Dropping Marbles -A Crater Experiment

By definition a crate is a large, bowl-shaped cavity in the ground or on the surface of a

planet or the moon caused by an explosion, the impact of a meteorite, etc. Even though this

definition slightly explains the occurrence of a meteorite, through this lab we went through

this thoroughly. We took a tub and filled with a few centimeters of flour. We then got a

meter stick and a marble. We would hold the marble up at a certain height and then drop it,

after the marble fell it would make a crater we then made recording and observations about

this. Above are graphs made out of our observations, looking at the graph now I see that our

data looks a little strange, with big drops and rises. Even though I think our data is not the

most reliable there are observations I made that are interesting. One thing I noticed during this

experiment was that the higher the marble was held, when it dropped it would actually

bounce and create a brand new crater! In conclusion, I found that what effects a crater is the

distance, speed, weight and angle that change the appearance of the crater.

Further Inquiry:

Additional tests I would like to try would be things such as, using different materials as craters

or throwing "meteorites" into different materials. This would be interesting to see how the

different materials react to each other.

Note: The graph is turned into the average of three tests.

End Of Year "Reflection"

What were some of the things that you will never forget from science class?

- Something I will never forget about science class is when we had the irradiated food debate, the reason this was the most memorable, was because I like debate and it was a interesting way to talk about a scientific topic while combining it with something I enjoyed.

What was your favorite unit?

- My favorite unit was the space unit. It was my favorite unit because space is something that interests me so being able to learn something that interests me definitely made the whole unit more enjoyable.

What was your least favorite unit?

- My least favorite unit was the waves unit, not because we didn't do anything interesting, or any good projects, it was merely because waves did not interest me as much. Since they did not interest me as much I did not really enjoy this unit.

What was your favorite project?

- My favorite project was when we had to take our house and make it earthquake proof. This was fun and influential, because in my additions or improvement to my house I had written down, survival kit or emergency kit. This was actually something we made and put in our house just in case. This project was fun because I got to draw the inside of my house.

What was your least favorite project?

- My least favorite project this year was probably when we had to make the light spectrum, this was because it was mostly just typing and printing out materials which was not very interactive.

What were some helpful things this year?

-Some helpful material this year was something is particular that stuck in my mind and it was the Prezi presentation in the beginning of the year. It was just a really well done presentation so I found that really helpful.

What are some of your goals for next year?

- Some of my goals for next year are to understand waves better, the reason is because this unit I didn't really fully understand them. Also, I want to try my hardest on a unit even if it is not as interesting as another unit, because all in all it still counts.

What are some improvements for the teaching of next years 7th graders?

- I only have one improvement and that is through this year we accomplished a lot, but it felt slightly open-ended, of next year I think there should be a big, memorable project just to either start or wrap up the year because those usually challenge the students but are really fun!