BMUFSD: Fifth Graders Learn About Movement In A Pendulum Experiment

Press release from the Briarcliff Manor Union Free School District:

2021-11-12

Todd Fifth graders in Maria Angarola’s class recently donned their scientists’ hats and conducted experiments about gravitational forces and movement, complete with rulers, timers and independent variables.

Students discovered what happens when you swing a pendulum on a string (called a “pendulum arm”) and whether certain variables can cause changes. The variables were adding weight to the pendulum, shortening the pendulum arm or the changing the point that the pendulum is released from.

After getting into groups, students began the experiment and took turns performing the different parts: releasing the pendulum, using a timer, counting pendulum’s cycle and measuring with the ruler.

Using a timer, the students counted the number of completed cycles in a fifteen-second period. Next, the groups made a change to the independent variable: some shortened the length of the string that the pendulum was attached to. Other groups added a washer to the pendulum to make it heavier. A third group changed the height of the release point.

Students recorded on their data tables the number of complete cycles the pendulum made during six separate tests.

“I thought swinging the pendulum from a higher point would increase the times it swung, but it didn’t,” said Avani.

The only group that noticed a change in the number of pendulum swings was the group that shortened the length of the string, or the pendulum arm.

“The pendulum moved more times and more quickly because the short string made the distance to travel shorter,” explained Aaron.

“Tomorrow we are going to discuss the patterns and ask ourselves why certain variables caused changes and other did not,” Ms. Angarola said. “This is similar to two people who are swinging on separate swings – the person who is heavier or the person who starts to swing at a higher point will not swing more often than the other. But the person with a shorter chain will swing faster and more often because there is less distance to travel.”

This press release was produced by the Briarcliff Manor Union Free School District. The views expressed here are the author’s own.