Physics: Compound Circuits

Students worked on applying Kirchoff’s Voltage Law and Kirchoff’s Current Law to solve compound circuits. A lot of students made use of my colored pencil’s and of Trevor Register’s KVL diagram to help set up their equations. During the labs last week, I had a lot of groups come up with patterns based on ratios (i.e. every resistor in series has the same ratio of potential difference to resistance), but very few students set up ratios in the problems. I found that a lot of groups needed some prompting to think about how the labs last week relate to today’s problems. Next year, I may try doing some compound circuits in the lab or PhET circuit kit as a bridge to pure paper and pencil problems.

Chemistry: Empirical Formulas

Students found empirical formulas for samples of colored beads, where each color represents a different element. My goal was to give a concrete analogy for what is happening in the lab when they find an empirical formula.