Being Thankful

Today I have set aside time to thank the donors who contributed money so that we could purchase a high quality 3D printer for our classroom.  Expectations from the DonorsChoose organization are:

An excellent way we can demonstrate our character traits of being respectful, responsible, honest and caring is to fulfill our obligation to the donors who supported our classroom by completing the actions suggested by the Donors Choose organization.

1.  We will take a picture of each class showing objects that we printed.  We will also take pictures of student designed 3D objects or of objects that you felt were really neat or significant.  I will upload these to the website.

2.  Students will write thank you letters - creative and fun letters are great!  The letters should be appropriate and could explain how using Tinkercad and a 3D printer caused you to think differently about what is possible in our futures or how they encouraged you to design or enjoy some object you created.  For example, do you remember the 3D printed heart we read about?  You don't need to mention the heart in your letter, but you might consider mentioning something else you have thought about.

3.  Mr. Delemeester will upload the pictures and read the thank you letters.  He will then write an overall impact statement thanking the donors.

Examples of Excellent Work in Science 8

Solar Panel Comparisons Paragraph

This image shows a thoughtful and well explained paragraph

The video related structure of the panel (the topic we have been studying) to electricity.

You were given the challenge of linking the independent variable (structure) to two dependent variables (Volts and milliAmps).  Your paragraph was judged using the rubric for good writing.  Your challenge was to use contextual cues (a meter displaying numbers and measurements) to identify typical science processes which generated evidence used to demonstrate the relationship between the variables of crystal structure for the panels and electrical output.   This was an SAT type of assessment.

Digging Deeper - What Do Volts and Milliamps Mean?

Many students understand electricity better if they relate it to water flowing.    In the video the panels had different voltages.  Voltage is a measure of potential energy - like height.  See the effect of voltage on electricity by looking at the arrows in left diagram below.   Also in the video the panels had different current - like amount of water flowing through the pipes in the diagram on right below.

Height of Cup = Voltage                    Size of Pipe = Current (milliamps)     

           

Key Idea: the size of the arrows represents amount of electricity      

http://audio-electronics.wikidot.com/printer--friendly//ohms-law

Which blue arrow do you think represents the most current?

What factors might be most important to producing the greatest amount of electricity?