Free Fall!!!!!

Free fall is defined as any motion where gravity is the only force acting upon on object (if air resistance was negligible) when it falls towards the Earth.

       

Calculation: d=1/2at^2

Tennis Ball                                                              Wiffle Ball

Avg. Time=1.56s                                                      Avg. Time: 1.51s

d=1/2 (9.8m/s^2)(1.56s)^2                                       d=1/2 (9.8m/s^2)(1.51s)^2

d=11.92m                                                                   d=11.17m

Small, Light Balls                                                        Foam Balls    

Avg. Time: 1.76s                                                          Avg.Time: 1.20s

d=1/2 (9.8m/s^2) (1.76s)                                                 d=1/2 (9.8m/s^2) (1.20s)

d= 15.18m                                                                   d=7.056m

Error Calculation:|known-measured| \ known

Tennis                                                  Wiffle Ball

|10.7m-11.92m| \ 10.7m                               |10.7m-11.17m| \ 10.7m

.114= 11.4%                                         .045= 4.5%

Small/Light Balls                                        Foam Balls

|10.7m-15.18m| \ 10.7m                           |10.7m-7.056m| \ 10.7m 

.42= 42%                                                   .341= 34.1%

Our Videos!

VIDEOS FOUND ON THE INTERNET MACHINE!!!!

Objects of different masses free falling!!! Enough said!

Super cool song about science.

A video describing the phenomenon of free fall and how air resistance is a factor in every day life but can be eliminated in a controlled setting. It also talks about the reason we fall... the Earth's gravitational pull on us!!!!

Conclusion:

We discovered that in a world without air resistance there would be no difference in acceleration between dropping a bowling ball and a feather, but we know this is not true. Our videos show that human error and air resistance  make it nearly impossible to show the validity if the statement: No matter the mass of an object the acceleration due to gravity will remain constant. Maybe next time we can try it in a controlled setting without air resistance. Oh, the possibilities!

Our fantastical group is: Meredithe Dosch, Manuel Carranza, and Lauren Ingham. Thank you and signing off!

Beauty of Data Visualization Discussion

1.We all agreed the video was really interesting, but Samantha and I think that without the explanation we would have a very hard time understanding it. It is very interesting to realize the correlation between the two things that when compared are easier to understand. It is helpful be able to accurately portray so much data with a picture.

2. The video effected us as a learner by showing that boring data can be made interesting. It was an eye opener to understand what information really means. Like the example with countries and war expenses compared with GDP and population and number of soldiers. It kind of revealed that when you take one of those facts out of context they can be very skewed but when you see the big picture it is easily understood and it provides a less biased conclusion. As a teacher, we need to understand that we have to present the big picture and show a good perspective of the facts to the best of our abilities because we are potentially effecting the kids understanding.

3. The video said that instead of showing kids or even adults "hard" graphs or facts that do not correlate we need to soften them. Create a story or a path with the incredible amount of data.

4. Prezi is a perfect example of this visual learning. We noticed even in our own presentations that some groups effectively told the story of the data and though some were slightly too much. I consider myself to have the same attention span of a child and there were some presentations that truly grabbed my attention and some, the sequence of events could be followed but it was less attention grabbing. The most important thing is to understand how to give data in a relative fashion, and it must be engaging. We found that Prezi is a valuable  resource to use in this quest to visualize information.

The Teacher That Had the Most Impact On Me=]

Dear Matt,
I had the best AP English 11 teacher in the world! His name is Mr.Betsch, he forces his students to step out of their comfort zones and have opinions and beliefs. Once a week we would read an article or a short story and he wouldn't tell us what to look for he just asked us to think about it with an open mind. Also he never made us feel that an idea was wrong or stupid, he encouraged us to make mistakes beacuse you learn to get up from that and try again. This by no means, is saying that he was not hard on us, because he was. Our essays were meticulously looked at and thought about. He wanted to make us into the best writers we could be which included critiquing our work. The best thing about him was that if a student showed that they put forth an effort he would be there to help them in any way he could, including staying after school, giving up his lunch or prep period. He wanted above all to succeed! The sad thing is that most teachers are not like this because they cannot afford to put this much effort into teaching, because half the time they need to have another job just to make ends meet. We need to start valuing the good teachers or we are going to lose them.

Ken Robinson's "Schools Kill Creativity"

This man is brilliant!!!! His insight on the importance of eduaction is so true, this is one issue that nearly everyone has a vested interest in. It effects everyone, no matter who you are. I would also agree that creativity is also very important in our process of learning for our children, but I also think that it needs to be said that teachers have to have the ability to be creative in the class room. This, to me, is almost as important as the creativity of kids, because if the teachers cannot teach creatively, the students will not be able to let their creativity flow.

The issue of being wrong is so relevant to education, because this obsession with getting the "right" answer is ruining kids exploration of the problem itself. I can say that I am pretty much a direct product of this idea. I want to be able to give the answer that my teacher wants and I am terrified of being wrong. I think it has hugely effected my creativity because I cannot do a project or assignment unless I have explicit directions on what I am supposed to be doing I get frustrated, which stems from my fear of being wrong. I have been told ever since I was a little kid that grades were pretty much the most important thing in the world! And so based on our current type of grading system if you are right you get A's and if you are wrong you get F's. This is frightening.

This bit about the arts is something that goes way over my head because I have never embraced that side of me. I used to love drawing but I would judge my pictures against others art and I would think mine is bad, because it did not look like theirs. I was scared to be wrong so I stopped, I said that I wasn't creative, that wasn't me because my art wasn't like the art I had seen. There was no point in me doing it if I wasn't good. Now I am in no way saying that if I had kept with it and did not care that my art wasn't "good", I would be a famous artist. I am simply stating that embracing that side of me could have helped with a lot of things in the future, including this class, and creative writing. I squashed that bit of creativity and now I am really regretting it.

I was homeschooled for 6th and 7th grade and I completely hated it because I had to teach myself there was no one really there telling me what to do or giving me explicit instruction. The thing I realize know is that in those two years I probably learned more, about myself especially then I ever had before. I know that homeschooling is not the solution for everyone (it wasn't for me either because of the lack of socialization, but perhaps something that brings some of those elements into the public education system.

The dancer he spoke of is a prime example of different ways that children learn, you can't shove them in a box and expect them to be the same as everyone else, like Ken Robinson talked about in the other video, this creates conformity and is that what we want? We as future teachers and possibly parents need to undersatand that by assuming that all students learn the same and grading them and creating pressure for them to "succeed" in the way we see fit is DETRIMENTAL to their growth.

Again I say this man is brilliant and he should be our president!!!!

Ken Robinson for President!!!! Save our education system!!