Mrs. Carroll

Exam Time!

Thursday and Monday students used team created review games to prepare for the upcoming exam.  Even though some student groups created great games, you still need to review at home for your exam.  

The exam consists of 100 questions that are taken from our 8 tests this year.  (10 questions from each of the first 6 tests and 20 from each of the last two tests)

Each student should have their test corrections for each test and copies of the study guides for this year.  You also have a list of the 8th grade physical science vocabulary.  You can find the study guides as past posts on the blog.  Use your book to review the chapters that were covered in class.  Here are the 8 tests that you should have corrections for in your binder:

Test 1:  Introduction to Matter (Matter, Atoms, and the Periodic Table) 

Test 2:  Forces and Motion  

Test 3:  Energy, Work, and Simple Machines

Test 4:  Pure Substances and Mixtures

Test 5:  States of Matter and Heat

Test 6:  Physical and Chemical Properties and Changes

Test 7:  Electricity and Magnetism

Test 8:  Light and Sound

Tuesday exams- 3rd and 6th periods

Wednesday exams - 4th and 7th periods

Thursday exam - 5th period

You will be asked to turn in your book on the day of the exam.  See me if you have any questions.   

Water Powered Cars????

Today we enjoyed a presentation by Mr. Greg Wiles, an engineering professor from Southern Poly. who was our Future Cities mentor this year.  

He is interested in sustainability engineering - you know going green.  We learned about hydrogen fuel cells, electrolysis, PEMs, and much more.  Did you know that one day soon you may be able to power a car using electricity generated from hydrogen that has been created by electrolysis of water?

What a great way to review energy conversions.  Here are some pictures of the fun that we had with toy hydrogen powered cars:

Rocket work continues

4th period had their final launch today and over half of the eggernauts survived.  Hooray!  Several rockets reached great heights and returned their passengers safely- even though they had a rough landing.  Many chutes, sadly, did not deploy...leading to many of the egg disasters. 

All students should have rockets ready for the final launch tomorrow (6th period will be Monday).  The blueprints and rocket specifications and materials list is due tomorrow.  This counts as a project grade and most teams should be finished with the work by now.  

Here are a few pictures:  

 

 

Rocket Launch Trials completed for all but 6th period

Most classes have had a chance to do trial launches.  Only 6th period was rained out.  We hope to have time for the other trials tomorrow.  

Now is the time to begin your review of this year to prepare for the final exam.  While we are revisiting forces and motion, you should take time to review your test corrections for that unit and skim the related chapters.  

Rockets

Your homework assignment is due Wednesday 5/6.  That's this Wednesday!  Each individual student should submit the essay.  It should be about one page, neatly written (or typed).  Use the handout on Rocket Principles  to help you.   

The assignment:  

Write a summarizing essay on the behavior of a water bottle rocket.  Use the following vocabulary in the essay: acceleration, action, reaction, force, gravitational force, gravitational potential energy, kinetic energy, mass, mechanical energy, potential energy, speed, unbalanced force, & velocity.  (Of course, there are other good science words that I hope you include too.)

Here is a great web site that Karli found.  The site has a downloadable PDF book that has good information of all aspects of the bottle rocket design.

Bottle Rocket Booklet

It is Rocket Science!

Here is the copy of the handout for our current class project:

Download Water bottle rocket project

Remember that your homework essay is due on 5/6 - next Wednesday.  You may have a chance to work on it some during class.  Use the following vocabulary in the essay: acceleration, action, reaction, force, gravitational force, gravitational energy, kinetic energy, mass, mechanical energy, potential energy, speed, unbalanced force, & velocity to explain how the bottle rocket works.  (Your rocket principles handout should help with your explanation.)

Students are currently bringing in materials and creating their rockets.  Here are a few photos of our work today.  Rockets should be ready for their test flight by next Tuesday.  

Radiometer Lab Reports are looking great!

I am in the process of evaluating lab reports and should have them posted in a week.  Here a few photos of the lab activity:

Water Bottle Rockets

Water-Bottle Links (emints)

All About Water Rockets (nasa)

Water Rocket Workshop

Air Command Water Rockets

Beginners Guide to Rockets (nasa)

instructables water rockets

science olympiad bottle rockets

waterrocket

Hayhurst rockets

Graph Link - Bring 2L bottles

Here is the link that some requested for creating graphs online:

Create A Graph

Your report is due on Wednesday, 4/29.  

We will make rockets out of 2 liter bottles for our next unit.  Please bring in at least 2 bottles for your group to use.  Write your name and class period on them with a Sharpie (I have a few on my desk for you to use) before you leave it in my room.  

Radiometer Lab Report is due on Wednesday!

Remember that you should be composing and typing your report ---to be submitted by Wednesday, 4/29.  

The purpose of your experiment was to test your hypothesis regarding how a radiometer works.  The goal of this report is to communicate your findings and show that they reasonable and justifiable.  You must show evidence of research in your introduction or discussion.  Remember to cite your sources using MLA format.

Here are a few sites that might help your explanation. 

How Incandescent Bulbs Work

How a Radiometer Works

Crookes Radiometer