Compound Machine Project (...and circuits)

Compound Machine Project

Simple Machines rarely exist in isolation; any combination becomes a compound machine and their mechanical advantages are multiplied.

TASK:  Students will create a compound machine consisting of at least 3 simple machines that will lift/pull a weight with the greatest overall mechanical advantage and efficiency.

Students have 3 class days to accomplish the task:

1. Brainstorm
2. Build
3. Test/Modify
4. Performance & Reflection

A rubric and teammate evaluation will be posted soon.  Let the games begin!

Meanwhile...circuits videos

Homework for the next several days will be to watch the circuits videos provided on Its Learning, and be ready to start the circuits activity when the compound machine design is finished.  This is our first step toward a flipped classroom: short videos introducing concepts and examples at home, activities and what would traditionally be homework in school.

Next up, CIRCUITS!

What do you remember about electricity and circuits?

Homework:

Create a concept map of all the terms you remember relating to circuits or electricity.

• How are the terms related?
• How should they be grouped?
• How are they connected?

After creating the concept map, watch the videos posted on Its Learning about:

• Voltage, Current, & Resistance
• Series & Parallel Circuits

​If you find better videos through Khan Academy or PhysicsClassroom.com, feel free to use them to refresh yourself.

come back Friday ready to dive in to circuits!

1 quiz next week, Tuesday

We have two quizzes coming up next week:

• Gears, Pulleys, Sprockets (2nd and final)
• Simple Machines (3rd and final)

The simple machines one will test mechanical advantage, efficiency, and the descriptions and attributes of the simple machines with a focus on types of levers.

I did not hand back your 1st gear quiz, that was my fault, so we will not quiz on Monday.  I need to return those first before I give you a second.  It's only fair that you should see what you did the first time so you may improve.  Tuesday we will do both quizzes.  Take advantage of the PPTs on Its Learning, and activities 1.1.2 and 1.1.5 for practice problems and answer keys.

Enjoy your weekend!

Quiz Postponed

After the events of the day, I'm moving the simple machines and gears quiz to Monday.  Enjoy your night off!

Gears and Pulleys and Sprockets, OH MY!

Here's a look ahead this week:
Tuesday:

• Present compound gear trains
• Continue to work on Activity 1.1.3 Gears

Wednesday

• Quiz:  Gears, Standards 1.1D, 1.1B
• Activity 1.1.4 Pulley Drives & Sprockets

Thursday

• Activity 1.1.5 Gears & Pulley Drives Practice Problems
• Flavors of Engineering
• Professional Interview

Friday

• QUIZ:  Simple Machines & Gears/Pulleys/Sprockets
• 1.1A - Simple Machine Attributes & Descriptions
• 1.1B - Problem Solving Communication (show your work)
• 1.1C - Mechanical Advantage & Efficiency
• 1.1D - Gear Trains, Pulley Drives, Chain & Sprockets
• Flavors of Engineering
• Professional Interview

Open House

Thursday is the annual open house, and I hope to meet many of you parents.  In case you want a preview of what to expect, or if you can't make it, here's the Prezi I made for the night.  As always, if you have any questions, please email me.  See you tomorrow!

• Syllabus
• Why Standards Based Grading?
• Unit 1 Standards

POE Open House on Prezi

Simple Machines MA

Quiz tomorrow!  You will need to find the IMA and AMA for each type of simple machine.
Here's a Prezi with a quick review of MA for each simple machine.  IMA is always De / Dr and AMA is always Fr / Fe, but locating those on each type of machine can become tricky.

HERE'S A VIDEO OF THE PREZI EMBEDDED BELOW

Lesson 1.1 Summary - Simple Machines on Prezi

Standards Based Grading

a.k.a. Why do I only have a 75% right now?

Most of the grade this year will be calculated based on our understanding and skills of specific standards for each quarter.  That understanding will grow throughout the quarter, and the grades should reflect that.  If a student improves his or her understanding of some material, their grade should rise as well.  To do that, we will take multiple quizzes on the same standard, and students will have opportunities to reassess as necessary.  Today we took our first quiz on one of the standards we have this year about mechanical advantage.  True standards based grading would only use levels to indicate achievement: 4, 3, 2, 1.  Our grading system eventually needs to be converted into a percentage, so I've adapted it slightly:

• 4 - 95% - all ADVANCED material
• 3 - 85% - some ADVANCED material
• 2 - 75% - all BASIC material
• 1 - 65% - some BASIC material
• 0 - 50% - no BASIC material

But how do I get 100%?  If you reach 95% on each standard for the quarter, I will happily bump that to 100%.  Some initial quizzes will contain BASIC material at first before we have dealt with any advanced material.  Today's quiz covered BASIC information, so students have the opportunity to demonstrate that they are currently at a level 2, or 75%.  We will have another quiz once we have worked through more advanced material, and at that time this grade will (hopefully!) be replaced with something higher.  Only the most current grade counts as it represents your most current level of understanding.

In summary, if you got a 75%, great job!  That is the highest you can get right now on this standard!  We'll soon have another quiz on more advanced material.  Its a little different, but once we get used to it, I'm hoping it will better represent and motivate you to understand the material, not just get the grade.

CLICK HERE for more details about standards-based grading.

As always, feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.

Homework: Tuesday, 9-4

• Email me: jjasinski@medway.k12.ma.us   Use an email address you will check because this is how I may contact you..
• Log in to Its Learning
• go to https://medway.itslearning.com/
• Username: whatever it was last year for the computers
• Password:  what it was for the computers  -or-  "password"  -or-  "Password"  -or-  "password1"
• You only get 3 tries, so type carefully.  After that the account is locked and you must go to the office and let them know.  If you have any issues, let the office know, they can reset and/or create new accounts.
• Watch 2 videos on Its Learning
• Mechanical Advantage (MA) video
• 1 simple machine video (whichever one you started working on)
• If you have It's Learning issues, email me directly and I will send you the link.  I can't make it public because a proprietary curriculum.