energy!

-This picture explains the gravitational potential energy this ball has.

+ Imagine that you can travel back in time and talk to yourself about one of the concepts below. What would you tell yourself about the concepts that who make it easier to learn.
-Work and Power
-Energy transfer and Bar charts
-Types of energy and energy conservation vs constant energy

If I could go back in time and explain conservation energy vs constant energy, I would tell myself that the energies are easy to understand. When something has conserved energy, it means that we can explain what happens and that some kind of work is done. When something has constant energy, it means that there was no work done and that there was an energy transformation instead. I would also tell myself that the types of energy are easy to understand. When something is high up off the ground we know that that object has gravitational potential energy, and when something is moving we know that that object has kinetic energy.

+ What experiment was helpful/might be helpful in constructing this concept.

The experiment that was helpful when learning about conserved energy and constant energy was when we did bar chart problems and then figured out in which situation the energy would be constant or conserved. The experiment that was helpful when learning about gravitational potential energy was when we dropped a book from a high height and saw that there was a lot of gravitational potential energy when the book was at it's highest point and it lost most of it's energy the closer it got to the ground.

Energy!

If I could travel back in time, I would explain to myself that identifying a system is very easy. The system is the thing that energy is given to, a system receives energy. For example, when we saw the video of the elephant jumping on a trampoline, the system is the elephant and the earth. This is the system because the elephant is receiving energy from the trampoline and the earth pulls down on the elephant. Another example is if you hand someone a box of tissues, you are the outside force that is giving the system energy, or in this case a box of tissues.

The experiment that was very helpful in constructing this concept is the experiment when someone hands another person a box of tissues. The person who receives the tissues, receives the energy, and the person who gave that person energy/tissues is the outside force.

This image represents the experiment we did when someone handed someone a tissue box/energy. The person in this picture who has the flower in their hand is the outside force because he is giving the flower to the other person. The person who is about to receive this flower is

the system because energy is being transferred to them.

Characteristics of the Moon

+ Imagine that you can travel back in time and talk to yourself about one of the concepts below. What would you tell yourself about the concepts that who make it easier to learn.
Comparing and Contrasting Inner/Outer Planets
Characteristics of the moon
Causes for planetary Orbits
Comparisons of Comets/Meteors and Meteorite

If I could travel back in time and talk to myself about the characteristics of the moon, I would tell myself that the characteristics are easy to understand. I would tell myself that on the moon there are craters, rays, rilles, and mountains.

+ What experiment was helpful/might be helpful in constructing this concept.

The experiment that would be helpful in constructing this concept would be the experiment we preformed in class. We take a marble and throw it into a pan filled with flour. We then see a crater and rays, which are also on the moon in real life.

Moon Again

What science ideas did you learn?

This week we continued talking about why we have moon faces, seasons, direct, and indirect sunlight. We only talked about this for a day or so. Most of the week we discussed about why the moon/earth doesn't crash into the earth/sun. This didn't make sense because there was no force pulling the moon/earth away from the earth/moon. I figured out that there must be an unknown force, forcing the moon/earth away from the sun/earth.

How did you learn these ideas?

We learned these ideas?

We discussed with our table groups, and later talked about our hypothesis with the class. We also worked on the computer, with a new simulation.

Why is it important to know this idea?

It is important to understand how the earth/moon revolves around the sun/earth because we should know why the earth/moon doesn't crash into the sun/earth. We should know why things in astronomy are the way they are.

Moon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What science ideas did you learn?

This week we learned about tides. We learned that spring tides have higher "high tides" and lower "low tides," than neap tides. We also talked about why we have seasons for part of the week too. We learned that seasons happen because of the tilt of the earth and the way the sun is hitting it. When the sun is hitting the earth in the northern hemisphere with direct light it is summer. When the sun is hitting the earth with indirect sunlight it is winter.

How did you learn these ideas?

We learned these ideas by experimenting and discussing with our table groups and with the class. We talked about our ideas of why we have seasons with our table groups and then discussed the correct answer as a class.

Why is it important to know this idea?

It is important to understand about seasons and tides and astronomy because when we graduate college and someone asks us why we have seasons, we should be able to answer the question correctly. We should not be like the Harvard graduates in the movie we saw, A Private Universe.

Astronomy

What science ideas did you learn?

This week we started a new unit. We started learning about astronomy. This week we have been learning about astronomy by using a moon simulation. We have been working on a packet in groups most of the week, using the moon simulation to answer the questions in the packet. This week we also learned about rotation and revolution. We also learned about the different moon faces and the order in which they appear in.

How did you learn these ideas?

We learned these ideas by working in groups most of the week and by using a moon simulation to answer questions in a packet we had been working on. Once we completed this packet we discussed the answers as a class.

Why is it important to know this idea?

It is important to understand astronomy and the way it works because we should know about outer space. We should also know the moon faces because we should know what kind of moon we are looking at if we look up in the sky. We should also understand why there are different moon faces, why the earth revolves around the sun, and why day and night occurs.