AP Physics: Ramp Whiteboards

Since a recent quiz used a free-response problem from the AP Physics exam, I gave students part of the hour to use the scoring guide to review their work. Students seemed to like seeing the level of detail the College Board is after.

Afterward, students prepared whiteboards for the ramp lab we’ve been working on. I made some changes to my approach and can tell I need to do a little more work on helping students interpret the graphs and data tables from the photogates. Overall, results are looking pretty good.

Physics: Free-Body Diagrams

We discussed some of the interaction stations to get to the point of defining a few key types of forces. Afterward, I introduced them to interaction diagrams and free-body diagrams using the hover puck in an activity adapted from Kelly O’Shea. For the puck traveling at a constant velocity, one of my hours had some really good small group discussion about whether there is a forward force on the puck, though neither class got to a whole group discussion today.

Chemistry Essentials: Electrolysis

We did a gallery walk to go over yesterday’s problems. I also showed students an electrolysis apparatus to have some conversation about how we know water is two hydrogens and an oxygen.