Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Apologia Physics: Module 2 Motion
The first thing we did today was to review definitions of speed, velocity, and acceleration with the calculations and shapes of the motion graphs. The kids were assigned On Your Own problems from the book to do at home. They bring these back completed; we spend time in class reviewing the problems that posed difficulties. I made copies of the Chapter 2 test and distributed them. Friday, we'll check the tests in class. This is the basic class format: labs, exercises, On Your Own problems, and a test.
Statistics: Graphing and Histograms
Today, Deb led the Stats class. She reviewed linear regressions and one variable stats she introduced normal distribution graph, how to shade, and how to clear shading. Then, she used this data for Utah and Florida--located in this packet to show the class how to create population pyramids as good examples of histograms. BTW, population pyramids are key topics in Human Geography and AP Environmental Science. The class discussed the implications. For example, there will be more demand for infant diapers in Utah and adult diapers in Florida. The point is to differentiate between a bar chart of M&M candy colors and a population pyramid double histogram. One can draw a number of inferences regarding future growth, its shape, etc. Below is an example from one of the kids.
Friday, September 20, 2019
Statistics: A little Graphing Calculator and Chapter 1
The kids have been working with the graphing calculator doing different exercises at the beginning of class. The first week, the kids met with the Chemistry class to learn how to use the graphing calculator to model data.
This week, my wife, Deb, reviewed histograms, box plots, and calcs the first five or ten minutes with the Statistics class. One student, Angel, had a question about entering and calculating two variable statistics on the graphing calculator. Deb showed the class how to specify which data and how the calculations are displayed on the calculator.
I'm following Mrs. Daniel's AP Stats Blog. The textbook is difficult to read as there are many terms, formulas, example calculations to be done. I thought this was boring and it was difficult for me to determine what was important and reduce to a few pages of notes. However, Mrs. Daniels, a teacher of AP Stats, has a blog which contains for each chapter: summary of terms, notes to present each major section of each chapter, activities for the students to complete, and a reference sheet to hand out which includes important terms, examples of graphs, and formulas. I plan to present to the class Mrs. Daniel's presentation, have the students complete a couple of hands on activities, have them complete at home the overview questions.
Today, Friday Sept 19, we reviewed the chapter one overview which they had completed at home. We reviewed the drive time calculation exercise including mean, median, and standard deviation for the students' commute time to class. This is one exercise where we will calculate the standard deviation by hand and then in the graphing calculator. I explained the difference between the standard deviation s (std dev for a sample) and omega (std dev for the entire population). In the first calculation divide by (n-1) rather than n (where n is the number of data points) because of Beeson's correction. Since we are typically using a sample, not the entire population, of data, the standard deviation is probably understated square of each variance from mean, then dividing by n-1 before taking the square root.
This week, my wife, Deb, reviewed histograms, box plots, and calcs the first five or ten minutes with the Statistics class. One student, Angel, had a question about entering and calculating two variable statistics on the graphing calculator. Deb showed the class how to specify which data and how the calculations are displayed on the calculator.
I'm following Mrs. Daniel's AP Stats Blog. The textbook is difficult to read as there are many terms, formulas, example calculations to be done. I thought this was boring and it was difficult for me to determine what was important and reduce to a few pages of notes. However, Mrs. Daniels, a teacher of AP Stats, has a blog which contains for each chapter: summary of terms, notes to present each major section of each chapter, activities for the students to complete, and a reference sheet to hand out which includes important terms, examples of graphs, and formulas. I plan to present to the class Mrs. Daniel's presentation, have the students complete a couple of hands on activities, have them complete at home the overview questions.
Today, Friday Sept 19, we reviewed the chapter one overview which they had completed at home. We reviewed the drive time calculation exercise including mean, median, and standard deviation for the students' commute time to class. This is one exercise where we will calculate the standard deviation by hand and then in the graphing calculator. I explained the difference between the standard deviation s (std dev for a sample) and omega (std dev for the entire population). In the first calculation divide by (n-1) rather than n (where n is the number of data points) because of Beeson's correction. Since we are typically using a sample, not the entire population, of data, the standard deviation is probably understated square of each variance from mean, then dividing by n-1 before taking the square root.
Statistics: Standard Deviation
Once Stats completes the M&Ms and Water labs, Rob is teaching standard deviation (SD). The TI84 calculates SD. Rob thinks the kids should calculate it manually once to understand variance and just what SD is. Khan Academy has step by step instructions. Rob is using How long does it take you to drive home from school? to review mean, median, and mode, while teaching SD.
Once he finishes this activity, I would like to do the Parking Lot Biodiversity Lab. A biodiversity index examines variance in ecosystems. Another activity for the kids is constructing Population Pyramids or histograms. These two activities show kids how the stat activities are relevant to Ecology and Human Geography. This activity, Power of the Pyramids is excellent. Read the questions. When I use these exercises, we always discuss the implications of countries such as Japan or in Western Europe with low fertility rates AND countries with high fertility rates. My focus is on economic implications, not birth control or ZPG.
This census population exercise comparing states and even cities is excellent.
Once he finishes this activity, I would like to do the Parking Lot Biodiversity Lab. A biodiversity index examines variance in ecosystems. Another activity for the kids is constructing Population Pyramids or histograms. These two activities show kids how the stat activities are relevant to Ecology and Human Geography. This activity, Power of the Pyramids is excellent. Read the questions. When I use these exercises, we always discuss the implications of countries such as Japan or in Western Europe with low fertility rates AND countries with high fertility rates. My focus is on economic implications, not birth control or ZPG.
This census population exercise comparing states and even cities is excellent.
Statistics: Intro to Graphing Calculator
Update! Yes, we finished the M&M lab, graphed the data in a histogram and practiced several data sets! Whooooo! This seldom happens! We finished the planned lessons.
The Chemistry class meets Tuesdays and Fridays this year. Tomorrow, my husband, Rob, and I are doing another combined Chemistry and Statistics class to introduce experimental design and how to use the graphing calculator.
The Chemistry class meets Tuesdays and Fridays this year. Tomorrow, my husband, Rob, and I are doing another combined Chemistry and Statistics class to introduce experimental design and how to use the graphing calculator.
First, we're using this graphing exercise to see if the kids can enter the data into the STAT function, turn on STAT PLOT, set the range, graph the data (depth and average temperature), calculate the linear regression, and overlay the line of best fit over the scatter plot data. In other words, see if they remember our lesson from Tuesday. Maybe.
Next, Rob and I are going to do this Statistics and Probability Lab with M&Ms. He and I have 15 small cups of 50 gram samples of the candies, from a party-size bag of regular M&Ms. Most of the M&M labs use individual bags of candies for each student. The party-size bag was cheaper; so we weighed 50 g. samples before class.
We decided to have a quick discussion about experimental design, hypothesis, and controlled variables before the lab. Basically, the kids are going to predict which color M&M candy is the greatest percent in the candy sample (alternate hypothesis) or the percentages of each color are the same (null hypothesis). This article explains how two companies produce M&Ms varies slightly by company. The percentages by color are in this article--for milk chocolate candies!
We are going to give each child a cup with 50 grams of candies. They will count the number of each color candy and calculate the percentage of each color in the cup. Next each table of three kids will pool the data. Finally, we'll pool and calculate the class data. Next Tuesday, Rob is going to do two other exercises with the Statistics class, such as sampling with replacement and outliers. Once we have the class data, the kids are going to graph it in the graphing calculators and produce histograms--bar graphs by color. Yeah!
What does this have to do with Chemistry? Very little. However, it will allow a brief discussion of experimental design and introduce the kids to the graphing calculator.
Statistics: From the beginning
At the beginning of class, Rob and I switched. He monitored Chemistry and I taught Statistics how to create a stem plot or a box plot. We entered data (2,4,6,8,10,12) into L1 of Stats, graphed the stem plot, calculated one variable (1 Var) statistics and used the TRACE function on the stem plot or box plot to locate the quartiles and median. We repeated with new data (5,10,15, 20, 25, 30). The short-cut to set the Window or Range is Zoom 9 for STAT functions.
We reviewed definitions for mean, median, mode, quartile, a five point summary, box plot, examples. They drew a bar chart or histogram based on the data in the book.
We reviewed definitions for mean, median, mode, quartile, a five point summary, box plot, examples. They drew a bar chart or histogram based on the data in the book.
Apologia Physics: Motion
The kids are working on several motion labs: Ramps and Balls, Go Pro with Hot Wheels Car, and Are You Speeding? The introduction to Motion allows for experimentation. Are You Speeding? uses Pasco Spark with the motion sensor. The kids literally follow the Sparkvue lesson to learn how to collect motion data with a motion sensor.
On Tuesday, the kids did experiments with ramps and balls. (The ramps are 4x6 boards cut into one meter lengths at Lowes. The ball is a Pinkie ball.) The object was to demonstrate average speed and acceleration. They leaned one board against a book shelf. The other board was placed on the floor at the base of the first board. How could they measure the acceleration of the ball as it rolled down the ramp? We do not have a radar gun to measure the instantaneous speed at the bottom of the ramp. We approximated the top speed of the ball by measuring the time it took to cross the one meter board on the floor; the assumption being that the ball would not slow down significantly on the flat portion. After we measured the elapsed time of the ball on the one meter board on the floor, we compared that to the starting speed, which in this case was zero, got the difference and divided by the time elapsed by the ball rolling down the ramp. This was the acceleration experienced by the ball on the ramp. It is crucial that the students calculate the acceleration by dividing the change in speed by the time and include all units of measure. Acceleration is changed in speed divided by time. Therefore if they set up the calculation correctly the resulting measure is meters per second squared.
The kids used Hot Wheels track with the Go Pro Hero and the Hot Wheels car to measure the same as above. By observing the GoPro video, we could determine the speed by counting the frames of video recorded by the car covering the measured meter. It helps to put some colored tape on the beginning and end of the measured meter of Hot Wheels track so one can see the beginning and end of the measured distance. After counting the frames, one must look up the frames per second for the GoPro and convert frames to seconds. We were not able to use the motion sensor to determine instantaneous speed but they had fun trying it.
We used the motions sensor to measure a student's walking back and forth. This measures the displacement from the beginning point.
The assignment for Tuesday is to read all or module 2 and complete the on-your-own problems.
On Tuesday, the kids did experiments with ramps and balls. (The ramps are 4x6 boards cut into one meter lengths at Lowes. The ball is a Pinkie ball.) The object was to demonstrate average speed and acceleration. They leaned one board against a book shelf. The other board was placed on the floor at the base of the first board. How could they measure the acceleration of the ball as it rolled down the ramp? We do not have a radar gun to measure the instantaneous speed at the bottom of the ramp. We approximated the top speed of the ball by measuring the time it took to cross the one meter board on the floor; the assumption being that the ball would not slow down significantly on the flat portion. After we measured the elapsed time of the ball on the one meter board on the floor, we compared that to the starting speed, which in this case was zero, got the difference and divided by the time elapsed by the ball rolling down the ramp. This was the acceleration experienced by the ball on the ramp. It is crucial that the students calculate the acceleration by dividing the change in speed by the time and include all units of measure. Acceleration is changed in speed divided by time. Therefore if they set up the calculation correctly the resulting measure is meters per second squared.
The kids used Hot Wheels track with the Go Pro Hero and the Hot Wheels car to measure the same as above. By observing the GoPro video, we could determine the speed by counting the frames of video recorded by the car covering the measured meter. It helps to put some colored tape on the beginning and end of the measured meter of Hot Wheels track so one can see the beginning and end of the measured distance. After counting the frames, one must look up the frames per second for the GoPro and convert frames to seconds. We were not able to use the motion sensor to determine instantaneous speed but they had fun trying it.
We used the motions sensor to measure a student's walking back and forth. This measures the displacement from the beginning point.
The assignment for Tuesday is to read all or module 2 and complete the on-your-own problems.
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