Science Reasoning Center - Energy

You have reached the Construction Zone. As of April 1, 2023 the redo of our Science Reasoning Center was elevated to our top priority. We should have a large amount of content ready by August 1, 2023. We release content once it is ready, allowing teachers to preview and to test our latest creations for potential adoption into their curriculum and unit planning. You can stop by periodically to view our progress. It will be like watching a skyscraper being built ... only more exciting. You can also keep abreast of our developments by a periodic visit to the
What's New at TPC? page.
The
Legacy version of the Science Reasoning Center can be found
here.
Learn more:
About the Science Reasoning Center.
The following activities are planned for our Grand Opening. Once construction is completed, we will include a link to the activity:
Energy on an Inclined Plane
This activity describes an experiment in which students use a motion detector to study the changes in the kinetic and potential energy of a cart that rolls up and down an inclined plane. Information is presented in the form of a position-time graph, a velocity-time graph, a figure and a table. Questions target a student's ability to read values off of graphs, to use information from one graph to answer questions about another graph or a table, to draw conclusions that are consistent with the presented data, and to use presented data to predict the result of performing an additional trial.
Hot Wheels Stopping Distance
This activity describes an experiment in which students release a Hot Wheels car from various locations along an inclined track and measure its speed at the bottom and the distance it slides upon hitting a box. Data is presented in the form of two figures and a data table. Questions target a student's ability to understand an experimental design, to identify the effect (both qualitatively and quantitatively) of one variable upon another variable, to combine information from two figures or a figure and a table to make predictions and draw conclusions, to extrapolate from data in a table or a figure, and to use provided data to evaluate a claim.
The Bat-Ball Collision
This activity describes a spring model for explaining the collsion between a bat and ball in baseball. Two graphs, an equation and a diagram are used to present information about the transfer and the transformation of energy that occurs during the collision. Questions target a student's ability to make predictions based on an equation, to select values from a graph, to reason towards conclusions that are consistent with a model, and to combine information from two data presentations in order to identify an appropriate conclusion.