Lessons

Exploration

Barometric pressure is the pressure from the force or weight of air exerted on a surface. The PocketLab’s barometric pressure sensor measures the force of the air molecules that push against the sensor

Objective

In this investigation students will:
1. Design a system that uses PocketLab’s barometer and an understanding of ratios and proportions to build a scale.
2. Use the given supplies to find the weight of unknown objects.

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Exploration

After a change occurs, if the molecules of the chemicals involved do not change, it is only a physical change. Ice melting to water is an example of this. A change has occurred, but the H2 0 as ice, remains H2 0 as water. If however the molecules of the chemicals involved do change to form new chemicals, then a chemical change has occurred.

Exploration

Explore air pressure, temperature, and volume and how they work together. In a syringe sealed to an Erlenmeyer flask , when the syringe’s plunger moves back and forth, the volume of air in the syringe and f ask changes. Will the pressure also change if the temperature of the air sealed in the syringe and f ask changes? A PocketLab can be placed inside the Erlenmeyer f ask to measure the change in pressure as the the volume and temperature change. 

Objective

Exploration

A bungee jumper leaps from a tall structure and falls toward the ground. The bungee cord begins to stretch and transfers the kinetic energy of the fall into elastic potential energy, slowing the jumper to a stop.The cord then pulls him/her back up as the elastic potential energy turns back into kinetic energy. The jumper then oscillates up and down until their energy is completely dissipated.

Objective

Exploration

A simple pendulum consists of a mass, m, hanging from a string of length, L, and fixed at a pivot point, P. When displaced from equilibrium and to an initial angle (amplitude, θ) and released, the motion will be regular and repeat. This is an example of periodic motion.

Objective

Exploration

In the Magnetic Minesweeper Lab, you will recreate the classic computer game Minesweeper in real life! Using PocketLab’s magnetometer, you will try to discover hidden mines and mark their locations on a grid. You can do this lab with two people to create a Minesweeper competition. One partner hides mines in different grid locations while the other partner tries to locate the mines to not get blown up!

Objective

NGSS Alignment: MS-PS2-3

The disciplinary core idea behind this standard is PS2.B: Types of Interactions. It specifically looks at electric and magnetic forces and how they can be attractive or repulsive, and how the size of the force can depend on the magnitudes of the charges, currents, or magnetic strengths involved. The strength can also depend on the distances between the interacting forces. 

Exploration

Until the late 1800’s, electricity and magnetism were regarded as separate forces. A number of scientists, including Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell, made important discoveries which led to our current understanding of electricity and magnetism. The interaction between positive and negative charges is, in fact, one force, the electromagnetic force, which results in both electrical currents and magnetic fields.

Exploration

When an object is in free fall, the only force acting on the object is gravity. In general terms, an object moving upward is not considered “falling,” however, if gravity is the only force acting on the object (air resistance being negligible) then the object is in fact in a state of free fall. The projectile motion of an object is the trajectory of an object in free fall near Earth’s surface after being thrown or launched in the air. The curved path of the projectile is under the effect of gravity only after being launched.

Exploration

The law of conservation of energy states that the total energy of an isolated system remains constant. Over time, all energy is conserved. It is neither created nor destroyed-instead it transfers from one form to another. When shaking a jar of sand, what happens to the temperature of the sand? Explore how this relates to the law of conservation of energy.

Objective