Week of October 19, 2009

This week in science I learned about motion.

I learned these ideas by conducting multiple experiments.

First, was the telescope experiment where we made a paper telescope and held it up and kept something in focus. The way I was holding it was my initial orientation. Then we followed Mr. Segan run with the ball while keeping the ball focused in my telescope and discussed how we know something is moving. Something is moving when the background changes, you have to change position to keep it in view, and when you compare it to something still.

Next, we did movement with observers. Every observer sees movement a different way. For example, a person who is in the process of sitting down will see a person who is standing straight as going up. Or a person in a car driving away will see a person standing still as getting smaller and farther away, when in fact they are not moving at all. We did an experiment with Someone on the side walk, two cars (one fast one slow), and a person on a bench, then we discussed how each person would see the movement of the cars.

Then, we learned how to describe movement with different directions. We learned that left and right does not always work because people face different ways and everyone's left and right are different depending on where they are standing. We tried to use cardinal directions, but that is hard to do if you do not have a compass. Then we decided that a coordinate graph setup is best with an x and y-axis, and positive and negative sides of each axis.

Lastly, we learned how to measure the movement of thing like cars by coming up with a time interval (like 2 seconds) and marking where the car is every two seconds. You can mark where the car is by putting down a piece of tape and marking with a marker or a cube where the car is every time interval.

These ideas are important to know so you can accurately explain the movement of objects and their location. This will help you communicate with people and measure where things are or how fast they are going. it is good to know this stuff when you are driving or making a model car. Also, to explain where a boat or car is and which way it is going to a friend facing the other direction or all the way across the street.

Week of October 12, 2009

  Something that I thought was confusing about light is how the eye sees the image.  I know that your eye takes in rays in the pupil and turns them.  But how do the rays turn?  And how come the rays only go into the pupil and not your whole eye, its not like your eye can attract light?  I figured out that your eye is like the cardboard experiment and the rays can only go through the hole, and they flip just like the candle flame.  I still do not understand the reason why the rays only go into your pupil and i definitely do not get how the rays can travel all the way up to your brain without being stopped.

I understand how light travels very fast in air and slower in water.  Since water is denser than air it refracts and the water waves are closer together.  The running thing made sense and helped me understand it more.  LIke when Jackie, Laura, and Perry had to weave through everyone they couldn't run as fast as they could normally.   

Week of October 5, 2009

This week in science class i learned to compare light to things easier to understand like, a bouncy ball bouncing on the ground. We also learned about how light bends and when it bends. We learned about how light reflects off of water and why it reflects off of water. Plus, we were introduced to different light theories, the particle theory and the wave theory, and are beginning to learn when we should use each theory. Sometimes neither theory works well to suit the situation.

I learned these ideas by experimenting and making analogies. We did experiments to prove our hypothesis' wrong so that we can find out important facts. We did experiments like pointing a laser at a jar of water and seeing where the laser dot goes and how it reflects off of the water. We also put a rock in a sink full of water to symbolize how light with the wave theory bounces back and reflects off of the walls. We also did many more experiments.

It is important to understand and know these ideas because then you can truly understand light. If you know these ideas, like when to apply the theories by Isaac Newton and Christiaan Huygens, and when to apply them to simple situations, you will know how light travels. You will know that light has no weight and that photons are particles in light. Knowing these ideas will help you understand why you see your reflection in a mirror or a still lake. Knowing things like how to make analogies will help you communicate important ideas to other people when it is hard to explain it in words.

Week of 9/28/2009

The ideas I learned this week in Science class is that water reflects objects because light bounces off the water and in all different directions, including into our eyes. We also learned that every object has a high or low focus. A mirror has a very high focus and a solid brick wall has a very low focus and cannot reflect many things-light just doesn't reflect off of it well.If light bounces off the water and in all directions than we should be able to see ourselves, but we couldn't. So we disproved our hypothesis' one by one to get the best answer.

I learned these ideas by experimenting and making H-D statements. I made hypothesis' and predictions and then tried proving them wrong or right. I would come up with 3-5 hypothesis' and then come up with an experiment to prove each one wrong. The one that i cannot prove wrong is the one closest to the truth.

It is important to know these ideas because then the next time you look into a pond you know why you see yourself. It is important to know how light bounces off things because when you get old enough to drive you know which way to turn your side-view mirrors. This knowledge can come in handy in many different ways.