Physics Study with Logic Stage Electricity Materials

These are the materials that have worked well so far with the Logic Stage study of Physics.  Not every part of our Noeo curriculum has gone smashingly.  But with the addition of massive quantities of snapkits, we've been able to increase the pursuit of science this school year.  I've added an electricity unit from CK-12 physical science textbook in order to strengthen reading comprehension that may aid when taking CLEP or other standardized tests required in high school and college.  This latter addition has not been easy, but my troops appreciate it more than the amounts of writing required by the aforementioned requirements.

The main win with the lesson plans I bought for physics study was the use of Tiner's The World of Physics.  The main deterrence to the plans were the lack of an answer key, which disquieted my troops at times to the nth degree. SERIOUSLY!  We've been adding notebook pages to sections in the Elemental Science Grammar Stage Physics study from four years ago which did have defined expectations and was comforting as well as thorough.  But, because the logic stage materials won't be available until this fall, I went with this option instead of a total text book curriculum that is popular within conservative homeschooling circles.  The final transition for these 3Gs is the issue that I'm not doing demonstrations anymore as I did in the grammar stage science materials.  Each of my logic stage students must complete their own experiments and writing individually.  Incredible amounts of weeping and gnashing of teeth have been exhibited (not really), but each is "owning" their study with differing levels of interest depending on the sections in our curriculum to date.  So, I'm hoping with the upcoming study of magnetism and then light that there is better participation and more epiphanies that take place (or at least less tween angst).  

YAHOO!

Time to practice building what we've learned about during the year of Grammar Stage Physics and stay out of the way when the rocket goes off in the back yard! Quick: Who can name all three of Newton's Laws of Motion? Remember when we visited his gravesite at Westminster Abbey in September?  Pictures of rocket project coming soon!

Physics in the Grammar Stage lab page

My son's 3rd grade handwriting is not exemplary, but we had phun in Physics today.

The 3rd grade sister's lab page gave 3 changes that we made to make the lab work well.

Physics: Potato Clock

The children are doing a unit in Elemental Science Physics on magnets and electricity. And, the potato clock worked today, somehow. So, the rest of the week we get to research WHY it worked. Here is one idea.

Physics: Spin chapter Stool

Elemental Science Spin Chapter Stool Project done independently and written about in complete sentences in their own notebook pages. 

Science AND Art: Balance along with Calder mobiles

Yes, that is a hockey puck.

Physic notebooking along with blue artist pages for Mr. Calder

Physics: Gravity

Egg Carrier


Somewhere in this container is a raw egg straight from the carton.
We discussed the pull of gravity and how well the egg was insulated
from damage by packing peanuts and paper packing.  The first 2 tries
saw the egg completely safe from an 8 foot drop onto a tile floor.
The final try was exerted with a major force from the same 8 foot
drop and the egg broke.

I remember this same experiment from the 3rd floor fire escape of my
junior high building during my senior year physics class. I was one of
the last competitors to keep the egg unbroken. And I loved the
fun of it!  My 3Gs had fun with this for only the thrill that mom would
allow them to use a real raw egg to do this experiment from the
Elemental Science Physics for the Grammar Stage materials.

Day-ja-voo

Ok, I don't know French or even how to spell anything, but I know that we covered this stuff once, and now the topic is dawning on us again. This stuff will make a reappearance yet again like a shadow and someday, you will know what it is.

The vertical information is from Elemental Science Grammar Stage Physics and it is about LIGHT.  The horizontal page might be from Knowledge Box Central in conjunction with Apologia's Astronomy lessons. Or it may be from Jessica at Notebooking2Learn's yahoo group (now defunct but materials still available at http://www.hslaunch.com/mypage/profile/745 and way more worth the effort and cost of the KBC resource).

So, the electromagnetic spectrum and color and light made their reappearance.  Now we think of light as energy. We are learning the definitions of reflection and refraction. Maybe by the time this material rolls around four more times in morphed formats before they graduate, they will understand more than your average joe. Who knows, they may use it in a career stage some day. What's wrong with expecting more for my childrens' education than the dumbing down of an ancient Prussian system that is way more broken than any amount of tax dollars can fix.

Note to self: first and second graders aren't necessarily going to remember that light energy travels through a vacuum, but 3rd and 4th graders may.

Gravity Machine

Friction and Gravity are much more fun when hands are on the eating dinosaur.

We've seen so many of these machines in the Christmas Markets abroad and now we know how to make the machines. This one looks like a dinosaur (sort of), but we've seen all kinds of characters with moving parts that can hinge back and forth.

Inclined Plane

The physics lesson about inclined planes didn't go exactly how it was supposed to, but we learned something AND we used the Home Depot make and take kit.

For example, the plane was supposed to be 2 rulers at differing angles. So, we used the clamps to anchor the half of our original ramp.  The cars were not heavy enough to be forced down the ramp by gravity. And finally, our rubber bands were too strong even when we tried several sets (Dollar Store bundle of rubber bands used one more time).  So, we tried to weigh the car down with Magnetix. It was not a significant amount of pull until we loaded up one of the cars to stretch the rubber band a whole inch. 

Simple Machines

"The front of the boat is a wedge, Mom."

Simple machines are explored in physics this week with games.

Do you know the list of 6 simple machines? Not first class this or 3rd class that, SIMPLE.

More about Laws of Motion

Newton's 3rd Law of Motion describes an action and reaction. We saw this when the "paddle" on the carton boat was wound up on a rubber band and then allowed to rotate and make the carton boat travel the length of the bathtub.






The Ping Pong Popper was fun for each of my Gs because I let each one make the project and "shoot" each other with ping pong balls as well as heavier rubber balls. We compared the distance each could travel.  The re-use of toilet paper holders was wonderful ;-)



Physics Rocket?

Laws of Motion

GEARS

Physics this week delved into the reproduction of seven machines which use gears.  The Way Things Work by David Macaulay conveyed wonderful information using mammoth power to cause work to the gears went right along with the K'nex Education kit. I struggled with the amount of money spent on the kit for 7 projects. BUT, it did cause people to learn.  They didn't actually always learn how to make something work, but how to handle disappointment when something didn't work. The projects were VERY independent. Thus the money spent on this kit was well worth it in that in the form of a childcare correlation. I wonder if books will someday be "worth" more when these three spend peaceful time learning independently.  Below are pictured the blender, chainsaw and phonography.

Science & History Field Trip

To Westminster Abbey with the sun shining in London.

There was a BRILLIANT children's activity.  Four pages of well designed questions that didn't necessarily have to have a correct answer!  AND, a 3" diameter chocolate coin when you turned in the clipboard at the end.  SCORE!
BONUS: We visited Isaac Newton's burial place in the second picture near the end of the visit. We were feeling pretty snarky by then to have done all the work on the first day off the plane without a nap.

We've definitely begun.

The only thing I forgot in this picture was the twins' grammar book, First Language Lessons Level 3, and MathUSee Delta materials. We also got to the language of choice at Mango.com and handwriting with the Spalding phonics cards along the guidelines defined by DonnaYoung.org.  I didn't begin reading Zoo2 with the kids, but will add that later.  They all practiced their music lessons too. Then, they finished before 2pm and played at whatever they wanted with each other or with others along the neighborhood. The planner checklist is helping along with the daily schedule to keep everyone on task and me involved with who needs direction one at a time.

Less Refereeing (sp?)

We are one child less of a set since I sent the little girl with Gramma yesterday. The loads on planes this Thursday are quite full as everyone is anxious to ski Utah, so, the Gramma (and Grampa) agreed to take on a first grader for the week if she could travel Monday instead of a larger, more-difficult-to-load Thursday. 3 people trying for one flight beats 4 people trying because stand-by is not ideal. This will be the children's 3rd year to ski with Uncle Jerry and we look forward to this next adventure. I might even try my hand at a few projects while away from where we live now. If we can get on the plane, that is...
This is a picture of our attempts to blast off home-made rockets on the sunny Saturday morning in conjunction with study on Saturn. The study was weeks ago, but the alka selsor rockets couldn't be set off inside, so we enjoyed blasting each, except for G#3 who was upset that his didn't go higher which led to discussions about fuel and more "wheels" turned.

Less school, but more life lessons in tree trimming and disposal as well as garden preparation. Still, the schooling continues. We're finishing the astronomy book this week and beginning the flying creatures book next week. I compiled a Lenten study for children that was taken wonderfully this morning by the boys. I know it's a bit early, as I was reminded by the engineer of the group, but we won't get to school constantly through all 40 days of Lent and I believe there is too much to miss if we don't finish it before Resurrection Sunday. Spelling, penmanship, grammar and reading lessons, math, history, geography, and music study keep going even though there is travel and breaks.

This is a picture of the AWANA grand prix cars and base coat painting tonight.

Blustery Winter Day at the Discovery Center Museum

Daddy took on the job of directing the expedition to Rockford Saturday for a most excellent visit. The picture of the Air Tubes exhibit was a big hit as the children were introduced to so much motion! Outside the windows in the background you can see how cold it was.