OpenSciEd 8.1, Lesson 12: Cushioning Materials Investigation
Task
Use this resource with the 8^th^-grade OpenSciEd curriculum during Unit 8.1, Lesson 12. Tuva has digitized the data work of the lesson, specifically the Material Chart provided in Part 2 and the Cushioning Materials Testing Procedures handout used in Part 4. This is not a standalone lesson. Use the Teacher Edition alongside this Tuva Investigation to facilitate discussions or other whole-group learning opportunities. Where This Investigation Fits into the Storyline In the prior lesson, students came up with criteria for their protective device. In the first part of this lesson, students recalled those criteria. They came up with a plan for adding the protective materials in front of the object they are protecting, colliding a moving object into it, and seeing if the peak forces were reduced. In this investigation, they will be testing different materials to see which reduce peak force most. When to Use Tuva Day 1 Complete OpenSciEd lesson Part 1, Navigation. Immediately afterwards, have students pull this Tuva Investigation up on their computers. Students will record their predictions in Tuva instead of on paper. Conduct the turn and talk and poll externally. (Use page 10 of the Teacher Edition.) For Part 3, Students will follow the procedures in Tuva to set up their materials and determine baseline peak force. Complete Part 4, Conduct Materials Testing, using Tuva as well. This includes recording data from multiple trials and using the Tuva Tools to visualize it. Before students depart, have them add their data to a classwide Force Reduction Chart. On Day 2 During Part 5, Compare Class Data, students will use their data visualizations to make claims about how protective their assigned material is and to identify the top three materials that reduced peak force most. Students can bring their ideas to the discussion in Part 6. Students may focus only on the average class data, but you can encourage them to add nuance to their discussion by having them also consider their individual distributions. Was there any overlap in the ranges of the various groups? Does the overlap affect how certain we are about our claims? Why or why not? What Comes Next After the discussion in the beginning of Part 6, have students close Tuva. Complete the rest of Parts 6-9 using the Teacher Guide (pages 17-23). Extension Opportunity: You could compile a class dataset that includes ALL of the trials from ALL of the groups. Then, on Day Two instead of looking at only the Average Difference for each material, you could look at the raw data. Here's how: Create a spreadsheet with the columns: Material Type, Trial Number, Material (with/without), and Peak Force. Share the spreadsheet with your students so they can edit it. In the Material Type column, enter 12 rows for each material used. Have each group paste in their data from Step 4 of the Tuva Investigation. Upload the dataset into Tuva using this dataset upload link. Share the dataset with your class. Students will be able to open the data by going to their Tuva Dashboard and clicking on Datasets in the menu on the left side of the screen. Doing so enables students to display and examine distributions as well as averages, which can make the data analysis more rigorous. This option is only recommended for teachers and their students who are familiar with Tuva.
In the last lesson, you discovered that some phones in protective cases were still damaged when dropped and came up with criteria for your protective devices. Today, your class came up with a plan for identifying which materials are best at reducing peak force. Now, you get to carry out that investigation. Click Next to get started.
Topics and standards: Physical Science, MS-PS3-1, MS-ETS1-2, MS-ETS1-3, MS-LS1-8, Grade 8, MS-PS2-2, OpenSciEd, 3.1.6-8.H, 3.2.6-8.H, 3.2.6-8.L