AP Physics: Momentum-Time Graphs

I’m taking a page from Michael Lerner and having my students use momentum vs. time graphs. Today, they worked on translating a p vs. t graph into a v vs. t graph, then do some interpretation. I also asked them about the meaning of the slope on the p vs. t graph, and I was pleased with how many students went immediately to the units to look for hints; in past years, my students needed much more prompting to look there. This year, I’ve been working a lot on getting students to look for meaning in graphs, and its fun to see them taking ownership of those skills.

Physical Science: Longitudinal Waves

Students whiteboarded some problems about longitudinal waves. I steered a lot of questions toward the parallels between longitudinal waves and transverse waves since it is usually a big leap for 9th graders to apply principles we discovered with transverse wave to other types. We also talked about why it might be useful to model something like sound that we know is a longitudinal wave as a transverse wave.