Free preview · Senior 6 Physics · Laboratory activities
Senior 6 laboratory activities
10 units · 20 activities. In every unit, activity 1 is improvised (simple local materials) and activity 2 is conventional (school laboratory equipment): two different experiments. Below are 5 free pages; then get the whole level in one PDF.
- Title and aim of every experiment
- Required apparatus and safety notes
- A clear, labelled drawing of the set-up
- Step-by-step procedure and a results table to fill in
- Observation and conclusion
- Three questions per activity, with sample results and answers at the end of the unit
See all 20 activities of this level and what each one is about
- Unit 1: Sound Waves
- 1.1 Improvised · Speed of sound by echoes. To measure the speed of sound in air using echoes from a large wall.
- 1.2 Conventional · Speed of sound with a resonance tube. To find the speed of sound from the first and second resonance positions of an air column closed at one end.
- Unit 2: Rotational Motion
- 2.1 Improvised · The rolling race: solid, hollow and round. To compare how quickly a solid cylinder, a hollow cylinder and a sphere roll down the same slope, and relate it to moment of inertia.
- 2.2 Conventional · Moment of inertia of a flywheel. To determine the moment of inertia of a flywheel using a falling mass.
- Unit 3: Electromagnetic Induction
- 3.1 Improvised · The slow magnet: Lenz’s law in a copper pipe. To show that a magnet moving inside a conductor induces currents that oppose its motion.
- 3.2 Conventional · Faraday’s law: what affects the induced e.m.f.?. To investigate how the induced e.m.f. depends on the speed of the magnet and the number of turns of the coil.
- Unit 4: Alternating Current
- 4.1 Improvised · Seeing alternating current with a bicycle dynamo. To show that a simple generator produces a current that changes direction.
- 4.2 Conventional · Reactance of a capacitor. To measure how the current through a capacitor depends on the frequency of an a.c. supply and to find its reactance.
- Unit 5: Atomic Nuclei and Radioactive Decay
- 5.1 Improvised · Decay with coins: modelling half-life. To model random radioactive decay with coins and find the "half-life".
- 5.2 Conventional · Exponential decay: discharging a capacitor. To study exponential decay, like radioactive decay, by measuring the voltage across a discharging capacitor, and to find its half-life.
- Unit 6: Nature of Particles and their Interactions
- 6.1 Improvised · Forces by exchange: the ball-throwing model. To model how particles can exert forces on each other by exchanging other particles.
- 6.2 Conventional · Seeing particle tracks in a cloud chamber (teacher demonstration). To observe the tracks of charged particles from cosmic rays and background radiation.
- Unit 7: X-rays and Laser Radiations
- 7.1 Improvised · Seeing through your fingers: a model of X-ray imaging. To show that different tissues absorb radiation by different amounts, which is the idea behind X-ray images.
- 7.2 Conventional · Properties of laser light: divergence. To compare the spreading (divergence) of a laser beam with that of light from a torch.
- Unit 8: Radiation and Medical Imaging
- 8.1 Improvised · The shadow scanner: a model of CT scanning. To find the position and size of hidden objects using shadows taken from different directions, like a CT scanner.
- 8.2 Conventional · Attenuation of radiation through layers. To show that each layer of absorber reduces the intensity of radiation by the same fraction and to find a "half-value thickness".
- Unit 9: Introduction to Electronics
- 9.1 Improvised · A rain alarm: the transistor as a switch. To build a circuit in which a small current through water switches on an LED, using a transistor as a switch.
- 9.2 Conventional · Truth tables of logic gates. To find the truth tables of AND, OR and NOT gates using integrated circuits.
- Unit 10: Cosmology, Galaxies and Expansion of Universe
- 10.1 Improvised · The expanding balloon universe. To model the expansion of the universe and show that more distant galaxies move away faster (Hubble’s law).
- 10.2 Conventional · The inverse square law and standard candles. To verify the inverse square law for light and use it to find an unknown distance, as astronomers do with standard candles.
i5 free pages to readScroll down: the free pages show the contents and a complete activity, so you can see exactly what you get.