unit1-ls1-studentedition- 1.6
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1.6 Explore
Learning Set 1
ACCIDENT CHALLENGE
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1.6 ExploreWhat variables affect the collision distance?
The increasing number of dangerous accidents is a serious concern for all citizens of McFarland.
In an attempt to understand why some accidents are so dangerous the city decided to look at
whether vehicles were speeding. If the dangerous accidents are all from trucks that are
speeding, then the McFarland police could focus on enforcing the speed limit. The police set up
remote speed monitoring equipment and found that the majority of drivers were travelling the
speed limit. Despite driving the speed limit, some trucks were still involved in
severe/dangerous accidents.
The citizens of McFarland have suggested various reasons why some accidents might be more
dangerous than others. Some have argued that the posted speed limit (40 mph) is too high. In
other words, if drivers are driving the speed limit and stillgetting in severe accidents, then the
current speed limit is too high. Other citizens have focused on the type of the truck driving on
Park St. Some of the trucks driving to and from the factory are empty (because they have just
made a delivery) and some are filled (because they have just picked up a shipment). Some
citizens have argued that either the empty or the loaded trucks might be more likely to be in a
dangerous accident.
The citizens are bringing their ideas to the city council. The city council wants to use these
ideas to write proposals that could reduce the number of severe/dangerous accidents. One
problem is that the citizens ideas are only guesses; they have no data to support their claims
about the factors causing the severe accidents. The city council wants to write proposals based
on data, so that they have evidence that the proposals might work.
Therefore the city council would like data that suggests which factors might be contributing to
the dangerous accidents. If the posted speed limit were reduced, would there be less severe
accidents? Two slower speed limits have been proposed: 20 mph and 30 mph. Would this
matter? Which speed limit should be used? Is the type of truck an issue? Are empty or loaded
trucks more likely to be in a dangerous accident?
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1.6 ExploreYou will continue to use your model of collisions. This time you will conduct an experiment to
determine what effects the speed of the truck and the type of truck have on the severity of the
accident. This evidence will be used by the city council to decide which proposals would likely
reduce the severity of accidents at the intersection.
1.6: Part 1 of 5 Organize the Challenge
Before starting the investigation you need to design a new procedure. You will need a new
procedure because you have new information that is relevant to the challenge. To begin
thinking about changes to the procedure we will conduct a poll.
As a group, discuss the questions on the Poll Questions Sheet. Then, as a group, decide the best
answer to each question. Mark your answer on the Poll Questions Sheet. When your group has
answered all the questions, choose one person to report your answers to the class.
All groups will report their answers to the poll questions. As other groups are reporting their
answers, write down their answers on the Poll Results Sheet. When every group has reported
their data the class can look at the Poll Results Sheet and discuss whether all groups agree, or
why groups might disagree.
GROUPComplete the Poll Questions Sheetwith your group. When your
teacher is ready, share your answers with the class.
STUDENT Record each groups answers on the Poll Results Sheet.
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1.6 Explore
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1.6 ExploreUse a Think, Pair, Share to answer the following questions about the last procedure you
developed (the procedure in 1.4).
What changes would you need to make to your groups procedure in order to testdifferent speeds?
What changes would you need to make to your groups procedure in order to testdifferent truck types?
Answer these questions yourself, and then pair and discuss your ideas with a partner. Your
teacher will then ask some groups to share their answers. As groups share ideas about the
procedural changes, your teacher will help the class identify how to change the class procedure.
As a class, you will decide how to change the procedure to test these factors. Additionally, your
teacher will assign groups to the different conditions that need to be tested.
1.6: Part 2 of 5 Explore
In the last section your class decided how the procedure could be changed so that you could
test trucks traveling at different speeds and trucks with different masses. Therefore, you now
need to plan (and record) your new procedure. Use the Procedure Design Sheetto write your
new procedure. Be sure to include the important details for your tests. (Remember, your
group will test only two conditions. Your teacher should have assigned your group which two
conditions to test.)
Use a Think, Pair, Share to discuss what changes to your
procedure will be needed.
GROUP Complete the Procedure Design Sheetto record your procedureand the details for your two tests.
CLASS
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1.6 Explore
After you have planned your procedure, complete your investigation. For each condition your
group tests, conduct 10 test trials. Record your data on the Data Recording Sheet. Once your
group has collected all the data, calculate the average for each condition.
Run your two investigations following the class procedure.
Record our results on the Data Recordin Sheet.STUDENT
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1.6 Explore1.6 Part 3 of 5 Add to Your Understanding
You just conducted an experiment in your laboratory. Experiments can differ widely in what
they look like, but they generally have at least one independent variable and one dependent
variable. Additionally, experiments have many controlled variables.
An independent variable is a variable that the experimenter systematically changes during the
experiment. For instance, an experimenter might vary the amount of water that a plant gets, in
order to see how different amounts of water affect the length of roots that a plant grows.
A dependent variable, on the other hand, is a variable that the experimenter measures during
the experiment. Often, the independent variable is predicted to affect the dependent variable.
For instance, the experimenter might think that amount of water (independent variable) will
affect plant root length (dependent variable). In this case, the dependent variable (root length)
depends on the amount of the independent variable (water).
Likewise, you might hear people refer to a controlled variable. A controlled variable is a
variable that the experimenter holds constant. In other words, the experimenter keeps the
variable from changing. For instance, suppose the earlier experiment about plant root growth
was being conducted with five potato plants. The type of soil that the plants are growing in
might also affect root length. Because the experimenter is only interested in the effect of water
on root growth, he or she would need to be careful not to use different types of soil. Instead,
each of the five potato plants would need to get the same type of soil. In this example, soil
type is a controlled variable. Controlled variables are used to keep a procedure consistent.
1.6: Part 4 of 5
ShareSharing procedures and data is important for scientists and engineers because it allows
collaboration. Other scientists and engineers can use each others work and data to
understand a problem better. This is especially important when the problem is complex. For
instance, you only tested one speed. Other groups tested a different speed. Even though you
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1.6 Exploredid not test it yourself, you can use their data to understand how mass affects distance traveled
at different speeds.
Just seeing data alone is problematic. Remember how many problems you had getting
consistent data during early versions of your procedure? To evaluate someone elses data, you
often want to know the procedures they used to generate that data. This way you can
understand better how they collected their data.
Communicating procedures and data is important for scientists and engineers. You will practice
communicating your procedure and data now. We will use a poster session to report your
procedure and data using a poster as a visual aid. After your group creates your poster the
class will share their posters with each other.
When making your poster consider your audience. What information do they need to know in
order to understand your experiment? When making your poster, include the following
sections:
1. Question: What question were you testing? (What independent variable were youchanging?)
2. Prediction: What did you expect the result to be? (How did you expect the dependentvariable to change when the independent variable changed?)
3. Data: Paste your table of data onto your poster4. Results: What is the trend or results that you found?
After you have created your poster your group will display it in the classroom. Groups can walk
around and view other groups posters. Your teacher will select a few groups to present their
poster to the class.
GROUPAs a group, plan out and then make your poster. Be sure to
include all four sections.
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1.6 Explore
Poster Session
A poster session is an event
that helps scientists and
engineers communicate their
work to others in their
profession.
There are different types of
poster sessions, but all involve
a visual aid (a poster) that
contains important
information about a problem
and the methods and results
of the scientists/engineers
investigation of the problem.
Image courtesy: Science Education Research Center.
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/earlycareer2010/program.html
A poster session is a social event, with some people presenting posters and other people
walking around and talking with those presenters. The authors of the poster will use the
poster to help explain what he or she was doing, and to answer questions asked by the
audience. By communicating their work, poster sessions help scientists collaborate they
help others learn what has been done and what still needs to be done to solve a problem.
1.6: Part 5 of 5 Add to Your Understanding
You saw other groups data in the poster session. What would happen if you collected the data
from all the groups in your class? Remember that some other groups tested different speeds
than your group did. If you collect and graph the data for the entire class you might see trends
about how the speed of Vehicle A affects the distance that Vehicle B travels and how the mass
of Vehicle A affects the distance that Vehicle B travels. In a sense, all the groups would be
Poster Session. Display your poster in the classroom and view
other groups posters. You can ask them questions about their
procedure and data. A few groups will present their posters to
the class.
GROUP
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1.6 Explorecollaborating together in order to understand how two factors (mass and speed) affect the
distance that Vehicle B travels after a collision. Your teacher will help you collect and graph the
class data.
Now that you have collected the class data, you can create graphs to look at the data for all six
of the tests that the class conducted. Your teacher will use the data in the Class Data Table
Sheetto draw graphs on the Class Line Graph Sheet. You should follow along and draw the line
graphs on your copy of the Class Line Graph Sheet. Creating the graphs will give you a visual
representation of the trend of your data. It might help you understand the effect of varying the
mass and speed of Vehicle A.
STUDENT Report your two test condition means to your teacher. Record
each groups means on your Class Data Table Sheet.
STUDENT
Draw two line graphs on the Class Line Graph Sheet. One line
graph is for the empty truck and one line graph is for the loaded
truck.
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1.6 Explore
Graphing: Line Graphs
A line graph is a type of graph that
connects data points with a line. Line
graphs are often used to show a trend how data changes along some
ordered dimension.
For instance, suppose you wanted to
see how the number of sent text
messages changes over each weekday.
You could calculate the mean number
of text messages sent on Monday, themean number sent on Tuesday, etc. A
hypothetical graph of these data is on
the right. Each weekdayis on the X-
axis and Mean number of text
messages is on the Y-axis. Does the
mean number of text messages
increase, decrease, or stay the same
from Wednesday through Friday? On
which day were the fewest text
messages sent?
Now that you have the line graphs drawn, you should be able to interpret the data displayed in
the graphs. Your teacher will guide the class, helping you understand and interpret the data.
Consider these two questions.
For the loaded trucks, does speed increase the distance Vehicle B traveled? For the empty trucks, does speed increase the distance Vehicle B traveled?
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri
Meannumberoftextmessages
Weekdays
CLASS Interpret the line graphs and answer the above questions.
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