I was excited for this weeks investigation and being able to put myself in my students shoes and create an inquiry investigation about a provided research question. Even though I do this quite often as an educator that designs labs and investigations for my students, I do not have a lot of experience with physical science investigations so I found it interesting to do this assignment.
I chose the question - Which pendulum will come to rest more quickly - a lighter pendulum or heavier pendulum? I chose to use a pendulum apparatus that I have in my classroom and washers to conduct the investigation. I used 10 washers for the first part of the experiment. I released the pendulum and started a timer and observed the amount of time it took to come to a complete rest. I did three trials and then repeated the same experiment using 5 washers.
The results turned out as I had suspected. The heavier pendulum took much longer to come to a stop then the lighter one. I expected these results because it was common sense to me that the more mass the longer it takes to stop an object. I wasn't expecting the object to take such a long time to come to a rest. It took an average of over 10 minutes for the heavy object and just over 6 minutes for the lighter object.
I thought that the experiment went pretty well and was a pretty easy experiment to come up with. However, that is because I have some background knowledge on the subject and as an educator, I have experience designing investigations. I wonder if my 8th grade students would be able to design an experiment just as easily? I think they would be able to come up with a pretty decent experiment, with enough time to really think about it and maybe have some equipment out already that they can pick from to start the design process in their minds.
What did not work well during the experiment was the time it took to get through the trials. I think it is essential at the very, very least for students to gather data from 3 trials. If students will be required to first design a valid experiment (without having any background knowledge on the topic) and then do the trials, this lesson could take one whole class period to design, a second to collect data, and one more day to come up with a conclusion and theory. Then another day would be required to actually discuss the experiment and clarify any misconceptions. I do not think that 4 days is feasible for one lesson on momentum. I wanted to try do this in a shorter time period so I decided to change the length of the string on the pendulum. I wasn't sure what to expect. Well, it drastically changed to time for the pendulum to come to rest. I will be sure to have the pendulum lengths short when I have students do this experiment in the classroom.
I would like to use this guided inquiry investigation in my classroom with my students. I would use the 5E's model to create a more engaging, real-world investigation. For example, I would engage students with a discussion about momentum and to find out what they know already. Students can then explore by using this guided inquiry investigation. Students could present and explain their ideas and any misconceptions could be discussed here. Students can then elaborate by applying this concept to what they know about sports, cars, or any other real-world application. I would also extend the inquiry investigation and have students investigate changing the length of the pendulum and the angle release of the pendulum.
I essentially want students to investigate momentum and be able to actually define and explain what momentum is and its relationship to mass and velocity. I want students to discover this without having any definitions or lessons beforehand to see if they can discover the relationship on their own. Then I would like to have a lesson and note taking session about momentum followed by a possible extension activity. I think by using the guided inquiry investigation that I designed, students will be able to explore on their own and discover the above relationships.
