Wednesday, May 19, 2010







Variables


Hey readers!! Today in science class, we discussed VARIABLES and how to conduct aFAIR TEST!!! First of all, a fair test is a test that is re-tested three times to make sure that it is right, and in each of the times that you re-test it, you can only change one variable. Most of you readers, at this point, might be asking yourselves: "What the heck is a variable???" Well, a variable is anything that the scientist can change in order to conduct a fair test. There are many different types of variables:

Independent Variable (IV) which is anything the scientist testing the experiment can change,

Dependent Variable(DV) which is what the scientist measures and the actual result,

Controlled Variable (cv) which are all of the things a scientist needs to keep the same, and

Uncontrolled Variable (uv) which are all of the errors that the scientist can have made during the testing.

We watched again a Myth Busters episode were they made an experiment on trucks: do they go farther with the tailgate up or down? First, we needed to write a hypothesis on which truck we thought would go farther: the truck with the tailgate up or the truck with the tailgate down. We figured out that the truck with the tailgate up went farther, since the wind got blocked into the back of the truck, forming a "circle", so the wind coming from the top of the truck didn't fall on the truck, not provoking a drag. Instead, in the truck with the tailgate down, the was no "circle" in the back of the truck, which made the wind fall on the tailgate, provoking a big time drag. After the Myth Busters, we all answered some practice questions for a variables sheet.

Also, for the sixth grade readers, our only homework is (of course) the blog, and the lab!!!

Next scribe is...........DUNCAN!!!!!!

P.S. I couldn't find the exact video we watched in class, but here is the Myth Buster's second try for the same experiment, since the fans complained about their science not being accurate......enjoy!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3aqHbD-O9E

8 comments:

  1. Hi there Davide :)

    First, of all, I liked your enthusiasm you have brought into your post. It was clear that you were interested in the topic that you class was about. Talking of everything that I have read from your post, I can say that the structure is not the best part. Talking of the best part - layout. The layout was very well. You've chosen to place different colors which didn't distract the reader. Then, the pictures. They were bright, but I don't understand why you have hyperlinked the text, leading it to a very small picture. Well, talking of science relation, you've done a great job. You have used a lot of scientific vocabulary, and your post actually makes sense. Going back to the structure. It's okay, but you could have planned out what you're going to write first (Ex. separate your text into sections). Concluding these factors I can say that your post is good but there are some little corrections to be made. In general, good :)

    Severyn

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Davide,
    I liked your scribe post a lot because I thought you used the apropriate amount of science and explanations. I think that it was great how you used the scientific vocabulary that fits with variables. This is also a good blogpost because refreshed my memory of variables because I forgot most of it. But now that I've read your scribe I think I understand what they are again. One thing you could have done to improve this scribe post is to maybe add a couple more pictures. But overall your post was excellent.
    Reza

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey Davide,
    This is a great post to help people in your class or help refresh things (for people like me). I like the fact that you used many colors in your scribe post. However, one suggestion is that next time underlining would not be neccesary because it makes it a little hard to read. Now to the science, you managed to clearly summarize the experiment with the tailgate up or down. Also, your link to further expand on the topic is great and very relevant to what you are writing about.
    Great job,
    -Ines (:

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey Davide.
    I liked your blog because I could tell you put a lot of effort into it. I also liked the different colors and pictures. I found out that you are learning about IVs, CVs, DVs and UVs. I also noticed that your homework assignemt was the lab, so maybe you could have told the readers when it is due, what the lab is about, and what you are learning from the lab. Overall, you were great!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hey Davide
    First of all good job for doing your post.
    Here are my impressions about your post

    What I liked about your post:

    -The font color was clear and visible
    -You were enthusiasm
    -You explained pretty well what you did in class
    -Including a video was a good idea (even if it’s not the exact same one)
    -You included pictures

    What you could improve in your post:

    -I think you shouldn’t put so much exclamation point
    -Be careful when you write in capital letter because in internet this means yelling.
    -Try to introduce more the picture in the text like not just putting it on the top of the text.
    -Next time try to embed the video directly on the page (if you don’t know how, ask me, I will be happy to help you)
    -Colors are nice but there is maybe too much different colors in the post
    -It was a little short

    Overall good job for doing your entire post.
    Continue like that!
    Kamil

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hey Davide
    What I liked about your blog was that you writed in colurs and that you write in bigge words. I found out that you are learning about IVs, CVs, DVs and UVs. you could have told os more of the lab but Your post was lovely.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Davide - I enjoyed reading your post. There were no spelling errors and your different colors with the different types of variables were helpful. The underlining in your text was very distracting and in places you have some grammatical errors and some word choice errors. Also, you could have gone into more depth about the lab and the extra credit opportunity I gave your class after the Myth Busters episode we watched. Great job hyperlinking to the Myth Busters. Too bad you couldn't find the exact one we watched, although they did make reference to it. Nice work overall on this post. ~Ms. D.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Davide,
    Great post! The fact that you put lots of colors and scientific information. Though next time you could maybe use either pictures you took in class or pictures of the real mythbusters episode. I thought you explained the variables very well and you listed evrey thing we did in class. But nest time i think you could add more color.

    Karin

    ReplyDelete