Friday, December 30, 2005
12-30? Ack!
It seems just a few days ago I was looking at a long break from school, plenty of time to prep some lessons, rest up, get organized. Time does fly when you are avoiding work.
Today I am going to put together a little electronics experiment for the 8th graders in Mr. P.s class. The hardware is a 9V battery, an adjustable resistor, an LED, and two fixed resistors; all in series. The procedure is to turn a knob on the adjustable resistor and to measure the voltage across the components. If done properly the voltage across the two fixed value resistors should be directly proportional to each other and the voltage across the LED should stay almost constant. The mathematics aspect comes in play when the students analyze the data and determine the ratio of the two resistances. I have four voltage meters from a corporate donation I finagled last year and four experiment sets. With close to 30 students this is not a good ratio but the experiment should go very quickly and we can do it in two shifts if we want.
I am of mixed minds about this. When I was in school mathematics was strictly an intellectual exercise; we scratched diagrams in the sand with sticks and if anyone asked "What is this good for?" the teacher had his aide give the student a penny, then booted him out of class. Today when I am asked that question I answer, "To improve your brain to the point that it can solve whatever problems you are interested in." Which only satisfies some students.
A small percentage of the students in the 8th grade class will find the experiment interesting, that is the target audience I suppose. The rest of the class will see that math is good for figuring out electricity but who cares about electricity? I don't have time for this stupid experiment; my cell phone is ringing…
Today I am going to put together a little electronics experiment for the 8th graders in Mr. P.s class. The hardware is a 9V battery, an adjustable resistor, an LED, and two fixed resistors; all in series. The procedure is to turn a knob on the adjustable resistor and to measure the voltage across the components. If done properly the voltage across the two fixed value resistors should be directly proportional to each other and the voltage across the LED should stay almost constant. The mathematics aspect comes in play when the students analyze the data and determine the ratio of the two resistances. I have four voltage meters from a corporate donation I finagled last year and four experiment sets. With close to 30 students this is not a good ratio but the experiment should go very quickly and we can do it in two shifts if we want.
I am of mixed minds about this. When I was in school mathematics was strictly an intellectual exercise; we scratched diagrams in the sand with sticks and if anyone asked "What is this good for?" the teacher had his aide give the student a penny, then booted him out of class. Today when I am asked that question I answer, "To improve your brain to the point that it can solve whatever problems you are interested in." Which only satisfies some students.
A small percentage of the students in the 8th grade class will find the experiment interesting, that is the target audience I suppose. The rest of the class will see that math is good for figuring out electricity but who cares about electricity? I don't have time for this stupid experiment; my cell phone is ringing…
// posted by Old Math @ 9:08 AM 
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I always explain that they are learning how to use their brains, and the better they can use their brains, the smarter they will be. That means, of course, that they can outsmart anyone they come across in life, so the smarter they are, the happier they will be.
Most of them accept this. The rest of them won't accept anything -- except that penny.
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Most of them accept this. The rest of them won't accept anything -- except that penny.
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