How fast and how far?
 The sun was out and the sky was blue when young scientists in Class 5 took to Chapin’s rooftop playdeck on Monday morning with stopwatches and meter sticks in their hands and sneakers on their feet. Their purpose: to investigate the relationships among distance, rate and time. Science teacher Burnadette Morton-Johnson provided each student with the lab instructions, which were designed to give the girls some independence in carrying out the tasks. She circled the deck, checking in with each team and fielding questions from the girls when they arose.
Most worked in groups of four, though there was one intrepid duo who were none the worse for being a smaller unit. The girls had to first measure out five meters and mark it off with blue masking tape. This required teamwork, since they couldn’t measure the entire distance with a single meter stick and had to lay several end to end. They then walked the five meters at a normal pace and recorded how long it took each of them to cover that distance. Next, the girls walked at a normal pace for five seconds and measured how far they had traveled in that short time. They repeated both of these steps at slower and faster paces, doing their best to walk like molasses and then like cheetahs, all while recording the proper times and distances in each situation.
The girls walked in groups of three, in tandem and sometimes alone. Some walked while simultaneously timing themselves; others rotated between keeping time and walking. Regardless of the method they chose, they compared results in conference with each other and with Mrs. Morton-Johnson.
Mrs. Morton-Johnson and fellow Class 5 science teacher, Emmalee Olson, whose class also completed the lab, enjoy doing it each year. The lab often takes place in one of Chapin’s gyms, but the weather being perfect and the gyms being occupied, the playdeck was an ideal venue. Its white lines lent a formality to the proceedings, and the padding on its walls gave the girls something soft to lean against while timing their classmates. "It helped the Class 5 students to see physical science ideas in action," Mrs. Morton-Johnson said. "And the girls had fun!"
To see a gallery of images from this lab, click here. |
