Lesson Plan Craters and Inquiry on their formation Monday, August 13, Prepared by Bill Lammela

Transcription

1 NYS Standards Addressed Lesson Plan Craters and Inquiry on their formation Monday, August 13, 2007 Prepared by Bill Lammela Standard 1: Analysis, Inquiry, and Design--Students will use mathematical analysis, scientific inquiry, and engineering design, as appropriate, to pose questions, seek answers, and develop solutions. Standard 3: Mathematics--Students will understand mathematics and become mathematically confident by communicating and reasoning mathematically, by applying mathematics in real-world settings, and by solving problems through the integrated study of number systems, geometry, algebra, data analysis, probability, and trigonometry. Standard 4: Science--Students will understand and apply scientific concepts, principles, and theories pertaining to the physical setting and living environment and recognize the historical development of ideas in science. Standard 6: Interconnectedness: Common Themes--Students will understand the relationships and common themes that connect mathematics, science, and technology and apply the themes to these and other areas of learning. Standard 7: Interdisciplinary Problem Solving--Students will apply the knowledge and thinking skills of mathematics, science, and technology to address real-life problems and make informed decisions. Objectives Students will be able to identify craters and observe details/features on these. Students will be able to critically compare craters from different places. Students will be able to hypothesize about the causes of the differences between craters from different planets and moons. Students will be able to hypothesize about the causes of the differences between craters on a single planet/moon Students will be able to discuss the influence of gravity on crater formation. Students will be able to develop a hypothesis on the impact of a single variable on the size/shape of a crater. Students will be able to plan and execute a project to test their hypothesis. Students will be able to organize their data to show the relationship between variable and result. Students will be able to visually represent their findings.

2 Students will be able to use a scientific notebook to record their observations. Students will be able to discuss their findings and write their conclusions. Materials Teacher List Pictures of surface of Mars, Moon and Earth (At end. Also available at Aluminum dishes (cake pans, casserole dishes, can be varied one per team with extras available) Sand (playground sand works well about 500 cc per student) Other subsurface materials (flour, sugar, potting soil, vermiculite (will need a greater amount of colored sand)) Colored Sand (about 100 cc per student) Put in shaker if possible. Can also use paprika. Objects to drop a variety is good (marbles, Styrofoam balls (small), bbs, M&Ms, etc) Some should be round, others may vary. You want to have different sizes (of same material), different materials and different shapes. Protractor Centimeter ruler. Access to balance String (for measurement) Safety Instruction on safe use of projectiles (or limit the number of students dropping projectiles at any one time). Anticipatory Set Pre-activity questions What do you know about the moon? Is there a relationship between the moon and earth? Is there a relationship between other planets? Begin with pictures of craters from a variety of locations (see end of packet). Have a discussion as to: o What do we see from the picture of the moon? What is a crater? Are all craters the same? Explain What are common features about all craters? o What differences are seen between different locations? (Mars, Earth, Moon) o What might be the reason for such differences? (erosion, atmosphere, etc) o What might the cause for differences in craters? (size of meteor, type of meteor, angle of impact, composition of meteor, speed of impact) o What role does the gravity of an object have? Do all planets/moon have same gravity? (No depending on mass. This conversation will change with audience) How can we study craters? Pictures, satellites, direct measurements.

3 Demonstration of Set-Up Prepare a surface. Put base material (playground sand) in pie plate to a depth of 2-3 cm. Lightly sprinkle paprika over the surface to just cover (0.2 cm is plenty). Drop an object from a distance of 10 cm from the surface. What happens? o Write down your observations o Sketch crater formed o What measurements might be valuable? (Depth, diameter, center dome? Other?) Relate to the pictures of the moon. What is different? What is the same? Development of Hypothesis Students now select a variable to test. From this develop a testable hypothesis. For example The greater the mass, the deeper the crater. Students will then develop the experiment to test their hypothesis o What factor will change (and how)? o What factors will stay constant and at what value? For example, using the hypothesis above (greater the mass, the deeper the crater students will select objects of the same size but with different masses. (teacher will provide guidance on the number of times experiment will be done (time permitting) and if replicates are required) o Students should speculate as to expected results (teachers need to reinforce that this is intended to be the right answer but rather a chance to think about what might happen based on their understanding. In Science, being wrong is just a valuable as being right with your predictions!) Students will then create a data table to record information in their scientific notebooks. For example, for hypothesis indicated above: Sample Data Table 1 Mass of Object 3.0 g 4.2 g 5.5 g 6.3 g Depth of Crater Sample Data Table 2 Fixed Variable Diameter of object Height of Drop Value 1.0 cm 10 cm

4 Angle of Drop 90 o (directly vertical) Execution of Experiment Students will than carry out experiment in teams. Students will record their data in the table. If time permits replicates can be done for each trial. Sample Completed Data Table 1 Mass of Object Depth of Crater 3.0 g 0.5 cm 4.2 g 0.7 cm 5.5 g 0.9 cm 6.3 g 1.1 cm Student should be encourage to record observations (ball moved sideways when hit, ball bounced back, sand fell back into crater after impact) as part of their data collection. Students should sketch experiment Analysis Students should talk about their data and observations in teams (if other groups picked the same variable teams can link together to discuss findings are they consistent? Reasonable? What was expected?) Student should plot their data as appropriate Plot #1 Measured Crater Depth as function of Mass of object dropped Crater Depth as function of mass 1.2 Depth of crater (cm) Mass of object (g) Questions for students: o Does the data support your hypothesis? Why/Why not? o Is your data linear? (From excel can calculate equation of line or students can do manually). What does this mean?

5 o Is this data reliable? How might you test it? If you were to repeat this experiment, what might you do the same or differently and why? Closure What did we learn today? Fables about the moon Follow-Up Students can then speculate on how erosion might change the craters. A simple activity is to have a spray bottle of water (with fine mist) and spray lightly the different craters formed. Same with a personal fan. Discussion could then lead to why Earth (and to some extent, Mars) have different surfaces than Moon. Short film clip on Mars and Moon exploration can talk about what was found when humans first visited. If time-lapse photography is available, have a drip system (bottle with small pinhole leak) dripping water on surface and have camera record changes. Move into discussion of erosion processes on earth (formation of Grand Canyon and other notable features) Assessment Performance tasks o Science notebook o Development of project o Execution of project o Final numerical data o Quality of data analysis o Discussion of project o Students prepare poster of their findings. Other evidence o Quiz on concepts o Quiz on organization and plotting of data o Follow up activity how to improve project to gather additional data: o Test another variable o Improve/extend information on variable tested o Quiz on vocabulary o Free write To study the moon in greater detail, I would References

6 1. (A great resource with pictures of craters, a modified version of this activity, list of pertinent videos and resources). 2. webs.wichita.edu/lapo/o30.html. (A similar activity to this one with household materials. Some student questions with teacher s answers included) (Another NASA site with a variety of activities related to craters and meteors).

7 Pictures for class use Picture of Mars Crater (from -by K. Edgett, Malin Space Science Systems, February 2000

8 Aerial view of Hi`iaka pit crater on the east rift zone of Kilauea Volcano, Hawai`i. Picture from USGS--U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, California, USA URL Arizona Meteor Crater Image from: Arizona's Meteor Crater spans nearly a mile and is several hundred feet deep. New computations point to an origin in the impact of a fragmented, nickel-iron meteorite about 50,000 years ago. USGS / David Roddy

9 North Pole of Moon Picture PIA00002: North Pole Region of the Moon as Seen by Clementine, from