Velocity Graphs, Motion Maps, and Postition Graphs: Ohh My

      This week we finished the lab that we started last week. I know I briefly explained what we had to do and we ran into some issues, but here is a recap. The lab we had to do was just recreate some position vs. time graphs and record what the velocity vs. time graph was that correlated with the former. This process was also flipped for part of the experiment. Some issues we ran into included the fact that at first our motion sensor wouldn't register our movement. It was, however, a very simple mistake that we made. We had the sensor motioned above us, so instead of it being paraell to us it went straight over our heads.
      After that little hick-up was fixed we started working. Initally, I was on top of everything. I the speed at which an object is moving in relationship to a reference point. If the distance gets smaller then there is no increase in distance from the reference point and is therefore negative. understood the graphs that we had to make, what they meant, and how each graph correlated with eachother. However, that is until we came to a graph that was coming twords y axis and not away from it. I had the right line (a simple horizontal line), but I misplaced it in relationship to the axis. Instead of it being above the axis it was now below it. That was my first mistake. I did quickly learn from that mistake and it does make sense. This is bcause velocity is no more than
      Then  everything continued to  move along just fine, until we came to another graph, where my graph turned out to be wrong. In this graph the line went in a positively linear fashion, then went in a horizontal line across the graph, and finally came down in a linear fashion. My guess was that the velocity graph would first go straight across the gaph above the horizontal axis, then go even with the axis, and finally dip down below the axis. My thinking was that there should have been no transition between speeds, because the changes were simetaniously, however, this theory was challenged by one of my groups members. She said that there would be a slight trasition between speeds. I will admit that I was very stubborn and would not give into that theory. In factm it took four different sets of data to finally convince me.  In the end though, I did agree with her.
      Next, there was the rest of the graphs. They again went extremely smooth, and I understood the concepts just fine. Although, that's were I ran into another problem this time with my goals from last week. Once I understood the consepts I start to dominate the lab, and that's a problem, but, instead of just giving the answers away, I asked a lot of questions that I thought would lead them to the answer. This seemed to aggravate some of my group members though, and I can't blame them. After all, when our teacher does that to us I hate it.
       After that, a rarity happened. We actually had homework. It was again extremely simple and was based on the lab that was done that day. The only expetion were three questions at the bottom, and the only confusing one was number three. It asked what "what does the area below a time vs. a velocity graph tell you about the motion of an object". The funny part was that none of us at my table had gotten that question either, so Mr. B had to actually explain it to us. It turned out to be very simple. The answer was "how much distance an object travels in a set amount of time". The way Mr. B. showed us was with one of our standards, naming the units of a graph, along with a simple problem of dimesnsional analysis.
     On the next day there was a plus delta on the whole class, and the main points I was thinking were brought up. A couple of pluses that was brought up was the fact that Mr. B is extremely nice and does care about our learning. We also like how he lets us learn from our mistakes and lets us redo tests accordingly. Then, some of the deltas was the fact that Mr. B. never gives us any conformation/negation to our findings. We dilike how he doesn't really give us any type of guidance in the conversation. That leads us into a circle and we never have a set answer to the question. He says that the reason he doesn't really give us too much guidance is because when he isn't at school he wants us to carry on class as usual. He also says that most of our classes will be run by the kids and that we will have to come to the realizations not have the teachers say too much, therefore we better learn now. Finally, some of the toss ups included the fact that he gives us room to learn, isn't a dictator, and these blogs. These we toss ups because there are good things to them and bad. For instance, its good that he doesn't control our every move but bad because we can't focus, and the blogs organize our thoughts but they are so time consuming, and there was a huge negative feeling to the blog buddies too.

 

     After the plus/ delta, there was the discussion on the lab itself. Here we talked mainly about motion maps. This was particulary helpful to me because I did not understand how to do a motion map to begin with. It turns out they are just a bunch of arrows going in a direction to represent where an object is going in relationship to a reference point. It also shows the speed the object is at. For instance, short arrows means a slow speed and a long arrow means fast. After that, we learned that dots meant that there is no movement at all. Finally, we got to what each line means. For instance, a velocity graph with a negative horizontal line means  that the object is moving twords the reference point, a positive horizontal line means that the object is moving away from the object, a straight line going along the x axis means that there is no movement. A current theory I have is that a smooth curve line would have a gradually building speed. That would be something else to consider testing also. The one thing I do want to change though, is the fact that in these discussions there are really only three people talking (and no it is not me). Mr. B. has heard this issue before and addressed us about it. We even went as far to say that those three people couldn't really talk, but it still happen. Also, there were still kids getting cut off in their questions, I even had to speak up for one of them. I also never got the cahnce to ask my question of "why do we use rays in motion maps and not something else". I know I did talk to Mr. B about this and suggested that part of the problem is that most kids weren't comforatable just shouting out things and sit quietly/raise hands. Therefore, by actually calling on kids with hands raised would help that problem tremendously.However, therewas a partial plus to all this madness. With having the three kids tone it down a little we did hear from other people more so.

 

Everything put together