AP Physics: Dueling Fan Carts

I borrowed Frank Noschese’s dueling fan carts activity to reinforce the relationship between net force and motion. We had some good whole-class discussion about using system schema to determine which forces matter. My fan carts don’t produce exactly the same thrust, so there was some acceleration with combinations like high vs. high, but I was pleased at how quickly my students jumped to wanting to find a combination of settings where the forces did balance.

Earth Science: Factors in Climate Change

We’ve done a lot of reading graphs and data tables related to climate change, but haven’t really had a chance to synthesize the observations. I used a slide deck that goes one factor at a time and uses actual data to give students the opportunity to determine the impact each factor has on climate. I envisioned this being very discussion heavy, but I was having trouble getting student input and it quickly became more of a lecture, I think in part because I kept students in their desks. I think next time I need to get them at lab tables using whiteboards to get them more actively engaged.