Monday, March 25, 2013

Newton's cradle Mythbusters



Newtons cradle
If you have the time to show this whole episode to your students. I think it is worth it, except for the chicken on the car myth. I like the way they size up the models.

Daily question- what are Newtons three laws?

Relative Motion Ballerina and Volvo truck comercial




This is the craziest video!! This was on the NSTA website. Here is their summary of it-

This is an advertisement for a brand of truck, but it is also an excellent way to introduce relative motion. The two trucks, the rope, and the high-liner are all moving relative to the ground, but not moving relative to each other. To fully describe motion, it is essential clearly state your "frame of reference" so that others will know what "zero velocity" actually means.

Daily Question- What is relative motion?  What is her velocity relative to the ground? Relative to the truck? Relative the the wire?

TED organization of the periodic table

If you are not familiar with TED you must check this out. TED is a collection of short lectures from some of the greatest minds of today. In their words, "Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world". The following link will take you to TED Ed which covers several subjects.

http://ed.ted.com/lessons


This video gives a nice history of the early theories of the elements and the periodic table.

 
Daily Questions: Who organized the periodic table in the format we use today?
 
http://ed.ted.com/lessons/solving-the-puzzle-of-the-periodic-table-eric-rosado

Sound waves and fire

Although this is a little advanced for most middle schoolers, the idea of sound traveling in longitudinal waves is beautifully displayed using fire and music. He mentions rarefaction and compression in the first couple of minutes. After that it gets complicated quickly.

Daily question: Define rarefraction and compression. Draw a picture and label each.



Sunday, March 24, 2013

TED How small is an atom?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQP4UJhNn0I&sns=em


I know my students always struggle with how small an atom is. This video does a nice job of illustrating the size of an atom. 

Daily question- What are the three subatomic particles in an atom?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQP4UJhNn0I&sns=em


Rube Goldberg Honda commercial


One of my students first brought this to me and I love it. I don't spend nearly as much time on Rube Goldberg as I would like, but I always introduce him and check out a few of his original designs with my students when we start simple machines.
Daily question- List as many simple machines as you can in this clip.

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Science humor


 

Gotta love science.
Daily Question- Who are these guys? How does what they are saying help you figure it out?

Kinetic/ Potential Energy Wiley Coyote style

This video shows the usual encounter between Wiley Coyotoe and the Roadrunner but includes kinetic and potential energy  labels. I haven't tried it yet, but I would like to have students make their own videos and caption it with kinetic and potential energy. Let me know if you have tried something like this, I would love to know what software/app you used.


 
Daily Question: What is kinetic energy? Potential energy?

Pressure/Friction/Melting point Ice Skating Mystery

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/science/weird-science-sci/idkt-ice-skating-science/






This is a quick clip that looks at the science behind ice skating. They do a nice demo of a wire on an ice cube.

Daily Question;
What effect does pressure have on the melting point of ice? Is melting point a physical or chemical property? What is the melting point of water?

Gravity Bungee jumping



Bungee jumping.
This video includes the history of bungee jumping.

Daily question- Define gravity. Draw a picture of a person jumping off a bridge or mountain. What are the forces acting on the jumper? Is this something you would want to do?

Water pressure




This is a neat video about underwater diving and water pressure. Short and Sweet!

Daily Question: Define water pressure.

Manatees,National Geographic

Manatees, Manatee Pictures, Manatee Facts - National Geographic

Great for a lesson on density and buoyancy.
Daily Question:
How come the manatee which weighs 440-1200lbs manage to look so graceful underwater

Physics and the NHL

This is a great resource from NBC. All of these videos are extremely high quality and well done. The subjects vary and include kinematics, velocity, density and friction. I am going to included a couple of my favorite videos with daily questions, but I highly recommend this whole site. It is worth taking a closer look at.

https://www.nbclearn.com/portal/site/learn/science-of-nhl-hockey

Acid versus Base

This one demonstrate how destructive strong bases and strong acids can be.
Daily question: What is the ph of an acid? A base? What is the ph of a weak acid and a weak base?

Periodic table video coke cans ( There is a mistake on this video- or at least a confusing camera angle where the Base and Acid are mixed)

Friday, March 22, 2013

Parkour and friction

The students love these videos. Parkour is a popular form of urban sport where a person must get from one point to another in a creative and fast manner. Whenever I show the Parkour video I also show the fails video. The professionals make it look so easy, the fails bring kids back to reality and I think it is less likely for students to Parkour down the hallways and stairs. The music is very hip hop and may not be appropriate for everyone, you may want to mute it. As always with You Tube, you need to check the area around the video for inappropriate ads.

Daily question: What are the four types of friction? What type of friction do the runners use to stay on the walls or bars? During the fails video what the of friction is causing the injuries?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX7QNWEGcNI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Fails video

Decomposition Chemical Changes

Time release video of a hamburger decomposing. If the hamburger is too gross, another option is the fruit. The different types of hamburgers does stir up a lively conversation.

Daily question-

What type of change is occurring? Physical or chemical? How do you know?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uHxRwQqWFo&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Air pressure and change of state

I like a lot of the Steve Spangler videos, but this has to be my all time favorite. It takes the can crushing demo to a whole new level. He crushes 55 gallon drums! It has the can demo at the beginning so show this after any in class demo. You don't want him stealing your thunder.  This video is 14 minutes long. I think it is worth the class time, but if you want a shorted clip the link to a 2 minute video is below.

Daily Question:

Draw a picture of the forces acting on this can. Draw a picture of the molecules in the can before the warm water and after.

 
 
Two minute clip

Bernoulli's Principle Twister and We've got cows

This one is the clip from the movie Twister where the cow is circling the truck in the tornado. The faster the fluid flows-the lower the pressure goes.

Daily question: What is happening to the cow and why?

Air Resistance- Transformers 3

This is one of my favorite clips. It is a behind the scean look at the Squirel Suit or Wing Suit jumpers, jumping off the Sears Tower in Chicago. This is a great clip for gravity, air resistance or fluid friction.


Daily Question: Draw one of the jumpers  and label the forces. Include the words, gravity, air resistance, fluid friction and awesome.

Buoyancy the Dead Sea

This clip is 6 minutes long and demonstrates a 14 lb bowling ball floating in the Dead Sea.
Daily Question: Draw a picture of the bowling ball in the Dead sea. Label the forces acting on the ball.


Buoyancy Killer Quicksand

This is a nice clip for buoyancy. It is only a few minutes long and summarizes the whole experiment.
Jamie and Adam test the movie image of killer quicksand. The kind that sucks you under.

Daily Question:
Why didn't Jamie sink in the quicksand? Why is his buoyancy different in quicksand vs. water?

Bernoulli's Principle

This is a clip from Finding Nemo. It is the scene where Marlin (Nemo's father) wakes up on the shell of Crush the sea turtle cruisn' the EAC. (East Australian Current)

This is a great video for Bernoulli's Principle. The faster the fluid flows, the lower the pressure goes.
http://www.movieweb.com/movie/finding-nemo/the-eac

Daily Question:
What is the EAC? How does it relate to Bernoulli's Principle?