This week I chose to explore whether a heavier pendulum or lighter pendulum would come to rest more quickly. My initial hypothesis was that the heavier one would rest faster due to the pull of gravity. After testing washers with two different masses, I found that actually the lighter washer came to rest in a quicker time (in about 4 minutes versus about 7 minutes on the heavier washer). The variables were a little difficult to control such as the length of the string and being able to tell when the pendulum had come to a complete rest.
I am having a hard time making parallels to my own classroom because we do not cover Newton's laws in third grade. I could somehow integrate magnetism into this lesson and have students make connections to different size and strengths of magnets and how they may slow a pendulum. This would meet my standards as well as prepare students for momentum in fourth grade.
Ultimately, I learned that a greater mass produces greater momentum. This momentum takes longer to slow. If I conducted a similar guided inquiry lesson with my students using magnets, I would want them to discover that a stronger attraction will cause the pendulum to slow more quickly. This could be applied to real-world tools and machines that use magnets.
Jessica,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate how you have tied this inquiry lesson to your third grade curriculum. Were you able to use the formulas to calculate the momentum of the pendulum? II understand the concepts, but am having a difficult time using the formulas.
Jessica, I agree. Although I teach sixth grade, this material is really not in my curriculum. It is definitely stretching me to apply this to my kids.
ReplyDeleteMonica,
ReplyDeleteI did not try to determine actual momentum, but used the formula as a generalization for my results.