Video Clips

 

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The students in this video are attending the very first laboratory for college level physics class which treats electricity, magnetism and optics.   Dr.  Ackerson has been allowed the first 15 minutes of this class to test an HBL sticky tape exercise.

This video shows how to “charge” the sticky tapes.  You should mark the top tape with a plus “+” for reasons discussed in the Background Information.
This video shows the charged tapes and asks students to make observations.  What observations can you make? 
 Here the instructor makes a hypothesis that all sticky tapes attract all other sticky tapes.  Better yet, one should ask students for their hypotheses or let them play with the tapes to form and test their own hypotheses.
Students try a number of “experiments” and eventually someone notices that “likes” (similarly prepared tapes) repel.   This contradicts the instructor’s hypothesis.  He acts like it is a fluke experiment and asks for further testing.  Is it generally true that “likes” repel?
Explanations come in terms of charge, static electricity, and the charging of objects.  The instructor encourages students to explain themselves and their hypotheses.  And….to test directly their hypotheses.  A consistent model emerges.
Although a working hypothesis emerges (the “correct” answer), the instructor continues to ask students for their explanations to firm up understanding of the model. Note the improvement with repetition.
This clip shows how to test a  balloon for charge.
 

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