For my physics project i will be doing the Chladni Plates experiment. This involves sound wave movements, resonance, and the reaction of other objects to them. (in this case sillica sand). I would like to choose the Journal for my ElA project.
The reason why I think that the Journal will help me have a greater understanding of my Physics Project
is because i will be recording everything i do, all reactions, all thoughts, etc. This way, at the end,
it will be easier to remember and to gain a much better understanding of what happened. This might
also help in case of not fully unde
and look at that specific case in order to fully understand it.rstanding at first, after a while, you may refer back to the Journal
In order to complete my journal, i will keep a soft document which i will edit at least 9 times per grading period, this way I will be able to have a constant record of what I will do during those periods.
ELA Journal
We have just been introduced to PBL. A list of projects was shared on google drive with all students so we could each pick our projects. We were also given two options: physics or calculus. I decided to pick one for physics. It is called Chladni Plates. Since I was one of the last ones to pick, I was a bit scared that I wouldn’t get a cool one, however, this one seems like it will be fun.
PBL projects are done step by step, task by task, in order for it to be easier, and not much of a burden as it would if it were given all in one day. I have now created my website for my project. That website will help promote my project, as well as to give information about it. You will be able to look around and learn and see many different things. I will be constantly posting new things as I accomplish them throughout the whole project.
Not much has been done up to now, but just hearing everyone talk about it is really interesting. It is at times disturbing that many students don’t have any idea of what we are supposed to do. Afterwards, they go and ask a teacher and the teachers are just as informed as we students. I think it would be nice that administration could take their time to stop everything, and just give a brief presentation on how and what students and teachers are supposed to do.
It has been a week now, and students and teachers seem to be more informed. However it is only because there are certain teachers who need to give a grade for some tasks. Still, this has helped us have a deeper understanding as of what to do. Time is passing by so fast, I am scared that the day will come that the whole project is due. Just thinking about it is scary.
Background research time! The next task is to do some background research on our projects. This project was originated from the actual invention of the Chladni Plates. These were invented by Ernst Chladni, a german physician/musician who enjoyed doing different researches like the calculation of speed of sound and vibrating plates. His invention of the Chladni Plate involves resonance and sound waves.
I am not really a man of music. I love listening to it, however, I don’t really play any instruments at all. Still, this project is going beyond my expectations. What Chladni’s invention helped for was to make a better design for different instruments like for example, the violin. Using his studies and research, a design was able to be created in order to have the best resonance and sound quality. I could imagine, if this is interesting to me, how interesting would it be for those who really like music and play an instrument. With this, they could be able to know how is it that their instrument really works.
I am really getting a lot out of this project. Yes, there is a lot I have no idea about, however, it is what makes me learn. There are many pictures, diagrams, and other types of data which contain unknown vocabulary for me. This makes me research on that, and get a much more better and deeper understanding not only for that data, but for my project as a whole.
Another very big and important task is almost due. This task asks for the completion of almost the whole project. What I have to do is shoot a video that demonstrates my project. To do so, I will need to have ready both my materials and procedures. In my video I will explain what everything is and what it is all used for. I will also explain my procedure step by step and later on edit the video. Basically, I will be finished with my project by friday.
Shooting the video was a lot harder than I thought. I needed the help of my fellow students, and at times even the help of my teacher to learn how to work all the equipment. Equipment is rare, especially if you have no background research on what it is you are doing in the experiment. Therefore, the previous tasks have now become helpful because I was able to understand what each would do and what they were for. I had to do many videos for it to come out good enough to present to the audience. I will later be posting it online so that everyone may see it.
I am done editing and posting my video. It is official now. I have completed all the PBL tasks. What is now left is just presentations which will turn out to be a piece of cake since I had to rehearse a million times when shooting the video. I think I did a good job and am proud of my completed work. I learned a lot from it and hope that through my website, videos, and presentations others may also learn something and be as amazed as i am at how much there is to learn out there that we don’t even notice.