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!