summary 11/27

Today we discussed our results from last week's experiments probing how water flow rate through a piece of tube is affected by the height difference between the tube outlet and the surface of the water in the reservoir tub. We found a nice linear relationship, but also an interesting inconsistency. The linear trend would predict a significant flow rate even when the tube outlet is exactly at or slightly above the water level, but we know from experiments that that is not possible (we checked today). There must have been some systematic error in the experiments or an incomplete understanding of the physics that remain a mystery.

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This week’s session was on the mechanics of electricity. The students discussed its origin and how it behaves on the atomic level. We started off be reviewing atomic structure, and how electrons behave between atoms of hydrogen. Then we branched off into the molecular structures of metals.

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At Cogitania’s Saturday Botany workshop fourth graders continued their exploration of the Boreal Forest as a followup to our field trip at the Arboretum.

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I have drawn a circle, made it a pizza and cut it in half. Your kids needed to put the number on a number line. They seemed surprised that it would have to be between 0 and 1, I kept cutting it into 1/4th, 1/8th, 1/16th and as I asked the question about how many numbers there are between 0 and 1, you could see their faces expressing a eureka moment till I heard: “Oh my, infinite!”. This was one of the most beautiful moments.I have drawn a circle, made it a pizza and cut it in half. Your kids needed to put the number on a number line. They seemed surprised that it would have to be between 0 and 1, I kept cutting it into 1/4th, 1/8th, 1/16th and as I asked the question about how many numbers there are between 0 and 1, you could see their faces expressing a eruka moment till I heard: “Oh my, infinite!”. This was one of the most beautiful moments.

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Do you think colors have meaning and, if so, where does this originate from?

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It is our goal for them to be responsible for materials they use as well as to think ahead about consequences.

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At Cogitania’s Saturday Botany workshop fourth graders met at the Arnold Arboretum for a beautiful tour of the gardens. We walked the Conifer trail and compared the cone, bark, and needle textures, colors, and size of several conifer trees. The students also learned the family, genus and species scientific names and common names of these conifers

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Using last week’s sub-session as a jumping off point, class began with a recap of M.C. Esher and his visual illusions. We then tried our hand at tessellation creation, making three sets of three within one inch boxes with slightly deviated instructions (line only, black and white, two colors), in an effort to combine the knowledge of the prior class with the one before it on shape dynamics.

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We set up the basic elements of the experimental system, taking us through the next several sessions: flow of water through a tube from a raised reservoir. From empty gallon jugs, cheap tubing from Lowes, and a hot glue gun, the students rigged up a worthy experimental apparatus for exploring this system.

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