Blog Week 9

On Monday we brought in our homemade barometers. Everyone had something different about his or hers. Mine was a ketchup bottle filled with water to about six inches when the bottle was upside down in a glass half way full of water. I had measurements up the bottle in inches. My barometer proved to work when we took them outside. It worked like this: as the pressure increased in the air, the pressure then pushed down on the water in the glass forcing it up into the ketchup bottle. As air pressure decreased the pressure on the water in the glass decreased letting water flow out of the ketchup bottle. When I put the barometer outside, the water in the ketchup bottle was at six inches, when I came back the water in the ketchup bottle was at seven inches. Which meant that the pressure was high, and that proved to be right because everyone else's showed high pressure too. Most people in the class had a plastic jar of some sort and they put a balloon over the top, (where the cap would normally be), and attached a straw to the balloon. As the straw laid over the end of the jar the pressure would increase or decrease. As the pressure increased, it pushed down on the balloon, which then made the straw point upwards and as the pressure decreased, it pushed the balloon up, which then made the straw point downwards. We also learned on Monday how to do P T V n charts. We put what we knew in the chart and from their solved. For example we had both temperatures so we put the final over the initial and we then times that by the pressure. When we put that in the calculator we found the final pressure. Next, we learned about the effects. The effect is what happened from the initial to the final, if it increased or decreased. On Tuesday, we had no school. On Wednesday, we brought our barometers back and we tried to figure out a grading system. We then decided to grade on effectiveness, measurements, creativity and the fact that it was done. I gave mine a three and a half because it worked, it had measurements and it was done, but it was not creative, it was not colorful or decorated. On Thursday, we did more practice with P T V n charts, with our groups. My group got the problem done right and did all the right work to answer the question. On Friday, we took an assessment. I thought some questions were really hard, but some I knew really well. I studied and went over everything I could to prepare myself. I hope I did good and I will take a reassessment to get the best grade I can.