I just did a great activity with them. We have been studying oscillations (A-level syllabus) and I had been wanting to do greater extensions with them. So we decided to move into Oscillations of a Physical Pendulum. Using a journal reading from Physics teacher as a base. I got the students to break up the journal into unfamiliar concepts and pen down questions that they would like to ask. We rearranged the questions and concepts into chunks and logical flow and then I assigned each group to look into the questions. They are to present the concepts within 5-10 min at next tutorial (3 days later).
Details Activity:
Objectives :
- To understand the mechanics of a Physical Pendulum and see its relevance in a real life context
- The moment of inertia of a tennis racket - by Howard Brody
- http://scitation.aip.org/content/aapt/journal/tpt/23/4/10.1119/1.2341781
- 5 min : Self-Reading of article and pen down questions that you like to ask.
- 5 min : Within team consolidate and list down the questions that you think you need to ask and need to know the answers to to allow you to understand the article.
- 10 min : Teacher discuss and pen and arrange concepts and questions on the board, chunk them them into pieces to assign (with discussion with students). Each team picks the question they would like to work on to prepare a 5 -10 min presentation.
- Team 1 : What is Moment of Inertia? What is its Significance? How do we determine it for different shape objects.
- Team 2: How is moment of inertia related to rotational motion?
- Team 3 : What is parallel axis theorem? When is it used?
- Team 4 : What is a physical pendulum and how does it work?
- Team 5 : Understanding the Article : Aim, Significance, Method
- Team 6: Understanding the Article : Results, Analysis and Interpretations and Conclusions.
