Physical Science: Light Intro

After a short quiz on sound and some discussion over final exams, I did some notes to define the term “electromagnetic spectrum”, reviewed scientific notation, and gave students the speed of light. The class was really fascinated by the speed of light and were eager to spend some time throwing out questions about the implications of light having a speed like “Does that mean some of the stars we see are already dead?” I gave the class some room to discuss what they thought about these questions, which prompted even more questions, which was great! The discussion went long enough that the students didn’t get to the lab, but I was okay with it since students were doing a lot of great thinking.

Physics: Projectile Problems

Students worked on calculations for projectiles launched at angles.I’m still having students use velocity vs. time graphs, rather than the standard equations, and students did really well with some challenging problems today. Tomorrow, we’ll whiteboard the problems.