Week 2: Day 3

Today there is nothing much to report. I am just continuing yesterday's line of work. The progress is still disappointingly slow, but hopefully it will speed up by the time I get on to the other subjects.

I started explaining a lot about Ohm's law in my lab report, which I find the easiest definition for is a law stating that electric current is proportional to voltage and inversely proportional to resistance. It seems to be the key to everything here; it's something that I need to know really well.

Hopefully by next week the lab reports will finally be done- as well as all the videos. Then I'll be ready to take the quiz.

Week 2: Day 2

Today I looked over the lab reports to include the new knowledge from the videos.

There seems to be a lot to change. The question in lab report #1 was how a series circuit's current and voltage relate to one another. I realized the procedure I made did not exactly answer that question; therefore the conclusion was difficult to write.

There were a lot of new screenshots and revisions in the procedure to be made. After the video I realized it was impossible to explain the connection between the two of them without also talking about resistance. Anyone following the lab must have prior knowledge about resistance, current, and voltage, otherwise they won't understand what we're doing.

In the previous procedure I made a series circuit and used to voltmeter to measure the volts. There were no specific sets of data. In the revision of the experiment, there will be detailed tables. I'm going as far as thinking I should revise the variables. I think it would make much more sense for the controlled variable to be "resistance" instead of "type of circuit" since the "type of circuit" is already pretty much given.

I think the rest of this week will be spent revising the lab reports. It is taking much more time than I thought it would, but I suppose since it's our first legit time of designing an experiment it's bound to be tricky. Next week I'll probably finish off the videos. I find that knowing the stuff before we actually experiment on it and figuring it out along the way helps a lot. I guess I won't actually be sticking to the written plan now.

Week 2: Day 1

Today I tried to finish the remnants of last week's work. I tried to complete the lab reports and finish watching some videos. Sadly, I didn't get very far.

I know the basics of current, voltage and resistance, which is enough to understand the lab report. But there is some things that remain unclear. The video cleared up so much that I think I should go back and look at my lab report again.

In class, I watched the video Voltage Current and Resistance - Bozeman Science. It used the simulation to explain about current, voltage, and resistance. Then, I wrote this post to organize my thoughts. 

In last week's post Week 1: Day 1, I wondered why there were some sparks flying when I built a circuit without a resistor. The video cleared that up. Without the resistor, the electrons would basically go fast and out of control. 

The relationship between current, voltage, and resistance can be represented by the analogy of a water tank. The tank holder, where the water remains idle, is the voltage. It's the potential energy of the circuit. The voltage is the water that's actually flowing in the pipes. The resistance is whatever slows down the water- which is important because you don't want to the water to flow too fast and break the pipes, so to speak. The resistance could be the twists and turns or the smaller pipes branching off.

After he explained this, he went on to the simulation. That was when he showed what would happen without a resistor in a simple circuit. Then, he showed the way the voltage, resistance, and current are related.

I thought the way he explained it made more sense than anything else. As I said, I will be looking at my lab report again.

Week 1: Day 3

So far, the first week's pile of work seems to be organized, but it took more time than I thought to finish them all up.

Today, I did Lab #3, which I named Relationships in a Circuit. Here, I explored the relationships between current, voltage, and resistance in a circuit. This activity required previous knowledge- things I recently learnt in the past two activities. I used two simulations for this one. Ohm's law, which I learnt about in Simulation two and had a small introduction in Lab one, was finally understood well. Other things I learnt can be summarized to this:

I found this website very helpful as well. It answered a lot of my questions. I have yet to write a complete lab report, but if there are any questions I need to ask, it'll be useful.

I, however, was not about to complete the lab report from Lab #2, nor did I have any more time at home than the one hour "class" time and a few spare minutes to write this post. Viewing the videos will have to wait. However, I did have a suitable outline for this lab, as well as a focused research question. When I find time I will complete the lab #2 and #3 lab reports and watch the videos.

Next week I will be doing that before I start on Week Two of the possible timeline. The schedule will be pushed back a bit, but now that I have gotten the hang of this, hopefully I will get back on track and pass through things I understand more quickly. This whole unit's estimated time of eight weeks will probably be the same.

Week 1: Day 2

Today, in "class" or rather, at home, I did Lab #2: Resistance. In this activity, I explored resistance in a circuit. The lab was done in the phET simulation, like the first one.

In this activity, I was able to understand more of what was going on than I did in the previous activity. In addition, identifying the variables and coming up with a more focused topic question was easier. However, I find that learning about simple, series, and parallel circuits are more interesting than resistance.

Later, outside the time period of "class" hour, I watched a Youtube video explaining what I did last class and this class. The video gave further insight, especially on resistance. In addition, I went over the lab report I did last class. I decided to submit the three lab reports together, in case there is something I want to add later on. I also did a google search online on resistance, hoping to find some helpful information that will help on the lab report for lab #2.

Before this class, I knew a bit about series and parallel circuits. I did not remember much from previous classes, though. Resistors seemed to be new- or it's something I completely forgot about. Yet it seems essential to the components of a circuit. At first, when I first heard the term "resistor", I wondered why we needed a hindrance in the flow of charge.

In day 3, I will do simulation #3. It would be in another phET simulation. If I complete that early in class time, I should be able to complete the lab report for this class. If not, I will try and do it at home in addition to the lab report for simulation #3. I also did not have the chance to check out the videos on Moodle yet. Hopefully I will be able to do that soon.

Today, however, did not go as productive as I hoped, due to being ill. It is fortunate that it landed on a day without school, though.

Week 1: Day 1

Last class, I experimented with the phET simulation in addition to making this blog. Furthermore, I wrote the last two posts as somewhat of an introduction to this unit.

In class, I got more serious with the phET simulation. I did the activity/lab required number one on the Electricity and Magnetism Unit Outline. It's called the Circuit Flow of Electricity. 

This could be the first real time I successfully designed an experiment (if we forget the baking soda and vinegar lab report we never actually completed). With so many choices to choose from in the broad topic of circuits, it was hard to narrow it to one specific question. However, when we identified the variables, the question was refined enough for us to continue writing the lab report. In this investigation, I explored series and parallel circuits. However, I only did the lab report on the series circuit's current and voltage. 

At home, I completed the lab report.

Today, I learnt about the structure of the series and parallel circuits. I learnt the basics of electricity: current, voltage, etc. The simulation seemed to react like it should in real life, and it was pretty cool to watch what we do affect the results we get. There was one time it caught on fire. It was amusing and fascinating- for further knowledge, I should go see how and why that happened. 

By completing the activity, I should be able to tell the relationship between current and voltage in series circuits. By the end of the week, hopefully I will know the relationship between series and parallel circuits too, as it was not explored fully on the simulation but could be added as an extension.

To learn more about the parallel circuits, I will watch a video later. Next post should be about lab number two in addition to the video. There should also be time to go over the lab report before I submit it.

Need To Know Board: Experiment #2

Design and test a wind generator using simple household and/or laboratory equipment and create a sales pitch/commercial/magazine ad to market your product to families and schools. The design should also be accompanied by a written report (submitted by Google Doc) detailing the science and experiments supporting your design.

1) What do I think I know? 

• Wind turbines are used to generate electricity.
• Wind turbines are environmentally friendly, but they are not our main source of energy.
• Many turbines together are called wind farms.

2) Questions to ask

• How do you transfer energy from a turbine into electricity we use?
• How does a wind turbine work?

3) Topics to Explore

• Wind Turbines
• Circuits
• Renewable Electricity

Need To Know Board: Experiment #1

Design and describe/explain a circuit diagram to show how you would wire all of the lights and appliances (outlets) on one floor of your house.  This should include an investigation of how much power (wattage) each light and appliance uses to determine the total electrical load required.

1) What do I think I know?

• A switch is an on/off. It opens or closes a circuit.

• There are positive and negative charges in electricity and magnetism.

• A circuit needs to be unbroken for electricity to flow.

• Power in electricity is measured in watts.

• Fluorescent lights are more efficient than incandescent.

• Copper can conduct electricity well. Water- and also humans- are conductors.

• Wood are rubber are efficient in stopping energy flow.

• You can use acidic fruits like lemons to turn on a light bulb.

• You can not use a series circuit for both light bulbs to be equally bright; you must use parallel circuits.

2) Questions to ask

• What do you call different types of circuits?

• What are the components of a circuit? 

• How do you build a circuit?

• How much power/wattage is required to light one floor of a house?

• How does the fuse work?

3) Topics to explore

• Wattage

• Conductors

• Voltage

• Battery

• Load/Light Bulb

• Control Device/Switch

• Connecting Wires