Topic: How Scientists from Scotland, or working in Scotland have made a big difference to our lives.
Task- Summary break down
To research
To identify a topic
To present your work Details
1. You need to research and report on Scottish Science. Find some Science being carried out in Scotland that interests you, or some Scottish Scientists working abroad. The work must have happened after World War Two (WW2)- that means after 1945.
2. For the week beginning Monday 10th October, record on your template sheet who or what your chosen subject will be. This will then be discussed with your teacher to make sure it is meets the rules.
3. When your teacher has said your project meets the standard you should research more into your topic.
4. Present your work (by 18th November ) including the following:
a. Your Name,
b. Your Register class,
c. Who or what Science or Scientist you have researched?
d. What Science do carry out (this must be Science and not social science etc.)?,
e. How is this Science relevant to us?
f. What effect have they made on the environment or society?
g. Where did you get your information (include the sources); for example, record the website or book you used to obtain the information?
h. Try to find or draw some pictures to go with your topic i. The minimum length is one side of A4 paper, the maximum is 4 sides of A4 paper. The person submitting the best piece of work will win the JUNIOR SCIENCE TROPHY.
DEADLINES One sentence on who or what you plan to study: Science period during week beginning 10th October
Final document: 18th November
Homework Help: See your teacher if you need additional help or would like to attend a homework class to help get you started.
For the link above it might be a good idea to start near the end (about p40), but make sure you choose a Scientist, and not a social or political scientist (who aren’t really scientists)
Here is the start of the TRANSPORT materials for lower school. You could choose to use this as an applications based upper school science course.
I have uploaded the powerpoint presentations and the corresponding pdf versions. Please note most of these files are very big! The file we are working on is highlighted in red.
Tart Ma Cart If you wish to have a copy of this document in powerpoint please contact Mrs Physics.
Below are a set of resources for use with various parts of the Road Safety Topic. All these documents are currently in word format. Eventually I will upload pdf copies too. They are not necessarily in order- sorry.
We mentioned using the calculator to convert hours and minutes to decimals. You can find the link here. Using your calculator
holiday competition instructions Pupils find their average speed for a journey they made during the holidays. Issue prior to the holidays
Finding the Area Here is an exercise for students who might find it difficult to find the area under a v-t graph
Casualties grouptask This task might be a good starter for National 5 Assignments
Physics of Road signs Linking Physics with Road Signs, to introduce how Road Safety is all about Physics. This makes a good starter homework. The answers aren’t fixed and can be a great discussion opportunity.
MEASURING REACTION TIME Some ideas on how to find the reaction time of students, including some great websites. If you have a FIFEX reaction timer they make great practicals too.
This excel spreadsheet will allow you to find your reaction times from a dropping ruler. Just enter the drop distances in the yellow boxes and excel does the rest. Don’t forget to write down the values it gives you.
Is the change in speed in one second. . An unbalanced force causes acceleration or deceleration.
Usually this is measured in m/s2 but can be measured in mph/s
Air Resistance
It is the force that slows things down when they are moving through air.
At rest
we use this term to mean not moving. We can also say the object is stationary.
Average speed
found by timing how long it takes a vehicle to travel a known distance. Distance travelled per second.
measured in m/s
Balanced forces
When two equal forces are acting on an object in opposite directions and cancel each other out
Chemical energy
A store of energy in the form of a chemical, eg fuel for cars and food
construction
how something is made
Deceleration
The decrease in speed in one second. Something slowing down. This should be represented by NEGATIVE ACCELERATION
metres per second squared (m/s2) or ONLY in Transport mph/s
Displacement
how far you have travelled in a straight line. We would say “as the crow flies”
It is measured in metres or miles but must also have a direction. eg 10m north, 20 miles to the left.
Distance
how far you have travelled. It is another name for length.
It is measured in metres or during our road safety topic miles.
Dynamics
The mechanics part dealing with Forces
Effects of a Force
A force can change an objects speed, shape and direction.
Energy
Can be changed from one form into another form but cannot be created or destroyed
Force
A push or a pull. Has the symbol F and is measured in Newtons (N).
Newton
Force of gravity
Another name for weight
Newton
Friction
Is a force that can oppose the motion of a body.
Newton
Gravitational field strength
It is the force of gravity or weight acting on every kilogram. The weight per unit mass
Newton’s per kilogram
Gravitational potential energy
The work done against gravity
Joule
Gravity
A phenomena that causes objects to fall down, BE CAREFUL HOW YOU USE THIS TERM and where possible try to avoid it.
Heat energy
The energy produced when objects are slowed down by friction.
Joule
Heat energy
The internal energy of an object. Heat may be defined as energy in transit from a high temperature object to a lower temperature object.
Joule
Hookes Law
This law states that providing you don’t overstretch a spring the stretch or extension of a spring will double if the force on the spring is doubled.
Instantaneous speed
is the speed at which you are travelling over a very short distance.
It is measured in metres per second or miles per hour.
Instantaneous speed
The speed at one particular point in time (and can be very different from the average speed). It is the same as average speed if journey time is very small or if the object is traveling at a constant speed.
m/s
Kinematics
Mechanics dealing with motion, speed, acceleration etc
Kinetic energy
Symbol Ek Is the energy an object has because it is moving. The higher the speed the greater will be it’s kinetic energy
Joule
maintenance
the care or upkeep of a mechanical object
Mass
The amount of matter in an object and is measured in kilograms.
kilogram
Mechanics
The branch of Physics dealing with motion (how things move).
Momentum
The product of mass and velocity. A quantity that only moving objects possess.
Newton balance
Is used to measure force (a spring balance)
Newtons First Law
States that an object remains at rest or continues in the same direction at the same speed, unless there is an unbalanced force acting
Newtons Second Law
States that F = m x a
Potential energy
A store of energy
Joule
Reaction Force
A force pushing in the opposite direction to the action force eg, a gun fires a bullet, the gun places as action force on the bullet but the bullet places a REACTION force on the gun.
Newton
Reaction Time
The time it takes our brain to process information that something has changed, or a danger has occurred.
second
Resultant force
A force can change an objects speed, shape and direction.
Newton
Scalar
A quantity that is fully described by a value and unit
Speed
how far you travel every second.
In the lab our distances are measured in metres and our time is measured in seconds so our units of speed would be metres per second.
Speed
is the distance travelled in unit time.
In road safety we look at miles travelled every hour or miles per hour.
Stationary
we use this term to mean not moving. We can also say the object is at rest.
Time
how long your journey took.
It is measured in seconds or during our road safety topic hours.
Uniform Speed
When your speed is uniform we mean that your speed isn’t changing. It remains constant.
Upthrust
It is the force that pushes things up in water.
Vector
A quantity that is fully described by a value, a direction and unit.
Vehicle
A thing used for transporting people or goods, esp. on land, such as a car, truck, or cart.
Weight
It is the force of gravity pulling an object down and is measured in Newtons
Work done
Is a measure of the energy transferred when a force moves through a distance. Work done = force x distance in the direction of force
Here are some thermal images of the old Lockerbie Academy and also pictures of the ECO EXTRAVAGANZA night we ran as part of the 2008 National Science and Engineering Week.