travelgirlut Posted May 14, 2018 Share Posted May 14, 2018 I'm in the process of planning the labs to go along with Conceptual Physics and was wondering how many labs/how many hours of labs makes a course into a lab course? I've googled and searched to no avail. Thanks in advance for your help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted May 14, 2018 Share Posted May 14, 2018 Really, it's up to you. There is no set amount or required amount of hours for labs. If you fall between 12 labs (1 every 3 weeks) and 36 labs (1 per week), you should be fine. (One idea: 18 labs is a nice amount, as it is once every other week, and then you could do review and/or a quiz or test on the other alternate weeks.) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted May 14, 2018 Share Posted May 14, 2018 Quality over quantity. For physics, if you do a lab a month with thorough analysis, graphing, calculations, error analysis, that is more valuable than a demonstration type "lab" every week. Start from the learning objectives and then decide which and how many labs are needed to reach your educational goal. 8 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom31257 Posted May 14, 2018 Share Posted May 14, 2018 7 minutes ago, regentrude said: Quality over quantity. For physics, if you do a lab a month with thorough analysis, graphing, calculations, error analysis, that is more valuable than a demonstration type "lab" every week. Start from the learning objectives and then decide which and how many labs are needed to reach your educational goal. Thank you for saying this! That is what I have been saying to my co-op families for a long time; yet, they still want labs every week. I finally convinced my physics class parents to try a periodic lab intensive this coming year. We will stay all afternoon to do labs well instead of rushing through one each time we meet. So, now I will be spending the summer researching and planning the labs. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom31257 Posted May 14, 2018 Share Posted May 14, 2018 57 minutes ago, travelgirlut said: I'm in the process of planning the labs to go along with Conceptual Physics and was wondering how many labs/how many hours of labs makes a course into a lab course? I've googled and searched to no avail. Thanks in advance for your help! If you come across good ideas, will you share? I'll be glad to do the same! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted May 14, 2018 Share Posted May 14, 2018 57 minutes ago, regentrude said: Quality over quantity. For physics, if you do a lab a month with thorough analysis, graphing, calculations, error analysis, that is more valuable than a demonstration type "lab" every week. Start from the learning objectives and then decide which and how many labs are needed to reach your educational goal. I'd love to see a short list of what you think is useful/productive for algebra based physics. Are there things that are considered to be essential experiments? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted May 14, 2018 Share Posted May 14, 2018 13 minutes ago, Sebastian (a lady) said: I'd love to see a short list of what you think is useful/productive for algebra based physics. Are there things that are considered to be essential experiments? I don't think there are any essential experiments that must be done. I preferred to do labs that are simple, because I liked to focus on the physics and the process of data gathering and analysis, rather than on a complicated setup with sophisticated devices - this often obfuscates the actual question. One of my favorite labs is a simple pendulum lab where you measure the period, i.e. time it takes for a complete swing, and vary the length of the string, the mass at the end of the string, and the amplitude (how far from the vertical you pull the string before letting go). We did a simple setup at home, using a spice container as out object, which could be filled with different numbers of marbles. My learning objectives were: learn to vary one variable at a time while keeping the others constant; applying simple statistics principles to error analysis (i.e. measuring 20 swings and dividing by 20 is more accurate than measuring one swing only); gathering data and plotting them in a graph; plotting of a power law in a log-log plot to obtain a straight line. The student should see that mass and amplitude (as long as small) have no effect, and that the plot of time vs length in a log log plot is a straight line with slope 1/2. You can add some trigonometry by translating horizontal distance pulled from equilibrium to an actual angle. You can also use the pendulum to measure the free-fall acceleration. Another simple one was investigating friction on an inclined plane, by placing objects on an inclined board, varying the angle (a jack works well for this) and measuring the angle when they begin sliding. You can use this to determine the coefficient of static friction for the combination of the two surfaces (board and material of the box). A nice question is whether this steepest angle depends on the mass of the box (spoiler alert:it does not). Easy to do with household objects. Or roll objects down an incline and observe which take the shortest time to the bottom. Compare balls, cylinders, and hoops of various masses and radii. Determine the spring constant of a spring; investigate period of a mass oscillating at the end of a spring. Ray optics lends itself well to labs. Get some lenses and mirrors and investigate image formation. Which lenses/mirrors make images you can project on a screen (real image), which make images that appear to be inside the mirror (virtual images)? Which are upside down/right side up? What magnifies, and what makes the image smaller? Simple electrical circuits, if you have access to supplies. Buoyancy experiments are easy to do, too. Use a spring scale like you would for weighing a suit case. Suspend object and submerge in liquid. Measure the buoyancy force. You can use this to calculate all kinds of things. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted May 14, 2018 Share Posted May 14, 2018 For Physics we did 4 with the full analysis and write up that Regentrude described. These four took about 30 hours in total. For the last and most complicated one, ds studied the movement of a broken pendulum with a somewhat bendy bar that broke the movement and as such acted as a spring. It was a very complex lab to write up, requiring transformation of nonlinear data and a complete error analysis. He also had to do a lot of research to figure out how the spring movement of the bar might affect the expected movement of the broken pendulum. It was super fun. Collecting data took about 1 hour, analysis/research/write up was close to 8. From my point of view, high school labs are much less about learning through your hands, and much more about understanding the data -- how to collect it well, what assumptions you have to make, what are the different kinds of error, and what you can and cannot conclude. Yes, learning how to manipulate a pipette or run a transect can be required for science, but in the end, lab/field work is about critical thinking. Students need to develop a deep appreciation that science is about simplifying what is happening into something that can be understood and explained. Science is about modeling the real world, and models *always* have problems. Ruth in NZ 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted May 14, 2018 Share Posted May 14, 2018 I was writing at the same time as you, Regentrude. We did your pendulum lab first before going onto a bifilar pendulum and then the broken pendulum. It was interesting to work with the same topic and develop our understanding. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garga Posted May 14, 2018 Share Posted May 14, 2018 We'll be using Derek Owens physics next year and from the FAQ portion of his website he says he has a minimum of 10 labs for the class, and that if you want more, you have to ask for them. Most people give his classes high reviews, so I think it's safe to have 10 labs for physics, since he seems to be competent and know what he's doing. : ) His is algebra-based, however, so I'm not sure if that makes a difference, since yours is conceptual. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted May 14, 2018 Share Posted May 14, 2018 To answer the more general question of the title so not just physics related -- I will add that we are doing ONE *big* lab for Biology, expected 30-40 hours (in the middle of it right now). And MIT accepted it. They require lab science for Bio, Chem, and Physics, and I figured as a homeschooler they would read my science course descriptions for lab sciences very carefully. I was clear in the course description for Biology that we were doing ONE lab -- we are determining the biotic and abiotic factors that affect species living in the rocky intertidal; we are statistically analyzing the data and doing a research report. So I'm with Regentrude, quality over quantity. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsmom08 Posted May 17, 2018 Share Posted May 17, 2018 On 5/14/2018 at 4:29 PM, regentrude said: I don't think there are any essential experiments that must be done. I preferred to do labs that are simple, because I liked to focus on the physics and the process of data gathering and analysis, rather than on a complicated setup with sophisticated devices - this often obfuscates the actual question. Any suggestions for chemistry along this line? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted May 17, 2018 Share Posted May 17, 2018 6 minutes ago, hsmom08 said: Any suggestions for chemistry along this line? Check the pinned thread. I hate chemistry and didn't create my own labs, but used a Labpaq kit (which was very good and easy to use) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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