Lab Design

Year 10 are in the middle of completing their first lab design challenge. They were asked to design an experiment to investigate how force affects motion. With lab design activities, it is student led investigating the affect of surface area on air resistance, the affect of friction on acceleration, and the affect of mass on gravity. All these different experiment designs came from the same inquiry point, and the students will all be expected to demonstrate skills such as graphing motion, data processing, sketching force diagrams, and drawing conclusions and inferences from data. Lastly, the students will reflect on their method and evaluate if it was fit for purpose: Did they get results that could answer the question? This kind of inquiry based learning is important as a scaffold to the IB Diploma Programme where the students will be required to design an experiment in their science subject. Strengthening creative and critical thinking is key to success!