Year 10 Data Logging Science Project
Who was involved in the project and where was the project based?
Our Lady’s Sports College Science department and CLC Staff.
Year 10 pupils.
The project took place one morning at the CLC.
Planning
Please give a brief description of the project, why it was needed and what you planned to achieve.
Year 10 Dual Award Science pupils do not believe that all masses fall at the same rate. It was planned that pupils would investigate and find out for themselves that this was the case. Pupils used light gates and data loggers to investigate acceleration due to gravity.
Which of the following aims and objectives did the project hope to cover? Please tick as appropriate.
* Improve access to, and use of, the latest education technology for pupils, teachers and the community.
* Increase attainment levels and motivation through use of that technology. Yes
* Improve the quality of teaching and learning. Yes
* Act as test beds for innovation and new ways of working
* Other
Delivery
Please give a brief description of how the project was delivered e.g. what hardware/software was used and how the sessions were run.
The CLC delivered outreach INSET to the Science department in the use of data loggers. Following on from this session a group of pupils were identified by the Claire Makin, Head of Department. A planning session took place after school. An investigation planning sheet was developed together with corresponding interactive experiment worksheets and a spreadsheet that took results from the experiment and calculated the acceleration due to gravity.
During the morning pupils carried out the investigation using the lights gates and data loggers. They used 10g weights attached to a piece of card. The data logging software calculated the velocity at each gate. The pupils then increased the weights 10g at a time and noted any changes. The results were then exported into a spreadsheet. Pupils then calculated the acceleration due to gravity for each attempt, anomalies were deleted and an average was finally calculated. Pupils wrote up their findings and imported their results into the interactive worksheet. Most pupils managed to get an answer of between 9.5 and 10. Not bad considering the answer in 9.8! A plenary session involved the pupils viewing a clip of the hammer and feather experiment that the Apollo 15 crew carried out on the Moon.
Outcomes and evidence
Please comment on how the CLC has contributed to the raising of pupil attainment through this project. Please include examples of work produced by pupils and any other documentary evidence e.g. pictures, teacher evaluations or pupil evaluations.
Pupils felt it had been a very useful and enjoyable experience. It made a difficult concept straightforward.
Further developments
Please give a brief description of how the project made an impact back at school.
The department are keen to build on this positive experience either at the CLC or by loaning data logging equipment in future.
Please contact CLC administration for more information on 0161 908 3201.
