Return to science main pageReturn to science main page
Hopping, Skipping, and Jumping for Science focuses on four main areas:
Groups of students should work together to decide which five types of motion they want to measure. From that decision will come the decision of how to measure that motion. Students need to decide what distance to time over (or perhaps whether to measure how far they can travel in a given time). They need to decide whether or not they need multiple trials of one person, or whether to measure each person in the group once.
When they have designed an experiment and a measuring system, they can collect the data. You may want to have them collect the data right into the spreadsheet (in which case they need to set up the spreadsheet first) or you may want to have them collect the data on paper, then decide how to use the spreadsheet to record. Setting up the spreadsheet is more efficient, but having students record on paper first tends to let them be more flexible about experimental design.
You may want your students to use a spreadsheet template to enter their data. If you click on the icon below, a spreadsheet file icon will appear on your computer's desktop. To open the file, double click its icon. In the spreadsheet, the computer automatically calculates yards/second and miles/hour. You may want to have students work that out on their own, depending on your time availability and the students' calculation abilities.
