Activity 00 Sticks & Stones

Questions

Can you count off seconds? Can you make a meter stick from a stick? Can you find a one kilogram stone?

This is a lightweight introductory lab designed to be deployed during the early days of the term when the class may still be adding and dropping students. The lab is also designed to help prepare an education major for work in a rural, village school that might not have any scientific instruments.

Time: Keeping the beat

Space: Measuring in meters using meter stick tree meter sticks

Mass: Stones

Instructional notes: During the summer term this functioned as a lead off laboratory. An attempt to deploy this in a one hour regular term lecture slot failed to provide enough time to walk to the meter stick tree forest. Decision was also made not to have students bring in stones as 32 kilograms of stones seemed unmanageable. One might be able to do meter stick trees exercise only, but period would have to focus on that one single activity and not include syllabus review or other material.