Friday, September 16, 2016

Saving Fred and the Scientific Method

As an introduction to the Scientific Method, we performed an investigation about Saving Fred.  This activity is a great way to start because it involves teamwork.  Most, if not all, of our experiments this year have to do with group work.  It is important to make sure we can learn strategies about working together.  This activity helps!  The directions ensured that everyone would take part in the activity.  When this activity was first introduced, many of you thought it would be impossible.

The Problem:

Poor Fred went out on his boat, and wanted to go for a swim.  However his boat turned over and his life preserver got stuck under his boat!  The problem was to help Fred get his life preserver over his body so he can go for a swim.  Sounds simple enough?  However there were some restrictions.

* You could not touch Fred, the life preserver, or the boat with your fingers. Paperclips only.
* Fred could not touch the water without being in his life preserver.
*One paperclip per person, cannot share. 
*No poking holes in any of the objects.
The rest was up to you!   Some of us were able to stretch the life preserver and save poor old Fred by having each person use their paperclip inside the lifesaver while one person held Fred with their paperclip.   However, others tried their best, but the life preserver didn't want to to cooperate.  If groups did not a chance to save Fred, it was okay!  Mistakes are a part of learning!










What was the most challenging part about trying to save Fred??   
Comment below and share your experience!



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22 comments:

  1. The most challenging part about saving Fred was picking him up and putting him in his life saver. Also, another challenging part was trying not to have myself eat the gummies. But, however we got to eat different gummy worms.{ They tasted so so good} :}

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  2. The chalenge part about saving Fred was probable not breaking our touching the gummies. Also thank you for the gummie worm after.

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  3. The hardest part about saving Fred was putting him in his lifesaver. It was a really fun project!

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  4. The hardest part that goes without say was putting him in the life saver. Our hypothesis right and wrong when we were putting Fred in the life saver we got him in but then he fell out. This continued till the third try. So our hypothesis was half right.

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  5. The most challenging part for me was stretching the lifesaver so Fred could fit.
    We broke the first...
    And the second!!

    So, sadly our group did not save Fred. :(

    BUT...

    1. Failure is an important part of science so you can see ways that don't work

    2. Fred floated on his capsized boat until he washed up on a random island. He named the island Hawaii, after his idol and great grandmother. Fred lived the rest of his days in peace, because he knew not everything always went planned, but would work out in the end...

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  6. Saving Fred was a challenge because he did not fit into his lifesaver, but we finally did manage to fit him in there somehow!! This was a great activity of teamwork!

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  7. The most challenging part of saving Fred was getting him into his lifesaver.Fred was too fat for his lifesaver!He needs a new lifesaver!

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  8. The hardest part about saving Fred was getting him in his livesaver. He fell three times before we could get him in his livesaver so technically he died, but on the bright side, we worked really well together! Also, thanks for the extra gummy worms that we got to eat!

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  9. The hardest part about saving Fred was getting him in his livesaver. He fell three times before we could get him in his livesaver so technically he died, but on the bright side, we worked really well together! Also, thanks for the extra gummy worms that we got to eat!

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  10. The hardest part about saving Fred was putting him in he lifesaver without him falling

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  11. I also liked the gummy worms after

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  12. The hardest part about saving Fred was trying to not let him fall, puncture him and not break the gummy lifesaver and of course Fred. Also I am exited to see what happens with the gummy bears in the solutions.

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  13. I did like the gummy worms after too!!!!

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  14. I am so excited to find out what happened to the yummy bear!

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  15. I wonder if my hypothesis will be correct?!

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  16. The hardest part of saving fred was:trying not to trop him.We tried many diffrent ways but it finally worked!

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  17. Saving Fred was WAY harder than I expected. Fred was twice as big as I expected. We should of used the organic gummy worms. Anyway, there were so many rules! It was challenging, too challenging. The hardest part was trying not to drop him. (Which my group did, 5 times.)

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  18. I don't know where to comment on this, but I still can't log onto think central. I typed in isabellaflinn for my username and sps for my password. Hopefully those were the right words.

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  19. i loved saving Fred and experiencing what it would be like to put gummy bears in differt solution's. P.S i thank you thank you for doing all these gummy experiments.

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  20. Saving Fred was hard because when we had to pull open the life saver you had to pull it at a triangle shape, because Fred kind of had a triangular shape to him.

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  21. I think the hardest part of saving Fred was not breaking anything. (P.S:Thank you for the gummy worms after the experiment.)

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  22. Will we get to do any more experiments like this???

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