(#05) Weighing
Using tin cans and cardboard beams, your students will construct lab balances accurate to .01 grams. That's good enough to support all TOPS activities requiring mass measure throughout your entire school year! The physics of balances - trueness, sensitivity, reproducibility and restoring forces - are easy to understand on instruments that students have built themselves. Early experiments use a paper-clip mass standard. Later on, your class will develop a gram standard derived from a 10 mL water mass. Finally, they'll construct rubber-band spring balances that measure weight in Newtons, providing the conceptual framework for distinguishing mass from weight.
(#05) WEIGHING is part of our Self-Directing Task Card Series. It is a 56 page soft-bound book organized into three main parts:
INTRODUCTION
* A TOPS Model for Effective Science Teaching * Getting Ready * Gathering
Materials * Sequencing Task Cards * Long Range Objectives * Review / Test
Questions
TEACHING NOTES (20 lessons)
* Build an Equal-Arm Balance (1) * Build an Equal-Arm Balance (2) * Build
an Equal-Arm Balance (3) * Seeds and Paper Clips
* A Question of Bias * Paper Clip Weight Standard * Balance Sensitivity
(1) * Weighing Water * Gram Standard * Lightweights * Heavyweights * Spare
Change * Balance Sensitivity (2) * Coin Graph * Spring Scale * Scales and
Balances * Going, Going, Gone * Letter Weighing * Invent a Weight Standard
* Help Yourself
REPRODUCIBLE LINE MASTERS
* 20 Open-Ended Task Cards * Balance Beams and Squares
* Graph Paper
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(#05) WEIGHING requires no lab equipment other than 10 mL graduated cylinders. Just photocopy the 20 task cards, gather simple materials (like corrugated cardboard, clothespins, cans and rubber bands), and you're ready to explore TOPS Learning Systems hands-on.
GRADE RANGE: 5-10
ORIGINS: written by Ron Marson / illustrated by Peg Marson / copyrighted
in 1990
by TOPS Learning Systems / ISBN 0-941008-75-4
ORDERING: Please print a copy of our order form, which lists all our titles. Use this form (or scratch paper) to track your ordering preferences as you browse our website.
#05 Weighing @ $9.50
#SS109 10 mL Graduated Cylinder @ $3.50
