Changing air Pressure

Could you change the air pressure with just the heat in your hands? The @Pascoscientific Pressure sensor could detect the change in pressure, and the thermometer recorded the change in temperature as the Pressure went up from 99.1 kPa to 100.1 kPa

 

Maths Homework

 Maths Homework - have a go at this Maths Paper. Now we have completed the syllabus practice is essential. With Maths, it is all about practice and learning how to use taught strategies to solve new problems.

Hotwheels PE to KE

Using the Hotwheels track to launch cars from 1m, .75m, .5m and 25cm, and then to measure their KE using a @pascoscientific light gate and Capstone. Working out why KE didn't = gPE was more of a problem because it was better when dropping a ball.

 

Quick and easy online microscope

 Need a quick and easy microscope for online work then grab the phone and add a Macrolens and immediately you can stream the item or get a quick picture of it. A cheap way into the world of macro science.

Web Application Programming

 Web Application Programming. You can tell when its getting serious when a student is working with a Raspberry Pi as a server a Mac and a Windows machine, two phones Android and an iPhone, and a couple of tablets, an Android and an iPad.

Exam Practice

Getting in some Exam Practice for the Mocks. Practising lots of exam papers does help especially in Maths as it is not just necessary to learn but also to practice those problem-solving skills.

 

Nylon Rope Trick

It takes some practice to pull out the nylon thread in the nylon rope track experiment. With some practice, the students managed to get longer and longer threads. 

 

Polarisation Angles

 Using the @Pascoscientific light sensor and rotation sensor to measure the light transmission compared to the polaroid disk's rotation angle. We could clearly see the sine wave produced as the disk went from complete transmission to virtually none and back.

Calculator memory

 Getting used to the new news of doing things on the new Casio calculator as more students use these.

Superimposition of waves

 Using a wave tank and slo-mo to try to capture the superimposition of waves. This has been the best way I have found so far to show that the waves increase as they pass through one another. But if you know a better way ...

Photosynthesis

Having brought some pond weed in from the pond for a few days and given it some light, the plants performed well, giving off a stream of oxygen bubbles that could be counted and the oxygen tested for. We tried different light sources and different wavelengths using led bulbs.

 

Networking

 

Networking. Dusting off some 25-year-old PowerPoint. The Network slides have stayed the same in that time.

Measuring the River Flow

Measuring the river flow rate in  The River Gade. This involved a little wading. The water was at 8.9C Now to build up a cross-sectional flow map of the River to explain the distribution of organisms.

 

Iodine in water and cyclohexane

 

First, Iodine was dissolved in water and a little dissolved, changing the colour, but much of the iodine remained solid. Then it was shaken with cyclohexane, and immediately, the water layer went clear as the iodine dissolved in the cyclohexane. After a while, more iodine dissolved in the water, turning it brown again.

Protecting the sensor

 We are doing some Simple Harmonic Motion experiments online with springs and masses over the @pascoscientific Ultrasonic sensor, so we are trying to keep it safe.

Differentiation from First Principles

 Trying to understand differentiation from first principles is one of the hardest things to learn. Giving the students these proofs and then letting them do one on their own shows whether they have grasped the concept.

Calculation of Wavelength

Physics practical working out the wavelength of a laser going through a diffraction grating of 100 lines per mm. Managed to get 667nm, which was pretty close.

 

Camera Quadrat

Fieldwork using the camera 1m Quadrat or using a .5m quadrat and taking a photo. Both were a very quick way of scanning the field and then using the computer in the classroom to analyse the photos and record the numbers of plant species.

 

Building a Raspberry Pi Server

 The students gain considerable computing experience, given a Raspberry Pi computer, installing all the software and setting up a functioning LAMP web server. Some used PHP, and others tried Django to go with their Python skills.

Candle optics

 One of the few advantages to late Autumn and winter time is the dark evenings when it is very easy to carry out Candle Optics. I like seeing the faces of the students seeing the candle upside down and then explaining what has happened.

Optically Active Molecules

Looking at a simple Polarimeter to measure the angle of rotation of Dextrose (D-Glucose) with Snatoms to help. Trying out a light source above and below the solution to more easily see the difference in rotation.

 

Pasco Flow Rate/Temperature Sensor

 With the sailing, I am wondering whether a flow rate sensor might be a useful addition to my sensors. If I put this on the River Thames where I sail I can get some good data on which part of the River will have the greatest flow rate to improve my speeds, and I can use it with the Biology studies of streams.

Another integration Hack

Another little integration hack that can save a lot of time is if the equation, the derivative of the function also part of the equation. This again saves time in an exam from having to do integration by parts or substitution.

 

When you go beyond the elastic limit

Springs in Series, Springs in Parallel and Hookes Law. Seeing what happens when we go above the limit of proportionality and then beyond the elastic limit to the UTS and the breaking point. It's a lot more fun than stretching a couple of wires for Young's Modulus.