Casio Education - Activities

Objective: The student will be able to plot data on a scatter plot graph and interpret the information found there. The student will observe the change in light intensity over the given time interval.

Engage: Discuss with the students the different amounts of sunlight received on the earth during a 24 hour period. Discuss how you see and the reactions of the eyes depending on the amount of light present. Examples - Movie theaters- Do the lights in the theater get suddenly dark or is there a gradual lessening of the light? Can you see better in a dark room as the length of time spent in the room increases?

Explore: Group Experiment

Have students stand in a large circle . Try to keep all students equal distance from the instructor who is standing in the middle of the circle.
Give each student a piece of black construction paper with white letters pasted to it. Give the paper to the students FACE DOWN, so that the students do not know what the word is. Student should also have writing utensil and the attached data sheet.
The instructor will stand in the center of the circle holding a light source with a dimmer switch attached to it. Initially the light should be set at the lowest level of light.
Turn off classroom lights.
Students should turn their construction paper over to be face up.
The instructor should begin counting ( as evenly as possible to simulate passing seconds), beginning with 0 and ending with 29. With each increase in numeric value, the light intensity should increase. At the number 9, the light should be at its highest intensity. As the instructor continues to count, the light intensity should decrease, reaching its lowest level at 19. The instructor should continue to count, increasing the intensity to its fullest, to the maximum of 29. (Note: Since this experiment deals with light intensity, it is important that the instructor be seated with the light source unblocked for all students)
As the instructor counts, using the data sheet, the students should individually record either Y or N at each number level to determine if they are able to read the written words or letter on their piece of construction paper. Each student should have a list of 30 numbers and answers at the end of the experiment.

Explain: Discuss light intensity.
Upon completion of the experiment, have the students break into groups of 4 to plot their individual data. All graphs should be marked using the x-axis for the time in seconds as given by the instructor, and the intensity of the light as the y-axis.

(Note: So as not to confuse the students, the instructor will note that the data sheets have been premarked with intensity levels . The levels have been marked using letters of the alphabet. These could easily be replaced by actual wattage amounts if known . For this particular experiment the resultant graph was the topic for discussion, therefore the labels for the y-axis needed to be predetermined to ensure the configuration of the graph.)
Each group will be responsible for presenting scatter plot graphs on transparencies to share with the class. Each transparency would represent data for the combined group with the line of best fit drawn in. Each group graph could be overlaid to see any differences and similarities. This would confirm to all students whether they have correctly graphed the data.

Elaborate:Conduct activity using the EA-100 and CFX-9850G+

Perform experiment as follows:
Equipment
light probe
EA-100
CFX-9850G+
flashlight with adjustable beam capabilities (Ex. STREAMLIGHT,JR)
meter stick
Data communication cable

Connect the light probe into CH1 of the EA-100.

Align the light probe with the center of the light source approximately 30cm apart. Turn on the flashlight to check alignment.

To operate the EA-100 manually, use the following keystrokes

Lessons / Activities : Lessons EA-100

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