AP Physics: More F-t Graphs

We discussed some of yesterday’s problems. To help with a few of the conceptual problems, we got out the force plate and had someone jump, once with their knees stiff and once bending their knees as they landed. Looking back, I wish I’d started this week’s impulse lab more qualitatively to set them up for some similar realizations to the ones we had today.

Physics: Board Meeting

We had a board meeting for this week’s ramp lab. I struggled a bit with what I wanted students to have as their takeaway since we are still on an introductory unit, and the discussion suffered a bit as a result. The other physics teacher had his students focus on a qualitative relationship between ramp angle and slope, and was happy with how things went, so I need to do a better job of identifying opportunities like that if I do a similar intro unit next year. On Monday, however, we are on to actual physics!

Chemistry Essentials: Board Meeting

Students whiteboarded their particle diagrams for yesterday’s lab, along with a CER for whether a gas has any mass based on this lab. They did a nice job on preparing the whiteboards, but the class discussion was tough; a lot of students had trouble staying focused on the conversation at the end of the day on a Friday. I usually keep my class norms pretty broad, but I think it would be worth having the class develop some more specific norms for class discussions.