Physics: Pendulum Problems

We had a brief discussion about the results of the pendulum lab, especially why a linear fit for the data my students collected usually looked pretty good, but did a very poor job of predicting the period of a large pendulum. I need to do a much better job of having my students talk about their intercepts, including whether or not an intercept of zero makes sense. Most of the groups who tried a square root function to fit their data gave it a shot because they didn’t like the intercept on the linear fit.

Afterward, students worked on a pendulum worksheet I put together where they drew energy bar graphs and free body diagrams for the pendulum at key points in its motion, then sketched position vs. time, velocity vs. time, and acceleration vs. time graphs for the pendulum.

Chemistry: Representing Reactions

Students practiced translating between statements, chemical equations, and reaction diagrams. A lot of students needed some support to work through what a coefficient means vs. a subscript, but they did get there.