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.

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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:

  ---

  ---

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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: ___________________________________________

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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).

• ---

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  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: _____________________________________________________________

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Idea 2: _____________________________________________________________

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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!