set up group work routines, start to feel comfortable working in groups
Fermi Problems
Laser Water demo
3
Position, velocity, acceleration
GOALS:
distinguish between position, velocity, acceleration, do simple calculations
walking graphs - logger pro graph matching
do this more than once and also do it more times later on in the year
measure speed - cars, walking
Logger pro for falling objects - use graphing tools to help with analysis of x,v,a graphs.
2
forces and intertia
GOAL:
must distinguish between force, inertia and velocity. Reason about moving objects using these concepts
inertia olympics
F=ma lab (not sure if I want to keep... maybe do modeling version?)
force vector lab ??? - maybe drop
diagnoser
Spring lab
Sticky Floor
Use this as an intro to Excel which prepares them for the eggstream
1
momentum and 3rd law
GOALS:
distinguish between momentum and and force, but know that momentum is changed by applying force.
Baloon rocket competition - who can make it the moon first, fastest? can you make it back alive?
momentum car - balls shooting out of back of car
didn't do this
6
energy
only took 5 weeks
GOALS:
recognize many forms of energy
know that it is not created or destroyed, but changes forms
Eggstream - design bungy rig for egg that will get it as close to the
good as-is
rube goldberg - build machine, explain energy, market to the class
minor changes - more structure, more physics emphasis find outside judges - stanford engineers, principal, other teachers, econ class
Evaluate daily energy use, make poster to show energy use and what it would take in order to produce that energy, and what byproducts it would produce.
pulley lab - work and efficiency in multiple pulley systems (from faustine)
spring lab - relationship between F and x in a spring, calculating K from graph
heat lab
1
2-d motion (vectors, circular, projectile motion)
I added a little projectile motion, and made it 2 weeks (didn't do torque though)
GOALS:
Understand that a force acting perpendicular to the velocity will make an object turn in a circle, that force is the centripetal force
Understand that torqu increases when you move farther away from the fulcrum (large lever arm), but that you have to push for a farther distance)
Understand Projectile motion, be able to solve problems using equations of motion for projectiles
Babar and Ganesh mini lab (vector addition and decomposition, static forces)
making a mobile lab (?)
didn't do
mobile performance assessment (?)
didn't do
diagnoser?
did do this
centripital force lab (ac = v^2/r)
did this, got funky results, need very low friction thread
SUV rollover
didn't do this
Projectile videos and video analysis using whiteboard and projector (drawing data points)
3
friction and thermo - gas laws??
hit gas laws for 1-2 days, because should have gotten that in chem pretty well.
GOALS:
know that energy is conserved, but that no system can use all of it's energy to do work (some is always turned into random heat in the process - this is entropy and the first law combined)
understand coefficient of friction
LOL diagrams
Friciton Activity sequence (Lesson study)
focussed on when we can or cannot ignore friction, rather than on coefficient. didn't talk about coefficient of friction. Could maybe slip it in by saying "when cefficient of friction is small, then it's ignorable"
who killed the electric car? - video (should make up some study questions that go along with the movie and relate to thermo)
heat capacity lab ?? - too much like chem?
efficiency and engines
5
electricity and circuits
GOALS
Develop a model for current flow that incorporates resistance and voltge
understand resistance is proportional to wire length and inverseley proportional to circumference
Understand and build parallel and series circuits
electrostatics demos (simplify greatly though)
how a copy machine works
play dough resistance
wiring a house - build a model house, wire it with switches and lights, draw circuit diagram, floor plan, wiring diagram, submit these for "final inspection".
guitar/instrument - Building Pan pipes, learn to play song and play it for the class.
next time, could have them design an excel spreadsheet which calculates the lengths for them.
echo location
waves on springs
ruben's tube - pvc pipe with holes in the top. pump propane in and then play sound into the end of the tube. get standing waves of flame. sooo cool.
Sound and Fury - movie and socratic seminar
Electro Motive Brain Transducer 3000
needs some changes
1
magnetism
3
Electromagnetism
GOALS
Understand connection between moving charge and magnetic field
Creat a number of devices which utilize this relationship and
use current to move a magnet
use a moving magnet to create a current
speaker, microphone, motor - got KSTF grant for this
electric guitar
3
light and vision
1
Nuclear and radioactive decay
Other Projects (mostly long term)
learning study - choose a learning skill to improve upon and spend 3 weeks collecting evidence that you actually worked at improving.
Only do it once? Take it more seriously? Class time? More strcuture? More help picking a topic?
breadth project - career investigation, children's book, research paper, build a device
Poor childrens books need to be adressed. Need help writing research papers (more support and structure, need to LEARN, not just do) Only 1 per year? More focus on choosing GOOD and INTERESTING topics that they will actually engage with More in-class time for feedback more rigid incremental deadline structure Online resources - build in to our own websites
big idea list?
Should we reinstate this?
Notes
We are shooting to do a lab every week
Try to make our labs as inquiry based as possible (whatever that means)
Try to focus projects more on the physics connections and not on just "having fun"
More interpretation of graphs
Keeps graphing in labs
more focus on explaining graphs, explicitly TEACH how to interpret graph and have group discussions around this
add graphing interpretation on weekly/daily basis (SAT prep)
Memorize what a variety of curves look like - linear, 2nd power, inverse,
Reduce emphasis on tangent and derivatives??
More articulation of goals throughout the year - combat "why are we doing this?" question
