Apologia: Physical Science

Our goal today was to finish the Air and Weather Modules in order to really get started with some Chemistry before tackling Physics.  Below are the questions we used to review some key concepts.  The kids did two chemical labs to get them more familiar with chemical reactions: Reaction in the Bag and Alka-seltzer Experiment One.  Incidentally, all of the Alka-seltzer experiments are good.  The first lab requires phenol red, an indicator solution, which can be purchased through Amazon.  My goal was for the kids to experience chemical reactions, follow instructions, and make observations.  We will graph their data collected from the Alka-seltzer lab next week.  The kids did another graphing exercise with a CO2 data set.  We have been entering the data into the STAT function, identifying which is the independent and dependent variables, learning how to change the range, selecting math models, and basic graphing-this time with the diagnostic ON to evaluate how well our equation correlates to the data, Graphing a Scatter Plot.  Every kid had a different calculator: TI 83, 84, Nspire, and the GraphNCalc 83 app on an iPad.  The iPad app is $5.99 and very similar.  I was able to successfully bid on the Nspire CAS calculator which has two interchangeable keyboards.  I am certain it can do much more than the simple graphs we are doing.  The Nspire calculators with the Ti84 keyboards can be acquired less expensively than used TI 84 models.  I bought an extra TI 83 model from Goodwill.  The site does not keep records of your credit card.  It is important to check the  shipping and handling fees before bidding.  I want another TI 84 to interface with the temperature probes.  The EasyData software is preloaded and the micro USB port on the calculator connects directly with the probe or Vernier's adapter.  The kids have a digital thermometer!  The data collected is stored in the STAT files on the calculator for analysis.

Vernier graph intro has a great graphing introduction that would be terrific to practice graphing!
The last thing we did was to answer a few questions to wrap up the Air and Weather Modules.

Apologia Physical Science:

1.  Explain heat transfer in terms of radiation, convection, and conduction.

2.  How does the Earth's atmosphere move heat?

3.  What is weather?  How is climate different from weather?

4.  What is the composition of air?

5.  How does temperature change as one ascends the layers of the atmosphere?

6.  Why does the Earth have seasons?

7.  What factors determine the temperature?

8.  How does Heat flow?

9. What is the Sun's role in Earth's weather?

10.  Which factors best forecast the weather?