AP Physics: Elevators

I took some time today to introduce students to the CER framework. I showed them a force vs. time graph I made by riding the elevator with a mass hanging on a force sensor, then asked them to determine whether I was riding the elevator up or down. We haven’t done much with unbalanced forces yet, but they were pretty successful determining which direction I rode it.

Physics: Board Meeting

Students whiteboarded sketches of their graphs from yesterday. Its been taking longer and longer for groups to prepare whiteboards, so I think I will try setting a time on the SMARTBoard to try and speed things up. I also found a lot of groups were missing information we’d discussed recording prior to the lab yesterday, so I think we need to revisit lab notebook practices. The discussion was very abbreviated, so we only got a chance to discuss a little about the position vs. time graphs, but students were able to recognize the key ideas. On Monday, we’ll talk about the v-t graphs and look at some variations.

Chemistry Essentials: Pressure

To introduce pressure, students watched a balloon in a vacuum chamber, then whiteboarded what they thought was happening. Students were pretty successful at coming up with useful ideas to explain what they saw and inventing the idea of pressure.

Afterward, we boiled water in the vacuum chamber. We ran out of time to whiteboard it, but, on a whim, I got out my thermal camera and recorded a video to show the water stays cool.