Physics: Light Intensity
About half of my students were gone for an AP exam today. The students who were here used a flashlight to find a relationship between the area light covers and the distance to a light source.
Chemistry: Exothermic vs. Endothermic Reactions
I introduced students to exothermic and endothermic reactions and we used a PhET simulation to look at the role of energy. Then, students did a short lab where they made observations of these two reactions.
Physics: Ray Diagrams
Students worked through some pinhole ray diagrams.
Chemistry: Activity Series
Students did a simple lab to produce an activity series for single replacement reactions. As we discussed the results, I realized students were not making the connection to what was replacing what. Next time, I think I’ll have students write out reaction equations for at least some of these and plan some questions to solidify the connections to single replacement reactions.
Physics: Pinhole Cameras
Students built simple pinhole cameras, then experimented with how to change the image that appeared and drew some ray diagrams to explain their observations. A lot of students were really thinking deeply about what the ray diagrams mean and how to interpret them to understand the image produced, which was great to see.
Chemistry: Reaction Types
Students did a lab where they observed each of the five reaction types in action. Several groups were really thinking through how their observations connected back to the reaction equation, which lead to some great conversations.
Physics: Ray Diagram Whiteboarding
Students whiteboarded their solutions to the shadow and color worksheets from earlier this week. Students had a good grasp of the ray diagrams and there was some good discussion about the color stuff. We used some overhead projectors with stained glass panes to test a few of the color questions.
Chemistry: Reaction Types Whiteboarding
Students whiteboarded their solutions to the problems on yesterday’s lab. Compared to last tri, students had a much better grasp of the different types, especially single replacement and double replacement. I think the Legos helped reinforced the physical meaning of the reaction equations.
Today was the second day in a row I was gone for a field trip.
Physics: Ray Diagrams
Students practiced drawing and interpreting ray diagrams using a worksheet from the Modeling Instruction physics curriculum. Based on what I saw of their work from yesterday, I’ll need to do some work with them tomorrow on details like including arrow heads.
Chemistry: Lego Reaction Types
Students used Legos to represent different ions and worked through examples of each reaction type. I’m hoping that manipulating the Legos helped make what’s going on in some of those reactions more concrete. I’ll find out for sure tomorrow.
Today and tomorrow, I’m chaperoning field trips so my students are left with subs.
Physics: Shadows
Students played with how to change the shadow produced by an object and light source, then drew ray diagrams to explain their observations.
Chemistry: Reaction Types Reading
Students spent some time with the textbook to start building vocabulary for the different classifications of chemical reactions.
Physics: Color
Students put colored beads under different colored light bulbs and tried to pick out the red, green, and blue beads. In addition to coming up with a measure for how easy it was to sort the beads, they kept track of which beads they tended to mistake for which color.
Chemistry: Lab Discussion
We spent some time discussing yesterday’s percent yield lab. Previously, we’ve only done problems where the mole ratio is a whole number, so I was a little worried doing a lab with a fractional ratio, but that worry was misplaced. I need to stay out of the trap of underestimating my students. There was also some good discussion about why the percent yield was not 100%.
Physics: Doppler Effect
I introduced the equation for the Doppler effect, then students worked through some problems. A few students used a lot of color coding to keep track of all the different variables.
Chemistry: Percent Yield
Students reacted hydrocholoric acid and sodium carbonate to make sodium chloride, then calculated their percent yield. Students really liked the lab and saw the value in the calculations, which reminded me that I need to keep working on getting more true chemistry labs into this course.
Physics: Doppler Effect
I tried something new to introduce the Doppler effect today. Students slid transparencies along a grid and sketched wavefronts to get a sense of how a moving source changes the frequency a stationary observer would hear.
Chemistry: Limiting Reactants
Students worked on some problems to identify limiting reactants. I shared a strategy one of my students came up with last tri to use reaction diagrams to help think through the problems, which seemed to help students wrap their heads around what the different numbers represent.
Physics: Longitudinal Waves
We had some discussion about a high-speed video of a glass breaking due to sound waves to establish that sound is a new type of wave. Afterwards, students made longitudinal waves on slinkys to explore what aspects of our models for mechanical waves so far apply to longitudinal waves.
Chemistry: Leftovers Sim
I was gone on Thursday and Friday and it turns out that on Thursday, while I planned for my students to work on PhET’s Reactants, Products, & Leftovers simulation, the school’s wi-fi went out. We did that lab today, instead. Students were pretty successful applying ideas from Friday’s lab to the simulation and seemed to build some nice bridges to the more abstract chemical reactions.
Simultaneously Learning & Teaching
Ideas for Physics Teachers
explorations and inspirations... in how we learn science
Brian reflects on his physics teaching
(sometimes) daily updates about physics classes, mistakes, and sensemaking
Recording reflections about teaching and learning
Physics, Modeling Instruction, Educational Technology, and other stuff I find interesting
Reflections on the dynamics of teaching
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. - Samuel Beckett
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