AP Physics: Assessment

Students took an assessment over momentum. On the last few assessments, I’ve had a fair number of students use the full class period, when normally I try to keep the weekly assessments closer to half a class period. I need to take a look at my assessments compared to the AP exam to decide if I should shorten the weekly assessments, put a time limit on them so students have to practice pacing themselves, or stick with what I’ve been doing and let them take the time they take.

Physical Science: EM Spectrum

Students worked on a model of part of the EM spectrum, cutting paper to scale to represent the wavelength of some different types of waves. I started this activity when I included more calculations in the course, so it was partly a chance to practice working with scientific notation and switching between wavelength and frequency, but I’ve been taking out a lot of the calculation in the course and the only conceptual ideas this activity gets at is comparing the wavelengths. The standard this activity goes with is about identifying parts of the EM spectrum, so I need to spend some time looking for other activities that can meet the standard better.