Today, sophomores and juniors are taking state tests, so freshmen and seniors have an off-campus learning day. This is the first time we’ve done something like this and the guidelines were pretty flexible. Both of my physics courses are mostly seniors.

AP Physics: Universal Gravitation

Students finished graphing their data from yesterday’s lab using exoplanet data. I started a thread on Google Classroom for students to post questions to try and encourage some virtual discussion, though it didn’t get any action as students opted to e-mail me, instead. Most of the questions I got related to uncertainty, which is not surprising. There were some great conversations yesterday about uncertainty, including why some measurements had different values for the plus and minus.

Physics: Pendulums

Students worked on graphing and linearizing their data from yesterday’s pendulum lab. I usually give students time in class to linearize their graphs so they talk to me or their group members, but they’ve had enough experience at this point that it shouldn’t be a huge leap to do it independently. A few groups didn’t collect all their data yesterday, so I posted a link to PhET’s pendulum lab so they could still be on track for tomorrow’s board meeting.

Chemistry Essentials: State Testing

My chemistry students are juniors, so they took the ACT today to meet state testing requirements and were off the hook for the off-campus learning day.