Projectile Motion

Day 77: CER, Mistakes Game, & Particle Diagrams

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AP Physics: CER

Students have been struggling to explain their reasoning effectively, so we took a day to do some TIPERs problems on projectiles and energy using the CER framework. Most groups started with their claim, so I think next time, I will give some time for students to draw and interpret diagrams before I ask them for an answer. Its tempting to see what would happen with a goal-less TIPERs problem.

Maker:S,Date:2017-10-21,Ver:6,Lens:Kan03,Act:Lar02,E-ve

Physics: Mistakes Game

We played the mistakes game with yesterday’s pie chart problems. This is the first time I’ve done it this trimester, and I was surprised at how many students were very nervous about the prospect of presenting a board with unintentional mistakes, even after some discussion about whether anyone would know whether or a not a mistake was intentional. I need to keep working on building a sense of community and safety in this course.

Maker:S,Date:2017-10-21,Ver:6,Lens:Kan03,Act:Lar02,E-ve

Chemistry Essentials: Particle Diagrams

I showed students some examples of thermal expansion and had students whiteboard particle diagrams to explain what was happening. A few students made some great connections to the labs we’ve done.

Maker:S,Date:2017-10-21,Ver:6,Lens:Kan03,Act:Lar02,E-ve

Maker:S,Date:2017-10-21,Ver:6,Lens:Kan03,Act:Lar02,E-ve

Day 76: Projectile Practical, Pie Charts, & Whiteboarding

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AP Physics: Projectile Practical

Students did a lab practical to predict where a horizontal projectile will hit the ground. Once they succeeded, I asked them to predict where a lighter marble would land without any new measurements aside from mass. Some groups had an easier time than others explaining their prediction, so I need to keep embedding these opportunities in labs and holding students accountable for thorough explanations.

carbon-paper

Retired referral forms work well as carbon paper

Physics: Pie Charts

Students worked on sketching energy pie charts. I added defining the system today; during forces, we almost always ended up with systems that had a single object, so a few students were bothered by including multiple objects. I also worked very hard to avoid telling students whether they were right or wrong, which drove a few of them nuts, but pushed them to justify their answers to their groups.

Chemistry Essentials: Whiteboarding

Groups whiteboarded yesterday’s problems. I decided to have all groups whiteboard the same problem without any intentional mistakes, then have a consensus-building discussion for each problem. Students were pretty engaged; a lot of students who checked out yesterday felt like they had some extra accountability, which in turn pushed them to ask more questions and have some good discussions.

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Day 75: Projectile Whiteboarding, Pie Charts, & Gas Laws

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AP Physics: Projectile Whiteboarding

Around half of my students were on a field trip today. We did some mistakes whiteboarding with the problems from yesterday, followed by some practice writing good explanations for “explain your reasoning” problems using CER.

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Physics: Pie Charts

A lot of Physics students were also on the field trip, so my classes were pretty thin. After discussing yesterdays’ lab and introducing the “flavors” of energy, students worked on drawing energy pie charts. I usually skip this representation, but we decided to see if it helps with the struggles students have had this year with conceptual understanding.

Maker:S,Date:2017-10-21,Ver:6,Lens:Kan03,Act:Lar02,E-ve

Chemistry Essentials: Gas Laws

We went over the results of yesterdays’ simulation to derive the gas laws. Just like last trimester, I’m introducing them as proportions, rather than equations, and am pleased with how that’s working so far. I skipped spending a day on temperature and particle movement this tri, but I ended up missing that a lot today.

Day 74: Projectiles, Energy Transfer, & Quantitative Gas Laws

/ Marta R. Stoeckel / 1 Comment

AP Physics: Projectiles

Students worked on some problems for projectile motion. I overheard a lot of students talking about the labs and demos from last week (which Brian Frank’s post on labs had me listening for!). They could use some more practice justifying answers with physics principles, along with lab results, but that will come.

Physics: Energy Transfer

I used a lab I got from Twitter (I wish I could remember who; if its you, I’m happy to give you credit!). To introduce energy, I had students measure the force and displacement required to pull a cart up ramps with different angles. Then, they sketched force vs. displacement graphs and found the areas.

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Chemistry Essentials: Quantitative Gas Laws

Students used PhET’s Gas Properties simulation to get quantitative relationships between temperature and pressure as well as volume and pressure. There were a lot of great observations about the movement of the particles and one student even pointed out the temperature skyrockets when you add gravity, which should feed nicely into tomorrows discussion.

Gas Laws Sim

Day 72: Projectiles, Forces Practical, & Qualitative Gas Laws

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AP Physics: Projectiles

We worked through some problems I got from Michael Lerner where students apply other models from this year so far to an object dropped straight down and I was pleased with the connections students were making. I also asked students to predict what should happen to the time if the object were heavier and if it were launched horizontally, and got some great discussion. We wrapped up by trying each and checking the results with slow-motion video.

 

Physics: Forces Practical

Students wrapped up the forces practical from yesterday. I scaffolded the practical more than usual by breaking it into small steps, asking students for each representation and several calculations along the way. Several students commented that was very helpful when they took another look at the problems from earlier this week.

Chemistry Essentials: Qualitative Gas Laws

I got out the syringes for students to make some qualitative observations about the ideal gas laws. The ice water baths didn’t produce much change for the groups I was able to talk to today. With this class, I’m spending more time redirecting students or dealing with groups damaging lab equipment than I am talking to students about chemistry, so I need to think about how to shift that. There is a para who is going to work on helping to keep students on task. I also need to remember the instructional coaches have offered to help manage things on lab days.

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Classroom Display

Earlier this week, I put up a “Scientists can be…” display inspired by Liz Mastalio. Its been a lot of fun listening to students react to it; some are looking for which ones they don’t know while others are clearly drawn to specific identities. My AP students have been telling me who they’d like to see up there, so I want to open the door for them to submit a poster with a label. That could help me get some identities I missed that matter to my students.

Maker:S,Date:2017-10-21,Ver:6,Lens:Kan03,Act:Lar02,E-ve

Day 71: Board Meeting, Practical, & Density Again

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AP Physics: Board Meeting

Students whiteboarded their graphs from yesterday’s video. Once I had my 2nd hour find a class average for the slopes of their vertical velocity vs. time graphs, everything fell beautifully into place and there were even gasps when one student sketched a free-body diagram. In my other hour, a lot of groups skipped the directions for making the v-t graph and tried to take shortcuts that didn’t work, so I had to step in a little more. This reinforces my thoughts yesterday that I should have spent some time discussing the midpoint method.

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Physics: Unbalanced Forces Practical

Students started a practical to predict the time it will take a cart to roll down a ramp given the cart’s mass and the ramp angle. For the first time, I had several students ask if I could just do a diagram or calculation for them, so I left the pen I usually carry at my desk and kept my hands in my pockets to avoid encouraging that.

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Chemistry Essentials: Density Misconceptions

Today, I have students blocks of the same material, but different volume, and asked them to determine whether volume affects density. A lot of groups had trouble funding the volume with a ruler, rather than later displacement, so I should have spent a little more time on a pre-lab discussion connecting yesterday’s volume measurements to today’s.

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Day 70: Projectiles, Forces Reintroduction, & Density

/ Marta R. Stoeckel / 1 Comment

AP Physics: Projectiles

Students did an activity on Pivot Interactives to watch the motion of a projectile from three different vantage points and produce position vs. time and velocity vs. time graphs. From what I saw, most groups got pretty good results. This was the first time students saw the midpoint method for finding slope of a curve, and I think I should have spent a little more time introducing that. We can have some discussion about it tomorrow.

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Physics: Forces Reintroduction

Especially because a lot of students really struggled with the forces assessment right before break, we started this week getting back into the swing with some problems similar to what we worked on right before break. Before break, I was also seeing more and more students getting off-task during time with their groups, so I spent some time sharing my observations and having some discussion about how that fits with what it takes to be successful in a class like this.

Chemistry Essentials: Does shape affect density?

I had students determine whether the shape of a block affects its density using a set of aluminum blocks with different shapes, but the same volume. Last tri, I’d asked students to predict the shape of the mass vs. volume graph, but it was tricky to collect class data and the graph was kind of boring since I didn’t have much variety of volumes. This approach got the same misconceptions out on the table, but gave more meaningful results.

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Day 79: Whiteboarding & Snakey Springs

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I spaced out and didn’t take any pictures today.

AP Physics: Whiteboarding

Students worked on whiteboarding elements of the two problems they worked on yesterday. One of the problems involved a block that slides up a ramp and became a projectile; students were either nailing the projectile portion, or completely lost. With an AP test looming, I need to remember to keep spiraling those old concepts back.

Physical Science: Snakey Springs

Students made standing waves and looked for a pattern in how many wavelengths “fit” on the spring. I found a lot of groups missed some of the standing waves, so we made a list as a class of the number of wavelengths they could make a standing wave with and students quickly recognized the pattern.

We also talked a little bit about assessments. After the magnetism quiz yesterday, a lot of students told me they thought it hadn’t gone well, but the most vocal students had perfect scores and the class average was 85%. After talking to students, I think this is related to my challenges engaging students this tri. The earth science assessments they took 1st tri put a lot of emphasis on factual recall, so the reasoning questions I shoot for are big shift for students. I need to think about how I can make it less intimidating to face a new scenario and need to take some time to think on the test.

Day 70: Hoop Practical & Circuits

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AP Physics: Hoop Practical

We finished up a lab practical on angled projectiles. Each group had a different distance from the launcher and figured out how high above the ground to place a hoop. In both classes, some groups had to shift their hoop to one side or the other, but eventually managed to get the projectile though all the hoops. I also had some goal-less problems to try and shift students away from needing to be able to picture the full solution to be able to progress. The problems mostly got ignored, because it was more exciting to watch the parabola of hoops come together and it took most of the hour to get all the hoops in place.practical

Physical Science: Series vs. Parallel Circuits

Students used the PhET circuit construction kit again, this time using a lab on series and parallel I modified from Eugenia Etkina’s PUM curriculum. I think students  were getting the big ideas, but its very tough to circulate with a full class in the computer lab, so I feel a little blind. Last year, I was able to do the PhET sims on netbooks in the classroom, so it was easy for me to listen i on student conversations and pull them together at the end of the hour to discuss some big ideas. Next year, I might re-work my calendar to make time for a day in the classroom so my students and I have a chance to make sure they are on track.

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Day 69: Angled Projectile Practical & Ohm’s Law

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AP Physics: Angled Projectile Practical

We wrapped up yesterday’s mistakes game, then started a lab practical. Each group got a different distance from the launcher, and needs to determine how high off the ground to place a hoop so that the projectile will travel through it. Tomorrow, we’ll setup the hoops so students can see the results. In both this practical and the problems we’ve been doing, I’ve found some of my strongest students get stuck. They usually know what they’re doing, but don’t see their way to the answer yet. I need to keep reminding my students that they can play with the pieces, even if they don’t know what the full picture will look like yet. I might look for a good goal-less problem to combine with the practical tomorrow to help push them towards thinking about what else they can do, rather than what the answer must be.

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Physical Science: Ohm’s Law

I’ve found I really like having students use PhET’s circuit construction kit before we get out the batteries and bulbs, so today we went to the computer lab to find a relationship between current, voltage, and resistance. I left the directions fairly open so that students would be designing their own experiments. Since I don’t talk much about units in this course, the simulations ammeter felt like a black box to a lot of the students. I was really intrigued by one student who measured current by counting how many blue dots passed a selected point in one minute, which connects really nicely to the definition of current as the flow of electric charge.ohms-law