"As long as an experiment yields data, it's a success."
--Adam Savage
Enrolled students: Find and sit in assigned groups
First-day adds: See instructor
Preliminaries
Complete Current Events Quiz for practice, enter your choice for course PIN
Pick up course calendar/syllabus, laptop (or use personal laptop/tablet/smartphone)
Pick up, complete group worksheet/whiteboard on preparing for astronomy labs (*.pdf)
Equipment
Laboratory "0" Whiteboard Preparation worksheets
Cuesta ThinkPad laptops (wireless networking, internet browser)
(appropriate, responsible in-class use of personal laptops allowed)
meter sticks (2 m)
Big Idea
Individual measurements can be statistically analyzed together to identify trends and patterns.
Goal
Students will conduct a series of inquiries about biometric measurements, as an introduction to backwards-scaffolded astronomy inquiry laboratories.
Tasks
(Record your lab partners' names on your worksheet.)
1. Exploration
Using a 2-m stick to measure the heights and arm spans, you will categorize each class member (anonymously) in terms of relative proportions.
- Take off your shoes, and take turns measuring each group member's heights and arm spans using a 2-m stick, to the nearest centimeter.
| Student: | Height: | Arm span: |
| 1 | ___ cm | ___ cm |
| 2 | ___ cm | ___ cm |
| 3 | ___ cm | ___ cm |
| 4 | ___ cm | ___ cm |
- Record each group members' height and arm span information on a whiteboard, and place this at the front of the classroom. (Instead of student names, use your group and student numbers to identify individual height and arm span data.)
- Categorize each student in your class as a tall rectangle (height greater than arm span), square (height equal to arm span), or wide rectangle (height less than arm span). Count the total numbers of tall, square, and wide students in the classroom. Check your counting with your group members, and resolve any discrepancies by consensus.
Number of tall rectangle students: __________.
Number of square students: __________.
Number of wide rectangle students: __________.
- Make generalization statements, in a complete sentences, comparing the numbers of tall, square, and wide students in your classroom.
Generalization statements: __________.
- Calculate the average height for your class (to the nearest centimeter), and the average arm span for your class (to the nearest centimeter).
Average height: __________.
Average arm span: __________.
- Categorize each student in the class in terms of their heights and arm spans, compared to the average values. Keep a record of your results in the tally sheet below using tick marks. Check your counting with your group members, and resolve any discrepancies by consensus.
Below average height and below average arm span: _____
Below average height and above average arm span: _____
Above average height and below average arm span: _____
Above average height and above average arm span: _____
Average height and/or average arm span: _____
Each person in your group should write up their own Exploration answers, to be turned in today and selected randomly to be graded for their group(*).
2. Does Evidence Match a Given Conclusion?
Consider the following generalization statements:
- "People are equally distributed between below-average and above-average height."
- "People are equally distributed between below-average and above-average arm spans."
- "People with above-average heights tend to have above-average arm spans."
For each of these generalization statements, agree or disagree based on the evidence obtained for your class. Cite specific numbers from your data to support or refute each statement, and explain your reasoning based on these specific numbers.
Write up your discussion on whiteboards(*), to be worked on and presented as a group.
Group Work Points(*) (practice only this week)
(*) Documentation (Task 1, graded from randomly selected group member)
(*) Poster/presentation (Task 2)
Activity adapted from:
"Are You A Square?"
pbskids.org/zoom/printables/activities/pdfs/square.pdf
"Scatter Plots"
learner.org/courses/learningmath/data/session7/part_a/further.html
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