Setting 1:It doesn't make sense to begin a session in which active, student-centered learning is important by lecturing. Instead we begin with three settings and two questions in each setting.
The two pictures below show two cylindrical tanks. The picture on the left shows the start of an experiment. The tank on the right is almost filled with water and the tank on the left is empty. The two tanks are connected by a pipe at the bottom and the tank on the right has an open spigot at bottom. Water will flow from the tank on the right onto the floor and into the tank on the left. The picture on the right shows the situation after a short time. There is a puddle on the floor and some water in the tank on the left.
We are interested in two questions.
The two pictures below show a tank of very hot water in a room. The room has a metal bar that is at room temperature. In the picture on the right the metal bar has been put into the tank of hot water. The water temperature is dropping and the temperature of the metal bar is increasing.
We are interested in two questions.
The picture below shows a electrical circuit with two capacitors and two resistors. At the beginning of the experiment there is a charge in the capacitor on the right and the capacitor on the left has no charge at all. After a short time some of the charge in the capacitor on the right will have flowed into the ground and some will have flowed in the capacitor on the left.
We are interested in two questions.
You should spend 15 minutes thinking about these questions. You have two tasks.
Copyright c 1998 by
Frank Wattenberg, Department of Mathematics, Montana State University,
Bozeman, MT 59717