Physics: Work

Students picked a specific height above the lab table and calculated how much energy a dynamics cart would have at that point. Then, they set up ramps at three different angles and sketched force vs. displacement graphs to represent pulling the cart up the ramp to the height above the table they picked earlier. Finally, they calculated the area of the force vs. displacement graphs. This lead nicely to a definition of work as the cart’s change in energy and the area of a force vs. displacement graph.

Chemistry: Molar Mass

Students worked on some word problems using molar mass. While no diagrams made it onto whiteboards, a lot of students sketched molecules the same way they’d done when balancing equations to help determine when they needed to multiply a mass from the periodic table.