Science Methods II - Lauren Hird

     In lab this week, we heard our peers give presentations on six different topics: origin of the universe; life cycles of stars' origin of the Earth and Moon; past, present, and future of space travel including Mars; and black holes. Our peers included this information along with preconceptions, misconceptions, historical version, and cool facts about their topics. Each group had a review at the end with three quiz questions to check for comprehension.      In Thursday's lecture, we discussed the main points of each of the six topics to further our understanding of what we learned. It included some details that needed to be stressed as well as some things that were left out by our peers that students in other sections may have included. Specifically, we discussed some of the alternative theories to the origin of the universe such as Steady-State Universe, Eternal Inflation - Level II Multiverse, Oscillating Universe, and a few other theories. We als...

      The main idea for this week's lab was discovering how big the solar system actually is when created to scale. My group used playdough to create the size for the planets and a cut out piece of paper for the sun. The diameter of the sun was 160 mm, which made Mercury 0.5mm, Venus 1.3mm, Earth 1.4mm, Mars 0.4mm, and the Moon 0.35mm. In relation to the sun, Mercury was 6.66m away, Venus was 12.4m away, Earth was 17.2 m away, and Mars was 26.2m away. Compared to the Earth, the moon was 26.6mm away. Here were our planets in size relation to the sun.  Sun: paper Mercury: red Venus: yellow Earth: green Moon: blue Mars: pink     In Thursday's lecture, we discussed the phases of the moon and how the rotation of the earth effects shadows. We talked about the Tropic of Cancer, Equator, and Tropic of Capricorn and how depending on where on the planet someone is located, his or her shadow will either be North, South, or directly above them at exactly noon. We finis...

       The main questions for this week's lab were what are the phases of the moon, what causes seasons, and what causes a lunar eclipse? We took a globe and another smaller ball and experimented with where the moon would be in relation to a lamp being the sun.      In Thursday's lecture, we mainly recreated a larger scale of this experiment with someone being the sun, someone being the moon, and someone being the earth. This way, we were able to discuss exactly how the light reflects off the moon during its different phases.      Before reading the textbook, I never knew to what extent people believed geocentrism and how difficult of a transition it was to heliocentrism. The part that was the most helpful was the image explaining what happens during a solar and lunar eclipse. I knew what they looked like but the explanations connected everything together. At the time, I have a good understanding of the connection between the sun, earth,...

 What are your best understandings about... How the phases of the moon occur? What causes the seasons? What causes a lunar eclipse? The phases of the moon occur in cycles. Each phase depends on the position of the moon, earth, and sun. Each phase looks different depending on how much light from the sun reaches the moon and how much the earth is in between them. It starts as a small sliver, works its way to a full moon, then back down to a sliver.  The seasons are caused by the tilt of the earth. The earth tilts as it rotates around the sun, so the seasons depend on whether the hemisphere a person is located in is tilted toward or away from the sun. Towards the sun is summer, away is winter, and in between is fall and spring.  A lunar eclipse is caused when the earth is directly between the moon and the sun. Therefore, the moon is unable to be seen because there is no light reflection reaching the moon. 

      In lab, we discussed the idea of science vs. engineering. We decided science is why things happen and engineering is how we solve science-based problems. We then moved on to experiment dropping an egg into a bowl filled with possible playground materials to discover what is safe and what is not. My group started with a layer of saran wrap on the bottom covered with 1/2 sand then 1/2 straw.      We found that there was too much bounce from 1 meter and it would not be safe enough.       We then replaced the straw with foam pellets to prevent bounce.       Once we found that the bounce was reduced, we tried the egg. Since the egg weighed less than the golf ball we were experimenting with, we decided to create an indent in the pellets to keep the egg from bouncing or rolling out.      Since this worked, we started brainstorming how we could make it safe for a 2 meter drop. We decided to take out some ...

      In lab this week, we begun by finished discussing our findings from the previous week about how the slide surface or clothing of the rider as well as the rider weight affects the speed at which a rider goes down a slide. The big question we then addressed is how different factors affect the time it takes for a swing to go back and forth. My group tested how the length of the chain of the swing affects the period. This was our model and our findings:      In Thursday's lecture, we discussed the two main findings of Monday's lecture. We found that rider weight does not affect the period of a swing, but the length of a rope or chain does affect the period of a swing. The longer the rope or chain, the longer the period. We reviewed the ideas of Newton's First and Second Laws of Motion to make sure we understood how the force of gravity and the fact that objects with larger masses are harder to accelerate cancel each other out, which is why rider weight do...

     In lab, the main question we addressed was how different factors affect how fast a child goes down a slide. My group tested how a child's clothing affects the speed at which a child goes down a slide. We came to the conclusion that the material of the clothing does affect how fast a child goes down a slide, but due to the shortness of the slide, it did not seem to make much of a difference.      In lecture, we discussed all of the findings that groups tested using the height of the slide, the steepness of the slide, and the clothing material a child was wearing. We discovered that all three things matter when it comes to speed. We learned about how forces such as gravity and friction affect how fast something falls, including children going down slides.      The textbook taught me about Newton's Laws of Motion. I have never taken physics before, so I have never had a good understanding of what they are and what they look like. It was ver...