This short week, students watched a video on Uranium and we reviewed some key concepts including radioactivity, half-life, parent, daughter, isotope, etc. We then did a cool lab about elements and their emission spectra. We learned how every one of the 92 naturally-occurring elements has their own unique spectrum, and how astronomers can use a spectroscope to be able to tell the composition of distant stars and galaxies. By using Cepheid stars (which pulse their light at a certain rate) and the amount of redshift that stars and galaxies show, we can work backwards and determine that the universe is about 13.8 billion years old.
We only had a 3 day week this week so we didn't get a ton accomplished but we did take post test 2 and pre test 3, reviewed a bit about radiometric dating, and learned about the Doppler effect and all that it means for the Big Bang Theory. We viewed a powerpoint that explains the link between the Doppler Effect, emission spectrum lines, and red shift. We also did a couple of fun starter activities with both a spool and a slinky.
This week, we finished our lessons on famous historical astronomers. We talked about Isaac Newton and his law of Universal Gravitation and then took our post test on Power Standard #1. We also took our next pre test for Power Standard #2. We then moved on to a lesson on radiometric dating. Power Standard #2 is for students to understand the age of the Earth (4.5 billion years) and to understand the scientific evidence for this age. Our lesson included lessons on radioactivity, isotopes, half lives, parents, and daughters. We also did a radiometric half life lab, using M&M minis to represent our radioactive parents turning into daughters at every half life.
This week, we continued our lessons on historical astronomers and their theories and evidences. At the end of this week, we are now ready to be tested on major discoveries in astronomy and who was credited with them. The five major contributors to astronomy that we have been focusing on this week are Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton. Students will be expected to know their contributions to astronomy for their test next week. One highlight of the week was drawing ellipses and finding their eccentricities using Kepler's First Law of Planetary Motion.
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AuthorMr. Saurer is a science teacher and basketball coach currently teaching at Granger High School. Archives
February 2019
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