We've Lost Our Marbles! (Not Really)

As a follow-up to last week's paper airplane activity in 7th grade Life Science, students this week are conducting a more formal investigation focusing on careful experimental design, accurate data collection, and meaningful data analysis.

The students have been busy in the hallways launching marbles with a spring-loaded shooter in an effort to tease out the relationship between launch angle and the distance the marble travels through the air. The students are problem-solving in teams, developing effective lab protocols, and using their tech savvy with slow-motion video to capture and replay where a marble lands in relation to a tape measure. Precision in this investigation is key, but so is having a good time.