Elementary Science II-Week 2

 

Week 2

1. This week in our lab section, we focused on the question, "How do we make a race exciting between people who run at different speeds?". To answer this question, we used a model of a race between two students. One student is known to be the faster racer, and our model had to demonstrate how we could make the race exciting by figuring out a way for the students to finish the race at similar times, even though they run at different speeds. We made our models in small groups, measured the distance of the race and the speeds of the racers, and determined how long of a head start the slower racer should get so the two racers could finish around the same time. At the end of our lab section, we compared models by racing other groups. 

2. In the lecture, I learned more about the math behind finding the distance that a slower racer/ object should get to arrive at similar times as the faster racer/ object. We went through the algorithm, and it was time equals distance over speed. In the lecture, we also talked about how we can measure motion. The formula to measure motion is speed equals distance over time. Lastly, I learned that kids should explore, describe, and predict motion by designing investigations to collect data about motion. 

3. Weekly textbook reading:

- I learned a lot in the press book readings for this week. I learned that position tells you where you are relative to a reference point. Velocity measures how fast position changes, and it is related to speed, and it doesn't include direction. Describing motion allows us to predict where things will be in the future and begin to understand why things move like they do. 

- What was most helpful in the press book readings for this week were the videos. The video that was the most helpful was the video that showed a video representation of position, velocity, and acceleration. This video helped a lot because I am more of a visual learner, and it helped me fully understand how this process works. 

- The thing that I need more information on from this press book reading is the deceleration process. The video touched base with this concept, but I would love to figure out further how we can calculate how fast the deceleration process is. 

- One question that I have is, is there a formula to find the exact speed of deceleration?