Wicked Problem Part C

The past two weeks have been a little hectic.  Last Monday we had our second snow day of the year because the back roads were a sheet of ice.  However, I did not get to experience the joy of the snow day like most of my peers, I was at the Kellogg Center for an ACT conference.  Since, we were working while the rest of the district was off we were given a compensation day which, I had to take that Thursday and then Friday was professional development.  So I had students for two days and then this past week we had students for three days.  Monday was mid-winter break and then Friday we had another snow day!  So needless to say the past two weeks have been a little hectic.  However, I was able to have my students work on an simulation this past week, where they had to make predictions and then run several simulations and describe the results.

I had my students work in our science lab room, where they were in small groups.  I gave my students the following worksheet and they had to work two 48 minute class periods where they had to have the packet completed at the end of day two. (Note: one the first page the images are overlapping, but aren’t that way in my MS Word version. Darn capability issues)  They had to go to Phet website and launched the simulation.  The objective of this lab is for you, the student, to make a connection between mass, velocity, elasticity, and momentum.  Also, students are to work on practice problems at the end of the lesson.  The background knowledge students have coming into the lab is that they know Newton’s Three Laws of Motion and the basic definition of momentum.  At this point in the class we have not covered different types of collisions, only that the forces are equal and opposite.  
I decided to search the Phet site and look for a document that has already been created and modify it to match to what I expect from my students.  I started the lesson off by having a brief discussion of what momentum is and where it comes into “play” in the real-world.  After that short discussion I passed out the lab.  Then, with the help of my projector, I showed the students how to get to today’s lab.  Once I had showed them how to get the lab and set up their initial experiment, I took any last minute questions and left them to work on their own.  Now, I quickly realized a flaw in my plan.  The charts that I had included made perfect sense to me, however, that was not the case for them.  I immediately had several questions as how to fill out the charts and what some of the meanings were.  I did have the different headings labeled beneath the chart but it was slightly different than what we had talked about before.  Very quickly, my co-teacher and myself scrambled about the room to talk to the six groups to clear up any confusion and prevent further questions on this issue. Their questions certainly are not a bad thing, but we wanted them to be able to use their time efficiently for the rest of class.  From there, we made the decision to help reduce redundancy with the recording of data and had students cross off some of the cells that they had to fill in.  That alone eliminated most questions.  In the current version of the lab I have already crossed off those cells.  Students were given freedom to change values as they progressed through the lab.  This allowed for them to try several different situations and decide which one they wanted to record.  In the future I think I would have made a note for them to play around with it and then make a decision on what data to record.  It also allowed them to make some generalizations about what happens to the momentum of objects when they collide.  By the end of the first day, most students have completed the first section of the lab and were starting to look into inelastic collisions.  I added a comparison of kinetic energy so students who finished early could make some conclusions about conservation of energy while the rest of the class was catching up to them.
To start off day two, we discussed the findings of the class and their thoughts on the change of momentum of two completely elastic objects.  This also provided time for absent students to catch up with the lab.  As it turns out students enjoyed the format of inelastic much better because they were not given a chart to fill out this time rather, they had blanks to fill in.  This time students were familiar with the format of the lab and had a much easier time recording data.   At the end of this section students were once again asked to calculate kinetic energies and make note of changes of energies.  Also, there are some concept questions asked in regard to inelastic collisions.  Students then had three practice problems where they had to solve for velocity or mass of an object after a collision.  They also had to use the idea of elastic collision or inelastic collisions.
Finally, we started day three off with a discussion of what happens to the objects when it is an inelastic collision and how that differs from elastic.  Then, students started to make the connection of elastic and inelastic collisions to their practice problems.  I was excited to see that connection made between the lab and application, whether it be a small one or a complete understanding.  I could have told students the difference between inelastic and elastic and then how to set up those problems, but that was not the case and they were able to make those connections on their own.
After all was said and done with the lab I asked students for suggestions as to how I could make this lab better and whether or not anything lead to confusion.  Most mentioned the format of the table and what exactly had to be recorded.  Besides that, there were very few concerns from the students.  They said it was laid out well and they had a good idea of what was expected of them.  As for me, I was exceptionally pleased with the result of the lab.  I have thought about adding more directions to it but there’s the pessimistic part of me that thinks “that’s less they are going to read”.   So, for now, I am holding off on the idea of adding more directions besides the introduction session held in the classroom.