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Norbert and Zot have two tasks for your children to do on Norbert’s home planet, Norbania, that involve understanding energy. First, your children need to study the relationship between kinetic and elastic potential energy as Norbert parks his sled in his Massive Space Garage. Second, your children need to understand the relationship between kinetic and gravitational potential energy to help Zot deliver a package to the Norbanian Postal System. They will learn how these energies depend on mass, velocity, the spring constant, the spring compression, the height, and gravity by recording and plotting data.
This activity employs many research-based strategies. Check them out for valuable tips and downloads. You may want to try the activity yourself first so you will be better prepared to help your children. Involve other children and have them work cooperatively (follow the link for advice).
Be sure Squeak is installed successfully on your computer. It will take about 15 seconds for the project to load for a fast connection (up to 5 minutes for a slow modem connection). Wait until you see an orange flap at the lower left labeled Navigation. Click the flap to open and close it and access some neat tools. If you click Escape Browser, you will have more space. Click Browser Reentry to get back your Browser controls.
Park: As Norbert parks his sled in his Massive Space Garage, his sled collides with a spring. The kinetic energy of the sled is transferred to elastic potential energy stored in the spring. Your children can follow the transfer of energy in the Data Watcher window where they can read the energy of the sled and spring as Norbert is parking. They can also observe the velocity of the sled and the compression of the spring. They are challenged to come up with the conservation of energy theorem for this system by observing and recording data from the Data Watcher window. We assume a massless spring with no energy lost to heating in this ideal system so the sum of the energies is constant. See if your children can figure that out. Next, your children are challenged to plot and analyze their data and learn how these energies depend on mass, velocity, the spring constant and the spring compression. They are further challenged to unpark Norbert and his sled to see if the same relations hold. Have your children work in groups where they can present, discuss and exchange their ideas. Click the PARK button at the left to start.
Mail: An understanding of kinetic and gravitational potential energy is essential to deliver Zot's package to the magical Norbanian Postal System, which only accepts packages with kinetic energy equal to the current value posted on the mailbox. As the package drops gravitational potential energy is transferred to kinetic energy. Your children can follow the transfer of energy in the Data Watcher window where they can read the kinetic and gravitational potential energy of the package as it falls from rest. They can also observe the velocity and height of the package. They are challenged to come up with the conservation of energy theorem for this system by observing and recording data from the Data Watcher window. We assume no energy lost to air friction in the thin Norbanian atmosphere so the sum of the energies is constant. See if your children can figure that out. Next, your children are challenged to plot and analyze their data and learn how these energies depend on mass, velocity, height, and gravity. Have your children work in groups where they can present, discuss and exchange their ideas. Click the MAIL button at the left to start.
Plotting Tool: They will need to plot data in Challenges 1 and 2 in both PARK and MAIL. Scientists often plot data to help them understand. If your children are already in the PARK or MAIL activity, they should click Browser Reentry and then click the browser back button to return to this page to review plotting data. They should click the PLOTTING button at the left to access the review.
Challenge 3: Challenge 3 in both PARK and MAIL requires a knowledge of how Squeak works. Before trying it, your children should first watch the recording of how to use Squeak to make the objects on the page perform for them. Playing is a great way to learn. They must click Escape Browser and their resolution must be set at 1024x768 to view the recording properly. They should click the PLAYING button at the left to start the recording. Then they should return to PARK or MAIL. It would also be very helpful to download and print the Etoy Quick Start Guide to hand out to your children. Your children could either modify the PARK project so Norbert bounces back and forth between his parking spring and garage door spring or modify the MAIL project so two packages are dropped side by side or they could do both. We would like to see your children's solutions to bouncing Norbert back and forth and delivering two packages side by side. Go to the NASA CONNECT web site and have your children submit their Squeak projects.
After your children are familiar with the Squeak Park and Mail projects, have them try these additional challenges as extensions. They should explore, create, and have fun learning.
Activity Objectives:
- Students will study energy in an engaging and fun Squeak activity.
- Students will measure kinetic, elastic potential and gravitational potential energy.
- Students will measure velocity, spring compression and height.
- Students will develop a theorem relating the energies in each problem using critical thinking.
- Students will plot their data in several different ways using a scatterplot.
- Students will analyze their data plots to see graphically the relations between the energies in the activity and mass, velocity, spring constant, spring compression, height, and gravity.
- Students will analyze their data plots to back up their energy theorem.
- Students will analyze, discuss and explain transfer of energy.
- Students will work together cooperatively and analyze and present their results.
Teacher Information
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