The Speed of Light and Sound Experiment

When I was in school my physics teacher did an awesome experiment that I've always remembered.  We went outside to the fields.  He stood at one end of the field, and we were all the way down at the other end.  At the same time, he waved a flag down and shot a starting pistol, and we timed the difference between us watching the flag fall and us finally hearing the sound of the pistol.  The purpose of that experiment was to measure the speed of sound.

However, that was high school.  This is middle school.  And this is a middle school that doesn't happen to have starting pistols in our supply closet.

But I still wanted to do a cool experiment that would help my kids better remember that light is much, much, faster than sound.  Sure, I could tell them and show them the numbers, but that's not going to be as memorable.

Today's Mini-Experiment:

Question: Do light waves or sound waves travel faster?

Hypothesis: I hypothesize that _________ travel faster than _________. (modified hypothesis outline)

Experiment: I watched a video about lightning and thunder. (they loved watching all of these lightning strikes.  I enjoyed it, too.)

Movie is 1:49 minutes long.

Conclusion: My hypothesis stated that _____________.  My results do/do not support my hypothesis.  The results show ___(that light travels faster than sound)___ because, ___(light does not require a medium).  

I had to give them the "because" statement, but we had a discussion on what it meant.  I realized that although we had talked about the word "medium" before, and that sound needs solid/liquid/gas to travel through, they still were unsure on the vocab word.  So I write down "Math Medium" and "Science Medium" on the board.  The math medium means in the middle.  The science medium means matter that something is traveling through.  

I think they understood what I was trying to say.  They were at least able to regurgitate some sort of explanation to their partners during "Partner Teach."

This only took 20-30 minutes depending on questions and initial level of understanding.  The kids did their entire write-ups.  I haven't graded them yet, but they looked pretty good from what I saw. 

Wave Frequency Experiment

In the Science Storage Room of Magic (SSRM), I found these the other day:

BoomWhakers, pic taken from http://boomwhackers.com/

I pulled them out an hatched a plan.  As a follow-up lesson to our frequency and amplitude lesson, I decided to do a little experiment. This was both to let the kids experience these properties more, and to give them more practice on the hypothesis and conclusion writing (see this post).  I gave them the question.

The Tube Experiment

Question: How does the length of the tube affect the pitch of the sound?

Hypothesis: I hypothesize that an increase/decrease in ______ will increase/decrease the ______.

Experiment: We all took a tube and stood in order of longest to shortest.  We then took turns sounding the tube, starting with the longest tube.  We listened to the sound.

Conclusion: My hypothesis stated that __________. My results do/do not support my hypothesis.  The results show ___________, because ___________.

And that's the basic write up that they did.  Simple and easy.  Remember, I'm in middle school and sped. But we still do it correctly.

After sounding the tubes out, we had a discussion on what the results showed (i.e. an increase in length decreased the pitch, or a decrease in length increased the pitch), and why.  The why was a little confusing for them, but that's more advanced.  All they need to know is that what differs between each tube is the frequency of the wave. 

If you don't have BoomWhackers, then try this experiment.

BE WARNED: 

(1)It's cool, but because it's cool parents and waitresses/waiters everywhere might be forever frustrated.  

(2)It will also create a mess in your classroom. 

(3)Also, this might be good to do at the end of class after all instruction for that day. Otherwise you'll hear annoying noises for the rest of class.

Wave Worksheet--Sound and Light

This is another wave worksheet, following up on the worksheet from last time.  This time we are wrapping up on our sound waves and starting to talk about light waves.  The lesson objectives are thus:

(1) review the parts of the wave (crest, trough, wavelength, amplitude, frequency)
(2) explain that light travels faster than sound, and give an example from nature (lightning/thunder)
(3) understand that, unlike sound waves, light can travel through a vacuum because it does not require a medium. 
(4) explain that white light is made up of all of the colors (learn ROY G BIV)
(5) explain simple questions on the reflective property of light. 

That's a lot for one class, but we're not going very much into detail, and I think the kids can handle it.  If not, then we'll pick up where we left off next class.

I have the following video from youtube that I'll be showing in class tomorrow:

Lightning with Thunder Delay

Below are the worksheet and answers:

The following is a visual of the worksheet:

Lunch Detention

I'm currently in lunch detention with one of my students.  I don't give lunch detention often, and there's good reason for it.

Definition: Lunch Detention

Kids hate it, teachers hate it. It's not an awesome thing.

But at times it is a necessary thing.  If my kids receive 3 warnings in class due to inappropriate behavior, they stay behind for a minute while I explain their consequence: they have to write me half a page apology letter, explaining what they were doing wrong, what they should have been doing, and why it is important to follow classroom rules.

If they come back next class and have the letter written, then all is good and well.  If they haven't written the letter, then they get to have lunch detention where they use that time to write the letter.  

The student right now is moaning the fact that he has to write this letter. Every so often I hear, "Is two lines enough?"  "No."  "Is three lines and one fifth enough?"  "No" (but at least he can determine fractions!)  He's having a hard time figuring out why following rules is important.  

What's interesting is that this student is not one I ever anticipated receiving this consequences.  uuuuuhhhhhh.  

At least the lunch I brought today doesn't require the microwave.

Positive Thoughts

It's an awesome thing when I have students choosing to wander into my classroom between classes just to say "hello."  It's awesome when they choose to make eye contact with you in the hallway––which is saying a lot for middle schoolers.  It's extremely awesome when kids tell you that you're they're favorite teacher.

But it's also extremely tricky.  A teacher has to be friendly, but not a friend.   Goodness, they talk trash to their friends, and that's not how I want to be treated.  A teacher has to create a positive relationship teacher-student relationship, which incorporates trust and respect for the other's role.  That's all good and fine, but it's tricky when the teacher needs to be firm and bring in consequences for unruly behavior; I have to correct behavior while still maintaining a good, positive rapport with that student.

A memory

There was a time during my internship year that I absolutely blew it.  A student was on the computer playing a game instead of doing his reading program.  I pretty much let him have it for a few seconds.  It was the end of the day and everyone was tired.  But I really let it slip.  The worst part is that all of the other students were witnessing this. 

A Secret:

 It's bad enough when the teacher yells.  It's worse when there's an audience. 

I felt really bad.  You could see this student's shoulders slump as he slowly went back to what he should have been doing.  I realized that I needed to refocus on being positive.  

Another Secret:

Amazing things happen when you think positively.  

From http://www.successconsciousness.com/

I found that as I focused on being positive, the kids were more willing to respond and participate.  Even when there was bad behavior, if I reminded myself that I needed to remain positive, the outcome was better. The focus changed from being on their negative behavior to instead being about the chance to choose better and change behavior.

And we're back to the present.
My internship was at an elementary school.  Elementary students are extremely willing to forgive and forget negative teacher behavior.  My first year of teaching is at a middle school.  Middle schoolers remember;  on top of that, they're moody and everything is dramatic. So maintaining classroom management and student rapport is, as I've said, tricky.  In fact, my daily classroom energy is probably spent thus:

Am I right, or am I right?  If there's a prospective teacher out there who thinks what they'll be doing in the classroom is teaching, then they're in for a real surprise.  Yes, there is teaching, but it's a very small amount of what I actually do.  Some might think it's because I teach sped, and there might be something about that.  I do have a higher percentage of ADHD and autism in my class.  But I think even a gen-ed teacher is going to have a similar energy chart––they'll just be dealing with different behaviors that I do.  

But I've found that if I think positively (about my job, about the students, about a situation), then both the students and I react better, and I don't feel as spent at the end of the day (that means more energy for my family! Bonus points!).  It takes a lot more energy to be negative.  Really, it does.  

On a kinda-sorta related note:

This reminds me of a Ted Talk I watched a few months ago.  Thinking positively about stress.  Teaching is stressful, right?  Think positively about it.  Use it as a tool to go out victorious! Da na na! Watch it here.

Ted Talk Secret:

Stress is the best ever. 

You can't click on this picture. Sorry. Click here :)

And we're back:

So I don't have all the answers.  But positive thinking can go a long way to creating a more healthy teacher-student relationship.  Respect the student, and they'll learn to respect you.  Explain reasons behind consequences, and ways for them to redeem themselves.  Most importantly, show that you care. If they're talking to you, look into their eyes and listen.  If they need help, go and help them.  

Don't ignore them.  Talk to them.  

Validate them.  

Final Secret:

Students need a positive influence.          

(pssst!  That's you!)

Great simulations!

I used this in class today.  It were awesome and the kids loved watching the wave as we talked about what was happening.  When they finished their worksheet (see previous worksheet on waves) they were allowed to come over to my computer and manipulate it themselves.  I thought I'd share them here.

https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/wave-on-a-string/wave-on-a-string_en.html

This website also has many different simulators, mostly demonstrating properties of physics.  There are a few other simulations for chemistry and biology as well.

https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/category/physics/sound-and-waves

I hope you find it useful!  I used another from this website called "Sound." It allows you to change the frequency and amplitude while you listen to the sound and watch the compression/longitudinal waves coming from the speaker. Pretty cool.

Hypotheses and Conclusions

My eighth graders were having a lot of trouble with their hypothesis and conclusion writing.  So when we came back from winter break I made a point to spend at least two solid weeks on this stuff.  They're going to be high schoolers next year, and need to know this. For sped, it's helpful if you give them a solid template to use.  My template probably isn't the best, but it's what I came up with and it's what we're using.

Hypothesis template: 

I hypothesize that an increase/decrease in ___________________ will increase/decrease the __________________. 

Conclusion template: 

My hypothesis stated that ______________________________. My results do/do not support my hypothesis.  The results show that___________________________, because___________________.

With the hypothesis template they know that if they are choosing a variable instead of increasing one, then they can manipulate the wording. For example, if you're trying to see which liquid (coke, water, or juice) will make the plant grow the most, you wouldn't say "I hypothesize that an increase in juice will increase plant growth;" rather, you would say "I hypothesize that the juice will increase plant growth the most."  etc. etc.

Here are my worksheets and a preview of them: