Grand Ridge 5th Grade Homework


This assignment is for Grand Ridge's Thursday 5th Grade Class only.

Today, we began our second round of absorbency testing.  Our first results seem to be varying widely from group to group - and even within the same group.  (One group had 29 ml of water absorbed for brand A and another had 49 ml of water absorbed, and another had 26 ml absorbed.)
Here are our procedures:
·        Place 200 ml of water into the cake pan
·        Place the paper towel into the water for 30 seconds and let it become saturated. 
·        Gather the paper towel into a ball while still in the water
·        Remove the paper towel from the water and let the excess water drip off the towel into the cake pan.  
·        Move the paper towel (using the measuring cup) over to the graduated cylinder with the funnel on top.
·        Place the paper towel into the funnel.
·         Now, squeeze the water from the paper towel into the graduated cylinder, using your thumb only. Flip the towel over and repeat the process until no more water comes out.
·         Measure the water in the cylinder to see how much the towel absorbed.

Create a COMMENT below to answer the following questions about our experiment procedures. (Use only first names in the comments.)
1.  Which step(s) of the procedures might be contributing most to our differing results?  What could be going wrong as teams are doing those steps?
2.  Now that you've had a run-through with these procedures, how would you rework one or two of our steps to increase the likelihood of more accurate results?
3.  Gaiden had the suggestion of eliminating the dripping, and immidiately putting the wet towel into the measuring cup.  Would this help the experiment, make it less fair and accurate, or cause no change in the results?  Explain your thinking.
  
YOU ARE ENCOURAGED TO RESPOND TO ONE ANOTHER'S COMMENTS.
  • State what you agree to in others' posts.
  • Provide respectful questions you may have about others' posts.
  • Tell when you've understood something better, or even changed your mind about your choice because of someone's post.
NOTE:  When you respond to a specific post, type @ and then the person's name to let people know who you're responding to.  For example, @ciraulo, let's me know you're responding to my post.


NOTE #2:  Select NAME/URL under COMMENT AS:  at the bottom of your post to include your name in the post.  JUST PUT YOUR FIRST NAME, and YOU DO NOT NEED A URL entry - leave that BLANK!

10 comments:

  1. KellyDecember 8, 2011 at 4:41 PM

    1. The thing that teams might be doing differently is poki- excuse me, SQEEZING the paper towl. Some members might be stronger than others.

    2. Instead of letting the paper towel drip, I would holdsome sort of cup under the towel and then catch it and pour it into the graduated cylinder. I mean, the towel still absorbed that water, just loosely.

    3.It would cause no change, because some of the water will still come off the paper towel. I think that happened to me and Kaleb a few times.

    TTFN! Kelly Hodder ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. AlexanderDecember 9, 2011 at 7:30 AM

    1. The steps that might be contributing to the differing results of the test are, if someone is rolling up the saturated paper towel into a ball, the person may squish out some water. Also, if someone in our S.A.G.E class has a thumb that could be in the strongman competition, and another person has a thumb that isn't as strong, the water in the graduated cylinder will come out very different.

    2. If I had to rework steps in the procedure to make it more accurate, I would instead of flipping the towel over and jabbing the paper towel like I'm crushing a pea, after I think I've got all the water out of one side, I start stomping on the towel with all of my fingers.

    3. I believe this would make the expiriment less fair and accurate because that is excess water that the towel couldn't absorb.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sammy :-)December 9, 2011 at 5:56 PM

    1. I think it's the part where we let it drip. As far as I know, some people hardly let it drip. Also, Kaleb said that it might just drip until it's dry.
    2. There isn't anything major that could change our results at all.
    3. I don't think it would do very much to the experiment.

    ReplyDelete
  4. KalebDecember 14, 2011 at 8:05 PM

    1.I think the problem is the driping as Sammy said people always let drip tell they want to stop and is exactly the reason for our differences in score.
    2.I would like to rework the driping by timing the time you let it drip to thirty seconds max.
    3.I know this would make the experiment totally unfair because of the huge deffinant mas of up to 20-30 ml because you will have that excess water go with the actual water and add like I said up to 30 ml of unwanted water, making this insufficient unscientific waste with no accurate results!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. KalebDecember 14, 2011 at 8:07 PM

    I totally agree Alex

    ReplyDelete
  6. BrianDecember 14, 2011 at 9:41 PM

    1. The step that is contributing the most in our inaccurate results is the step where you let the water drip off the paper towel until it stops. Every team lets the water drip for a different amount of time, so the amount of water in the paper towel would be different for every group.
    2. A step in which we can rework is the one where we let the water drip until it stops(which is impossible). We could time the drip time and create a standard to go by(like 30 seconds).
    3. Immediately putting the paper towel in the cup would be inaccurate as maybe extra water would be on the towel, not truly part of the absorbency. And of course, there would be a different amount of this extra water on every towel making it impossible to measure how much it really absorbed.

    ReplyDelete
  7. EliseDecember 15, 2011 at 2:41 PM

    1. I think using your thumb only is making the results differ.
    2.I think it would be better to use the subtraction method.
    3. I think eliminating the drip is not a good idea

    ReplyDelete
  8. JanineDecember 15, 2011 at 2:41 PM

    The step that is most contributing the most in our inaccurate results is the step in which we squeeze out the water. Everyone has a different strength therefore squeezing out more water. I would probably have the same person squeeze the water. The person must be willing to wait for a really long time while they squeeze it. I think that it would make our results more accurate because the water would fall into the cup instead of onto the table.

    ReplyDelete
  9. gaidenDecember 15, 2011 at 2:42 PM

    Mostly what i think goes wrong is the fact that you cant squeeze out all the water out of the paper towel.

    we are doing this but i would still say it. I would wring out the paper towel.

    well since it was my idea ofcourse i thought it would be accurate.

    ReplyDelete
  10. AnonymousDecember 15, 2011 at 2:45 PM

    Callan said...
    1.The thing that teams might be doing differently is squazing the towel. I might be stronger than other people.
    2. We shoud let the water drip in a cup.
    3. Nothing would change

    ReplyDelete

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