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Day 77: Bouncy Balls, Mistakes Whiteboarding, & Gas Laws

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I dropped the ball and didn’t take any pictures today.

AP Physics 1: Bouncy Balls

A large percentage of my students were on a field trip today. I had the students who were here work on the video analysis of a bouncy ball’s motion.

Physics: Mistakes Whiteboarding

Students did mistakes whiteboarding with energy bar charts.

Chemistry Essentials: Gas Laws

I am as part of Pivot Interactive’s Chemistry Fellows program.

Students used Pivot Interactives to collect data for a relationship between pressure and volume for a bubble in a vacuum chamber.

Day 76: Bouncy Balls, Bar Charts, & Quantitative Gas Laws

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AP Physics 1: Bouncy Balls

Students started a lab to determine what interaction is dissipating a bouncy ball’s energy (my article on this lab appears in the Jan, 2018 issue of The Science Teacher). Today was all about figuring out what kind of evidence might be useful, so students worked on sketching representations for the bouncy ball’s motion. I could tell I’ve been slipping on spiraling back to earlier concepts; students had a tougher time than I’d hoped sketching the velocity vs. time graph.

Physics: Bar Charts

Before diving in to some problems sketching energy bar charts, we did a quick round of representations jeopardy. Each group came up with a scenario, then sketched a set of energy pie charts and a matching set of energy bar charts to describe that scenario on a whiteobard. Then, they gave their whiteboard to another group who had to come up with a scenario that fit with the representations on the whiteboard they got.

Chemistry Essentials: Quantitative Gas Laws

I am as part of Pivot Interactive’s Chemistry Fellows program.

Students used Pivot Interactives to collect data for a relationship between the temperature of a gas and its pressure. This is a great example of the kind of lab I really like Pivot Interactives for; it makes a nice graph, but we just don’t have the equipment to try this lab. Its not as visually interesting as some of the other labs on Pivot, but it is still clearly an actual lab and not idealized, simulated data. Students made some nice connections to their qualitative observations made using syringes last week.

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Day 70: Systems and Bar Charts, Conservation of Momentum Problems, & Pivot Interactives

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AP Physics 1: Systems and Bar Charts

Students worked on whiteboarding some problems switching between different systems for energy bar charts. Students were doing a nice job of switching smoothly between different systems.

ap bar chart

Physics: Conservation of Momentum Problems

Students worked on calculations with conservation of momentum. This is the first year I’ve really used momentum bar charts, and its also the first time I’ve had students call conservation of momentum easy. The best part was I overheard a lot of students talking about whether their answer was reasonable based on their bar charts. When one of my AP sections came in, I still had some bar charts on the whiteboard and my AP students asked why I didn’t teach them momentum bar charts since it made the problem seem much easier. I’m sold and will be bringing bar charts into AP next year.

Chemistry Essentials: Pivot Interactives Density

I am as part of Pivot Interactive’s Chemistry Fellows program.

Students worked on an activity in Pivot Interactives to identify materials based on their density. I ended up giving students a handout to record their work, rather than having them answer in Pivot’s interface, since something about writing on paper seems to feel more comfortable for a lot of my students. I was really excited about how many students on their own tried to decide between multiple materials with similar densities by paying attention to what they could see about the material. It was also nice to be able to easily split up the class to look at different liquids so we can have some conversation tomorrow about who should have similar answers and who should have different answers, and why.

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Day 67: Board Meeting, Representations Jeopardy, & Density of a Solid

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AP Physics 1: Board Meeting

Students whiteboarded their results for the elastic potential energy lab we’d done earlier this week.

Physics: Representations Jeopardy

In both my sections, we started with mistakes whiteboarding for yesterday’s problems. My 6th hour is about 1/3 the size of my other section, so they got through the mistakes whiteboarding very quickly. I tried what I called Representations Jeopardy: each group came up with a scenario, and whiteobarded a set of representations, minus the sketches and any labels that would identify what the objects involved are. Then, groups traded whiteboards and had to come up with a scenario that matched the whiteboard they received. Students said they really liked that they had to think differently in order to work backwards from the diagrams.

phys mistake

From mistakes whiteboarding

Chemistry Essentials: Density of a Solid

Students worked on finding the density of some metal dowels. I realized belatedly this is the first lab we’ve done where they didn’t need a container when measuring the mass, so it was actually a tricky leap for them to not tare something out on the balance.

volume

Day 65: Spring Energy & Board Meetings

/ Marta R. Stoeckel / 2 Comments

AP Physics 1: Spring Energy

I am being compensated by Pivot Interactives as part of their Chemistry Fellows program.

Students collected data for a relationship between a spring’s stretch and the final velocity of an attached cart using a lab in Pivot Interactives. While I took more time than yesterday on a pre-lab discussion, I think students were still a little confused since we haven’t talked much about energy types yet. I think it would have helped if we’d done the board meeting for yesterday’s lab prior to this activity. I’m also thinking about doing bar charts before these equations next time around.

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Physics: Explosions Board Meeting

Students whiteboarded their results from yesterday’s lab to introduce conservation of momentum. This was a tricky discussion for a lot of my students since we were dealing with four variables simultaneously, but students did well with it. It was a nice reminder of the progress my students have made so far this year.

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Chemistry Essentials: Volume Board Meeting

Students whiteboarded their results from yesterday’s lab. I really hit “for every” statements about the slope hard, and that seemed to help students attach some conceptual meaning to the slope. There were a few groups who graphed the actual water level, rather than the water displaced, which gave a great opportunity to talk about what the intercept tells us in this lab. I think next time, I’ll make sure a couple of groups do that.

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Day 64: Kinetic Energy, Exploding Carts, & Volume

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AP Physics 1: Kinetic Energy

I am being compensated by Pivot Interactives as part of their Chemistry Fellows program.

Students used Pivot Interactives to collect data for a relationship between an object’s starting height and its velocity at the bottom of a ramp to work toward a relationship for kinetic energy. Because the activity included directions for how to make each measurement, I got complacent and rushed through the pre-lab discussion, which meant some students were lost on the goal of the activity. I think I would have been better off taking a little more time, and pointing out connections between the directions in the activity and the measurements we discussed.

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Physics: Exploding Carts

To start working toward momentum conservation, students launched pairs of carts off each other and plotted the ratio of the masses and the ratio of the velocities. Rather than measuring the velocity, we worked out that since the carts have a pretty constant velocity after the explosion, if they hit the end stops simultaneously, the ratio of the distances is the same as the ratio of the velocities. I like that this forces students to start making some predictions about how they need to adjust the distance, rather than waiting until the end to come up with a model.

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Chemistry Essentials: Volume

The Modeling Instruction chemistry curriculum has a lab I really like to show that 1 cm3 = 1 mL, but I’ve struggled to make it work for my students. Both when I’ve used empty geometric solids and a selection of cylinders, doing the math to calculate the volume in cubic centimeters has been a huge hurdle. Today, I tried the lab using plastic cubes that are 1 cm on each side and it finally went smoothly. Students were actually paying attention to the relationship, rather then getting lost in the math to calculate the solid volume.

volume.jpg

Day 41: Mistakes & Bohr Model

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AP Physics 1: Mistakes Whiteboarding

We wrapped up discussing the whiteboards students made on Friday for some mistakes whiteboarding. Students seem to be pretty solid on the graphs and motion maps, so we should be ready to start doing some problems tomorrow.

Physics: Mistakes Whiteboarding

We finished discussing the whiteboards students had prepped for some mistakes whiteboarding. Students seem to be getting the hang of balanced forces and are managing to connect the trig to the problems they have.

phys mistake.jpg

Chemistry Essentials: Bohr Model

Friday was not the most productive day, so students had some time to finish working on the PhET simulation, then started a worksheet connecting the Bohr model to the information on our periodic table. Students were either really on the ball today or pretty checked out; this is something I usually see toward the end of the trimester in this course, but its happening earlier than usual and I need to give some thought to how I’m going to keep my students engaged through finals.

build an atom

Day 40: Mistakes Whiteboarding & Build an Atom

/ Marta R. Stoeckel / 1 Comment

Today was one of those days, and I did not manage to take any pictures.

AP Physics 1: CAPM Mistakes Whiteboarding

We spent some time discussing the graphs for a set of problems about marbles on ramps. The one with a marble that goes up a ramp, then comes back down, lead to some good discussion. Afterward, students started prepping whiteboards for some mistakes whiteboarding with stacks of kinematic graphs.

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Physics: Mistakes Whiteboarding

Students did some mistakes whiteboarding for balanced force problems. They are having some trouble connecting the trig to the problems, but are making progress.

Chemistry Essentials: Build an Atom

We had a short quiz today and I had students work on PhET’s Build an Atom simulation to start connecting the Bohr model to the periodic table. The students who worked on it were very successful at getting the ideas I was after, but it was very tough to get students to work on the simulation after their quiz.

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Day 30: Center of Mass, Whiteboarding, & Energy Bar Charts

/ Marta R. Stoeckel / 1 Comment

AP Physics 1: Center of Mass

Students worked on a video analysis of two air pucks attached by a rod from the article by Taylor Kaar, Linda Pollack, Michael Lerner, and Robert Engles in The Physics Teacher. In the past, I’ve used LoggerPro, but there have been delays on getting it installed on student computers, so I took advantage of the video upload feature in Pivot Interactives. Pivot has a ruler with an adjustable length to get measurements to scale, but it was tricky to find a nice alignment, so students ended up skipping scaling the ruler and coming up with a conversion factor, instead.

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Physics: Whiteboarding

Students whiteboarded some problems on drawing free body diagrams. In my 1st hour, we did mistakes whiteboarding; I was a little disappointed that no groups put a forward force on the objects moving forward, but not a lot of students made that mistake while they were working on the problems in the first place. My 6th hour is a little behind, so they mostly worked on the problems today and will do some abbreviated whiteboarding tomorrow.

Chemistry Essentials: Energy Bar Charts

Students worked on some LOL diagrams for energy transformations during phase changes. They had some trouble with the system flow part of the diagram, mostly because they are getting tripped up by the idea that it needs to list specific objects.

Day 22: Spring Force, Annotating Graphs, & Pressure vs. Volume

/ Marta R. Stoeckel / 1 Comment

AP Physics 1: Spring Force

Students collected data for a relationship between the force on a spring and how much it stretches. I have them collect data for at least two different springs hanging vertically, then pick a spring where they also collect data by pulling it horizontally. I love the moment when groups call me over because something is “wrong” with their graphs because the line for when the spring is vertical matches the line for when the spring is horizontal.

spring lab.jpg

Physics: Annotating Graphs

As a stepping stone to graphical solutions for constant acceleration, students worked on annotating velocity vs. time graphs and building equations from the slope and intercept. Last year, this was really tough, so I changed some of the language I used to try and connect the annotations to the visible features of the graph a little more clearly, and it seemed to click for a lot of students.

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Chemistry Essentials: Pressure & Volume

I am being compensated by Pivot Interactives for participating in a pilot of their chemistry materials.

Students used another Pivot Interactives activity. This one used a bubble in a vacuum chamber to allow students to find a relationship between pressure and volume. In a previous lab on volume, finding the volume of a cylinder was a big hurdle for a lot of my students, so it was really nice for them to be able to use the tools in Pivot to do that number crunching without getting hung up on the math.

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