Re: Goal Oriented Physics Activities

["Richard W. Tarara" <rtarara@SAINTMARYS.EDU>]

There's one I've done in the past that I call Newton's Maze.  You need some
kind of blower with a flexible hose--our air track blowers work well.  You
only need one, so even if you must purchase one, it can make economic sense.
You also need a heavy metal ball--pinball size or larger.

Find a flat table and level it (although the exercise will work with a
slightly 'tilted' table as well).  With masking tape, construct a maze.  Use
about three layers of tape and make the width of the 'tracks' about 3 cm
wide.  Be sure to include some right angle turns, some long straight
sections,  and try to have one large curve in the maze.

Now hold a contest.  The goal is to blow the ball around the maze in the
shortest time.  I have penalties of 5 seconds for going out of the maze
boundaries (then replace the ball where it went out) and 10 seconds for
falling off the table (other than the end of the maze which exits off the
table) or touching the ball with the hand or hose while in play.  Get some
junk prizes from Oriental Trading or the like to award or use 'Bonus Points'
for the lab as rewards.

Ideally the students would have a little time to practice moving a ball
around using the hose before the contest.  It is also helpful if the flow
can be moderated with a valve (our situation) but the flow should be set
before the contest starts (by each contestant if you like) and not changed
during the run.  If there is no flow control, then students can 'learn' how
to squeeze the end of the hose to effect the flow.

This is ultimately an exercise in Newton's laws.  The successful student
will quickly learn that they must both accelerate AND decelerate the ball
and that it takes as long to slow down the ball as it took to speed it up.
They will learn the proper directions to apply the force of the air to turn
corners, and especially that the best way to negotiate a wide curve is to
get the ball moving and then apply a force towards the center of the curve
to get the ball around quickly.

I have the student then write up a critique of their run IN TERMS OF
NEWTON'S LAWS.

You should be able to do the same thing LARGE SCALE with a leaf blower, a
soccer or basketball, and an appropriately designed maze.

Rick

*********************************************
Richard W. Tarara
Associate Professor of Physics
Department of Chemistry & Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556
219-284-4664
rtarara@saintmarys.edu

Free Physics Instructional Software
Win9x, Win3.x, Dos, Mac, PowerMac versions.
Details at  www.saintmarys.edu/~rtarara
*************************************************


----- Original Message -----
From: "Tony Wayne" <wayne@PEN.K12.VA.US>
To: <PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu>
Sent: Thursday, March 09, 2000 9:38 AM
Subject: Goal Oriented Physics Activities


> At the end of the year I wanted to do a set of small, IN CLASS, contests.
> Some contests that I've done in the past I have incorporated as labs. For
> example, my projectile motion labs have students shoot a ball out of a
> spring launcher at a given angle off a table and have them place a cup on
> the floor where they think the ball will land. For an energy lab, I have
the
> students bungie jump a weighted plastic egg from the ceiling while trying
to
> adjust the cords length to get as close to the floor as possible. These
goal
> oriented labs count less than "regular" labs because the required write is
> not as rigorous. The kids are very enthusiastic about these goal oriented
> labs.
>
> Please share any ideas for other goal oriented labs or contests for
physics
> students with the list [and me ;-)]
>
> If anyone is interested in my Bungie jump lab, e-mail and I'll reply with
an
> e-mail attachment containing a pdf file of my lab. You will need Acrobat
> Reader 4.0 to read the file.
> -tony