The Driving Question:How can we test the pythagorean theorem and the law of reflection?
In this project, we got into groups, (mine was Sofia, Charlie, and Dylan) and we had to create a triangle using a laser, and some mirrors.
First, we made a Mindnode with some questions we had about lasers, and angles and math and light some other stuff (this was milestone 1, and then at the end of the project, we had to answer some of the questions:
But first, we had to do some ‘building knowledge’. This means reading a textbook, and filling out worksheets.
After we built some knowledge, we did milestone 2, and that was about the law of reflection.
Then, after milestone 2, we learned about the pythagorean theorem, and did some math workbook pages.
We skipped milestone 3, by the way.
Next thing we did was milestone 4. Using an online ray optics simulation, we had to make a right angle triangle, and then make a lab for it. When I turned it in, I had to revise it a couple times, and I forgot some stuff from milestone 2, about the angle of incidence, which would’ve been better if I remembered.
Finally, milestone 5. In this milestone, in our groups, we had to create a laser display. First, we got our supplies together, and then we started to plan things out. Once we got all the measurements and angles right, we painted everything over in black, and borrowed a pen from another group and went over it so it looked nice.
Also, you can’t see it in this photo but I had brought in a little Dementor figure from a Harry Potter lego set I have, and halfway through when we were going around and looking at everyone’s laser display, I realized that the perfect name for the display was ‘The Laser Prison of Azkaban’ . If you aren’t a Harry Potter fan, Azkaban is a wizard prison, and Dementors are the guards of Azkaban.
Now for the core competencies:
Questioning and predicting:
Demonstrate a sustained intellectual curiosity about a scientific topic or problem of personal interest-
For the most part I’ve stayed on task and used my class time wisely during the course of this wisely. Though when we were reading the textbook and doing the worksheets, I got off task sometimes.
Communicating and representing:
Represent mathematical ideas in concrete, pictorial, and symbolic forms-
My group forgot to write something explaining the procedure and all that, but we did end up writing something that had the hypothesis, explained the procedure, the math that we did, and sources of error and a conclusion.
Applying and innovating:
Cooperatively design projects-
Our laser display was planned, built, measured and labeled with all members of the group contributing equally. I liked the group that I had because everyone got along well, and everyone did the work they we supposed to do without complaining.
Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!