AP Physics: Free Fall

Students worked on plotting position vs. time using a Direct Measurement Video of five different spheres in free fall. This is the first year I’ve had students use uncertainty, and I’m finding I really like how it shapes conversations. A lot of students were looking for specific times in the video, then estimating the position of the sphere at those times, but a quick conversation about the large uncertainty that produces in position quickly got them to see the value in switching their approach.

Earth Science: Humidity Analogy

Students worked through some questions using beakers of water as an analogy for air at different temperatures and how that impacts humidity. It was pretty tricky for many students to predict what should happen to the water level when a given amount was moved to a larger or smaller beaker, so I think I’d like to get out actual beakers and water the next time I do this activity to make it a little more concrete. They did seem to get the analogy and were able to make some good predictions about humidity and dew points by the end of the hour.