In January, Ms. Becnel applied for a Fund for Teachers grant to spend 10 days in Italy researching the details of Galileo’s complex and at times turbulent life and actually seeing and studying his inventions up close. In April, she was 1 of 15 awardees from Alabama and 1 of approximately 500 nationally to receive a grant. Upon returning to school, Ms. Becnel shared her experiences with her students who learned how to measure temperature with the instrument known as Galileo’s thermometer. Last week the students in Ms. Becnels classes reenacted the famous falling bodies experiment that Galileo may have conducted at the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The students climbed to the top of the stadium and then dropped two water jugs that had the same dimensions but contained different amounts of water. Aristotle had said that the heavier bottle should hit the ground first. Galileo proved that the two bottles would hit the ground at the same time provided the air resistance on each bottle was the same. The students let the bottles fall while others timed the fall and videotaped the experiment. Once again Galileo was proved right in his theory on falling bodies. The students were also able to determine the height of the stadium from the time it took the bottles to reach the ground. Great teachers = great schools = great students...Go Spartans!
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 12:54:10 +0000
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