the most because _________________________."  (Write a few sentences explaining your reasoning using all the facts we have learned about light.)

Second most will be the  _______ because....

Third most will be the __________ because...

"I think the thermometer wrapped in __________________ will heat up the least because _________________________." (Write a few sentences explaining your reasoning again.)

A good hypothesis should include facts we have learned about light and the words reflect and transmit and absorb! 

To help you remember how the experiment will work, here is a photo of the way that we will set up our thermometers when we conduct the trials next week. They will all sit in the shade until the trial starts. Then the 4 covered with materials will be moved to the sunshine for 5 minutes while the control thermometer stays out of the sun. 

And just for a little mantis update. 

Here is a link to the Video I took of a Mantis in the Outdoor Classroom on October 1st. 

Light in Action... SUN DOG!

 Here is the photo I took to show you all the phenomenon called.a Sun Dog. 

It's a really cool example of how light from the Sun can interact with matter on its way to our eyes here on Earth. In this case the light is refracted as it transmits through the drops of water in the clouds and then reflects off the drops of water in the clouds on the right, the same way that it reflects off the wall in the classroom when we use a prism to split white light into all the colors ROYGBIV.   Let me know if you see one!

Energy Doodle!

 In case you want to see my example again, or print a blank copy if you forgot your sheet. Here you go!

Remember - this is an incomplete drawing. Leave some white space so you can add more to your doodle during the discussion. We will talk about the forms of energy and fill in the bottom box together in class 

The sun is a mass.... First Homework. Show this to your parents!

For the first part of the year, I will be putting information for homework assignments on this blog so it's super easy to find away from school. 

Your homework for this evening is simply to show your parents the blog so that they know you might need to visit the blog to do some homework. Bookmark the page on the device you are most likely to use for homework. Then Check out this video and song by the Band They Might be Giants. 

We will be talking about the information in the video at our first class next week. So be sure to watch it so you know what it's about!