Lil Mama Bird Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 (edited) I'm a long time lurker but wanted to share my research to do this in a more affordable way - thanks for letting me share! I've read a few times on the boards this specific book, CPO Middle School Physical Sci - NOT Focus On..., had expensive experiments (investigations) and equipment. I loved the look of the program and didn't want to drop this yet :tongue_smilie: My dd wants to do physical science next year so I did a little digging to see if I could substitute any investigation too $$. I have read every CPO science posts/blogs several times over and love all the hints given to substitute the investigations in other CPO books. I have not done the course yet so I'm not sure how helpful this will be, but this has helped me figure out if it was worth substituting and doing this book. BTW, I found the TG book set on ebay. The student books and investigations can be found online on school websites (found links from other threads on the WTM boards) and several items and investigation sheets for students are found on CPO's site. The big ticket items: - Digital Timer & Photogates (infrared) and they measure 5 things: interval, frequency, period, stopwatch, and counter. They are used in approx. 8 investigations out of almost 50. I did find cheaper versions online, and for what they are going to be used for in this book my hubby and I concurred that it would be worth it to buy (and easier). It seems like they will fit the bill nicely so we bought this one, but I won't know for sure until we do the actual investigations: http://www.artistsupplysource.com/product.php?productid=61103 I just ordered everything last night, so I hope everything goes smoothly b/c I've never ordered from them before. They have great prices. If you look at the CPO's version and this one from Arbor Scientific, it looks exactly the same and $100 cheaper: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002MY7LA4/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&smid=A2PBFSTDRTP2C9 Search for photogates on amazon for other even cheaper versions. Before that, I did buy a IR Light Barrier circuit mini kit MK120 but unless I knew more about soldering and which timer to buy, this was not worth my time! :tongue_smilie: There are experiments listed at Teach Engineering that can possibly sub the concept for each investigation instead of buying the photogates. I LOVE that site - there's so much!! Pendulum, rollercoaster, friction, acceleration, i.e. - I did buy a lab (physics) stand for $15 and a spring (5 N/500 g) from the same artistsupplysource site along with most of the other little items for our labs since I knew those would be hard to find here. - Car & Ramp - haven't purchased yet. Thinking of getting a pinewood derby car (cheap!) and hopefully finding/making a 48" long ramp to work our car investigations. Not too worried about finding this though. - Rollercoaster - making this with our marble run or try to use pool noodle for marble run and hook photogates to them. Possibly could use TeachEngineering (link above) lesson or this rollercoaster builder from Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman on PBS. - I skipped buying the Atom Building Game and not sure of a substitute yet. There's a wood & cheaper plastic version. It's only used a few times though - I found this site but haven't used it yet - there are other links at the bottom of the page too! - Skipped the Periodic Table Tiles for now also - haven't researched it thoroughly yet. Tons of periodic table sites online though. If you have any other questions I might be able to help and if you have any help please share! Thanks!! Edited July 20, 2012 by Lil Mama Bird add links Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serendipitous journey Posted July 21, 2012 Share Posted July 21, 2012 Thanks for this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reflections Posted July 22, 2012 Share Posted July 22, 2012 W.O.W!!!! Thanks so much. I am drowning in my planning with CPO (and really, everything else) science. What a great list.:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Embassy Posted July 22, 2012 Share Posted July 22, 2012 Thanks! I'll be finishing planning for ours soon. I did use our marble run last school year and substituted fingers and stopwatches for the photogates:tongue_smilie: I am considering making the Atom Building Game out of a large piece of Styrofoam. I'll have to see it that will work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lil Mama Bird Posted July 23, 2012 Author Share Posted July 23, 2012 Very overwhelmed by planning too! I'm avoiding my TOG planning by researching science.. Oooh, that's a good idea about the styrofoam, thanks! Sounds easier for sure. What about craft foam sheets too? They could be easily layered like the game board and the holes could be cut easily. I think I would need 6 sheets at 19" square. Another idea could be to use a chinese checkers board - at least to start with and could drill more holes as needed? Here's an Instructable to make a board that could be made any way you want. *CPO has all the instruction sheets at their site under CPO Products -> Equipment Instruction Sheets! They also sell both the game cards separately (about $12 each.) Found a site through Pinterest (through a link found here at WTM for the BFSU lessons group) to make your own Periodic Table cookies! So cute. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Embassy Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 Very overwhelmed by planning too! I'm avoiding my TOG planning by researching science.. Oooh, that's a good idea about the styrofoam, thanks! Sounds easier for sure. What about craft foam sheets too? They could be easily layered like the game board and the holes could be cut easily. I think I would need 6 sheets at 19" square. Another idea could be to use a chinese checkers board - at least to start with and could drill more holes as needed? Here's an Instructable to make a board that could be made any way you want. *CPO has all the instruction sheets at their site under CPO Products -> Equipment Instruction Sheets! They also sell both the game cards separately (about $12 each.) Found a site through Pinterest (through a link found here at WTM for the BFSU lessons group) to make your own Periodic Table cookies! So cute. Good ideas! Please link to the Periodic Table cookies :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lil Mama Bird Posted July 23, 2012 Author Share Posted July 23, 2012 Not So Humble Pie blog - she has a ton of other science edibles too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Embassy Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 Not So Humble Pie blog - she has a ton of other science edibles too! Thanks!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Embassy Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 Found a do it yourself lab resource for the car and ramp here: http://www.slapt.org/resources/equipment/inexpensive_motion_equip.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lil Mama Bird Posted August 4, 2012 Author Share Posted August 4, 2012 Thanks for link to the DIY instructions! :) I especially like the wheel & axle one. BTW, I received my order from artistsupplysource and it went well! The timer itself works great and I have no issues. The photogate I purchased was a little smaller than I was imagining though. The distance between the infrared "eyes" on the photogate from CPO looks to be about the width of the plug-in adapter, but the distance between the one I purchased is about an inch - very hard to drop something between those arms for certain tests. I one thing I noticed is they're connected with a C-shaped bracket and one screw - so I bought a larger C-shaped bracket at Lowes. I'm going to try to attach them to the larger bracket and hopefully they still work the same (and I can line them up correctly!) I'll take picture after I finish it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.