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Below are some labs which other instructors may find useful. If you do use my MrLaFazia.com Original Labs (these are indicated in the table), please keep the credit for them on the Lab Documents. Of course, you are free to use them simply for ideas. No doubt none of them are truly "original", in the purest sense.
If you find them useful in your own classroom or research, please let me know! It would be an encouragement to hear that I have helped teachers elsewhere make Science more interesting to their students.
Some labs, of course, come from outside sources or are heavily dependent on said outside sources. I have clearly indicated these sources, when recalled. I apologize if I have made an error in citing any particular resource. Please contact me if you believe your original work has been used without permission (or with improper citation).
Labs with Descriptions and Supporting Documents:
Parallel, Series; Combination Circuits
- A MrLaFazia.com Borrowed Lab! Using Excel (accompanied by a lab sheet) students can input the appropriate equations based on their prior knowledge of Ohm's Law and Equivalent Resistances to study circuitry. This lab was originally designed by my friend and mentor, Peter Parlett.
Superposition of Waves
- A MrLaFazia.com Borrowed Lab! Using Excel (accompanied by a lab sheet) students can explore wave interference patterns. Special attention is paid to "beats" (makes a good tie-in for music students). This lab was originally designed by my friend and mentor, Peter Parlett.
Doing Pushups: A Review Lab
- A MrLaFazia.com Original! This is one of the labs I made near the end of my 3rd year of teaching (2007-'08). I consider it to be relatively sophisticated, and it is most appropriately applied as a review lab to go over major topics within Mechanics & Work/Energy/Power. It requires the use of at least one Force Plate per group, and graphing software.
Work-In vs. Energy Stored
- A MrLaFazia.com Original! Using three excellent "Bomb's Away" launchers made by my students and adding to the Stations a compound bow and a target bow, I put together a lab which shows students the importance of calculating area beneath the "curve" for a Hooke's Law situation (Force vs. Extension/Compression), Elastic Potential Energy, and ultimately has them apply the Work-Energy Theorem. Since they made the launchers, they really bought into the situation. This was definitely one of my most successful labs.
The Big Bang!
- A MrLaFazia.com Original! A low-tech simulation lab, The Big Bang lab makes use of crushed coral (preferably) to open up discussion for the origin of the matter of the Universe, the formation of the original Super Galaxies, and supernovae. It then focuses in on the formation of our own galaxy, star, planets, and moon. A limitation is that it assumes that the students already have a good idea of the processes. However, this can be a strength as it promotes in-depth discussions (a must for any classroom).
Derby Cars
- A MrLaFazia.com Original! This was one of the first lab projects I ever created. I used it to incorporate important concepts such as center-of-mass, frictional forces, free-body-diagrams, Newton's Laws of Motion, and the most common forms of the Kinematic Equations to my 1st year students. Although large projects are not suitable for every course, I recommend this for tech-type courses. Included with the Four-Phase lab sheets is a Concept Sheet for Part I (to get the students started) and a Lab Quiz for all 3 parts (including an alternative quiz for Part II).
Hooke's Law
- A MrLaFazia.com Original! Created using an Excel spreadsheet, this lab is meant to accompany a physical spring/mass system from which students garner measurements. The first page is a calculator (calibrated by the students to start), and the second page is a self-graphing data-table. Students tend to get a lot out of the visuals. I have also included a separate (optional) Lab-Sheet.
Ping Pong (Peace) Pipes
- A MrLaFazia.com Original! This is a fun title for a classic Physics "toy". My only recommendation is that you allow the glue to dry prior to student use, as it is doubtful they can keep themselves from breathing IN.
A Boat-Load of Work!
- A MrLaFazia.com Original! I would be lying if I said that I was not proud of this lab when I made it. It takes key Physics concepts like average speed, acceleration, Newton's II, Work; Power, and relates these to each other in a virtually seamless way. An added advantage is that it is a low-tech lab (which means that you can basically get it setup at 10 o'clock tonight and dive into it tomorrow morning!) Although in the lab I suggest using 2x4s and plastic sheeting for the water trough, I have always just used a long plastic storage box. One problem often encountered is that small vortices of air sometimes form that limit certain designs. This can easily be overcome by simply considering the trough length to be however far the boat traveled.
Work at School
- A MrLaFazia.com Original! An adaptation of my BoatLoad of Work Lab, this is a very simple lab where students use spring scales or force probes to calculate the quantity of Work associated with common tasks. Accuracy is a limitation, as average forces would need to be taken to account for these, but if you warn students that the numbers will be off from reality somewhat they can move on through the lab as-is. By the end of this lab students are generally very confident on the topic of Work.
The Famous Drinking Bird
- A MrLaFazia.com Original! My colleague John Hilton and I have used the Drinking Birds to introduce Energy concepts ever since the creation of the Dynamic Universe curriculum. Of course, this is nothing particularly new, although we have come up with some unique spins on the classic "Drinking Bird" lab. This is my latest version. It takes the angle of being a pet-shop, allowing students to explore the Physics of the Drinking Bird with no prior discussion. At the end, the "Pet Shop Owner" (instructor) summarizes the "nature" of the Drinking Bird (effecting a post-lab discussion). Students appreciate the creativity of this approach.
Spring Scales
- A MrLaFazia.com Original! Hardly worth calling an original due to its simplicity (and ancient origins), I have used this lab to get students used to producing data-tables and graphs from experimental data. It also offers an early opportunity to discuss proper lab procedures.
Counting Calories
- A MrLaFazia.com Original! I call this an Original, although it technically should be an Original Adaptation. On the first (of nine) pages in this Excel spreadsheet lab, I note that the content of the lab is "heavily dependent on John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 4.1.5 Lab, Unit Four: Thermodynamics and Kinetics, pp. 358-359", although I was forced to reword a good deal of it for my own class' purposes. In addition, some cartoons were taken from a Google.com image search to supplement the spreadsheet. The lab write-up sheet can be found here.
Chemical Definitions
- A MrLaFazia.com Original! Although simple, this lab requires a lot of preparation on the part of the instructor in the form of gathering materials. The basic idea is that students review the definitions surrounding the topics of elements, compounds, and mixtures, and then apply what they've learned to the materials. It provides a great opportunity to discuss proper lab handling of toxic materials (antifreeze), as well. Students tend to appreciate the simplicity of the lab in addition to the visuals it provides. I have found in the past that this sparks memories from sciences courses taken in the lower grades, not to mention that it brings out personal experiences from the students' own lives. I have included a powerpoint to introduce the lab.
Earth's Crust vs. Mystery Planet's
- A MrLaFazia.com Original! This is one of those labs that gets the students talking. It can be used as a separations-of-mixtures lab, as well. What I did was I took some samples of my lawn/topsoil and gave these to the students. Secondly, I mixed up my own "Mystery Planet" sample for the students to separate and analyze. If I remember correctly, I took table salt, rock salt, crushed coral, and iron bits (perhaps some other materials) and placed them together in a bag (shaking the contents up). It's a simple lab that can be adapted for a number of curricular goals.
Bombs Away!
- A MrLaFazia.com Original! Projectile Motion is a topic that opens the door for tie-ins from all other parts of any Physics curriculum. In this Three Phase lab project, students get together in teams and come up with designs for launchers. Their creativity is forced upon them by the necessity that their materials be commonly available. The benefits are worth the week it takes the complete all Three Phases, and this project has become a well-loved tradition among my students.
The Classic Egg Drop Experiment
- A MrLaFazia.com Original! Again one of those labs which is hardly worthy of being called "Original", this is my version of the Egg-Drop Experiment.
1-Dimensional Collisions
- A MrLaFazia.com Original! This lab packet is pretty exhaustive in its study of colliding systems. It can be used on air-track or low-friction car tracks (or even minus the demonstrations, if necessary, as a conceptual exercise). I have often used it as a demonstration/discussion piece or Practicum when a sufficient number of lab setups is not available. Originally I was intending to make a Part Two, but I have yet to see the need for one.
Super Man Orbit
- A MrLaFazia.com Original! A student of mine had a flying Super Man toy that she brought in one year and I decided to use it to relate a number of useful equations to the phenomenon of the toy going around and around in a type of orbit. Later, the lab sheet relates this motion to the revolution of the Earth around the Sun (Kepler's Laws). I have always thought it necessary to show students that our more obscure equations have very humble origins that date back to their middle school days. This is a beautiful example of that.
Gravity Simulator (.com)
- A MrLaFazia.com Original Adaptation! I can only call this an Adaptation of the Gravity Simulator concept, because these labs rely so heavily on the software. A powerful but not overly-confusing simulation engine, GravitySimulator.com has the potential to be used in a number of Astronomy applications. Students are in the driver's seat as they explore both theoretical and actual heavenly bodies interacting, including potentially catastrophic collisions. So far I have created only two labs to go with this software. The first is used to introduce the students to the software. The second is setup to take advantage of a simulation the Gravity Simulator site has which discusses a near-collisions predicted to occur with the Earth in the year 2029.
Pencil Sharpener
- A MrLaFazia.com Original! Using some simple materials, students are introduced to some important graphing skills and analysis. If I can say so, this is "Classic LaFazia". It is ideal for low-tech, low-prep situations. Pull this lab out at any time during the year for graphing review!
Bubble Blowing
- A MrLaFazia.com Original Adaptation! Based off of a well-known bubble-blowing measurement lab, this simple intro. lab is easy to setup and does not generally take the students long to complete. It can be used most effectively as a "filler" lab to supplement shorter lessons. The materials are simple, too. The kids refer to it as a "ghetto" lab, because I have always just used loops of copper wire for the blowing-wands and raiding the bathrooms for liquid soap instead of going to a dollar store for the supplies.
Thumb Wars!
- A MrLaFazia.com Borrowed Lab! Although I referenced a source on this un-Original lab, I am doubtful that this is the original source...highly doubtful. A bit of searching reveals that there are a great number of un-sourced "borrowers" of the same exact lab. It is an intense lab, as it has students thumb-wrestling and they tend to get very involved. I have included a spreadsheet which my students used to see the relationships between the variables. With a little logic (and perhaps a better standard for measurement and regulations than we used) conclusions can be drawn from the data. Other forms of graphing besides the utilized scatter-plot would likely be more revealing. Feel free to experiment.
Newton Bridge is Falling Down
- A MrLaFazia.com Original! Based on the classic "toothpick" bridge designs of general mathematics courses, the "Newton Bridge" lab is a 3-phase project which uses thick spaghetti noodles (fettucini strands) to build a bridge and relate Newton's III Laws of Motion to the statics (and inevitable dynamics) of bridge structure. It has its messy moments, but with some guidance (generally in the form of showing students bridge designs and discussing the difference between tension and compression in bridges) this can be a rewarding lab project.
2-Dimensional Force Vectors
- A MrLaFazia.com Original! I made this one weekend early in my first year of teaching. It was in response to a need for a method of relating vectors to trigonometry (a valuable tool for students in a quantitative environment). This setup requires a wooden dowel-rod to have notches made in the top of it at 6 different points (slightly angled the further out from the Origin you go). I made the notches specific distances out such that the resulting isoceles triangle would have angles that would create two triangles (as sketched) of roughly 15, 30, and 45 degrees. Spring scales were used to connect the length of rope to the notches and a third spring-scale was used at the bottom. The dowel-rod is hung using test-tube clamps and two vertically oriented lab-stands.
Frictional Forces
- A MrLaFazia.com Original! An expansion upon the simple idea of relating static and kinetic frictional force magnitudes, this Force-probe based lab is used to first introduce the concepts surrounding varying coefficients of friction in a 1-Dimensional environment. I find that it is useful to PUSH your object along the surface with the force-probes. For most probe software this is pre-calibrated to indicate a negative force (which helps students to consider frictional forces as opposing the intended direction of motion)
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