In this exciting course, students will be exploring several aspects of natural disasters, specifically, earthquakes, hurricanes, and tornadoes. Students will explore the applications of the Scientific Method to understand potential, kinetic energy, momentum, and how they relate to the three natural disasters. Students will study potential and kinetic energy as we construct models to demonstrate how earthquakes affect construction. We will also review the effect of wind and weather patterns related to hurricane and tornadoes and their relationship to physics.
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion students will:
- Develop valuable critical thinking skills in which they will be able to gather, organize, and analyze data from various sources and apply that to their own projects
- Use models to test interactions concerning the functioning of scientific systems
- Understand the interaction of potential and kinetic energy, as well as momentum
- Build a model of a structure using straws to demonstrate the effects of earthquakes
- Construct a wind turbine machine from bottles to compare the relationship of hurricanes and tornadoes
This course is available for "remote" learning and will be available to anyone with access to an internet device with a microphone (this includes most models of computers, tablets). Classes will take place with a "Live" instructor at the date/times listed below.
Upon registration, the instructor will send along additional information about how to log-on and participate in the class.