What do the groups who aren’t using the funnelator do?

I realize there are calculations and measurements to perform but part of my attraction to the digital simulation is that everyone has ready access to the launcher. In every lab I have ever conducted as a teacher or participated in as a student, having only one apparatus for the entire class will result in a lot of disengaged, wasted time.

2. You know the answer to this one already: by carefully choosing groups and scaffolding support for those groups. Do you divide groups by ability? Or do you create mixed ability groups? That’s up to you to decide. I would probably create groups by ability so that support can be provided to those groups that need it. It would also allow the strong groups to extend their experimentation by varying the initial velocity of their projectile.

I have never constructed multiple funnelators, to answer your question. I don’t, however, see that as the major obstacle to this unit.

Each student group should be making their own. Of course between devices there isn’t consistency, but that’s part of the whole appeal of the lesson — each group of students has their own unique dataset to work on. (If you’re really worried about that, there’s a variation involving flexible pipes, but that requires actual money to pull off.)

Assuming your lab strikes all those balances, I’m left with two questions:

1) How do they replicate the activity? The NLOS activity is replicable. Jason’s marble activity includes an adjustable chute. I don’t see how funnelators can be fired with the same reproducible accuracy.

2) Have you purchased or constructed multiple funnelators for multiple small groups of students? If not – that is, if there is only one or two funnelators – how do you challenge the whole class?

For any student who has aspirations of being an engineer, rocket scientist, mechanic, builder or tinkerer, they need more than a computer simulation, where everything is rosy and wind resistance doesn’t matter.

I would take my 1 or 2 weeks that I have banked elsewhere, use kinematics to determine the vertical and horizontal velocities of our projectile, use vector analysis to determine the muzzle velocity of our cannons that we built, use regression to determine a function that gives distance horizontal distance as a function of launch angle (assuming maximum muzzle velocity), make predictions and test our results, and then show up prepared to apply what we have learned with the calculations to back up our decisions. On the day, whether it works or not, we will be prepared to reflect upon our work, our results and our possible sources of error so that next time we can be more efficient.

In the cost-benefit analysis of my lessons and classroom time, creating and interpreting real life data ranks the highest of anything.

Me, I know I need to bank as much time as possible for WCYDWT?, miscellaneous questions, and daily show and tell, so if you’re going to have me a) setting up a lab or b) leaving the classroom or c) both at the same time, I need an especially compelling reason.

Firing water balloons at a teacher and launching bottle rockets from a cannon sounds like more fun than this (hypothetical) NLOS activity, but:

a) the NLOS simulation allows for some pretty serious mathematical analysis, with quadratic equations and everything, whereas water balloons are more of the same guess-and-check-and-adjust, and Jason didn’t mention whether or not wind resistance messes with the bottle rockets.

b) I can get every other student her own NLOS simulator but I can’t get every other student her own water balloon slingshot or bottle rocket launcher. That means a lot of students won’t engage.

I’d rather the real-life experience here but it’s too expensive.

I did this with my AP Calc students years ago after their exam:

1. Give them 10 balloons so they can gather data on how changing the parameters (angle of elevation, amount of pull in the slingshot) changes the distance of their projectile.
2. Give them time to work out the calculations and maybe give them a few more shots after they have their initial guess.
3. On day of the contest, come dressed in your swim trunks and sit yourself somewhere on the football field. See who can hit you…