Tag: CVPM

LREI, Physics 10, Science Electives

Day 7: What is happening in the wires when a capacitor is in the circuit?

Physics 10 wrapped up the Constant Velocity Particle Model packet with a couple of really great and subtle class discussions about what information they could get from position-time and velocity-time graphs that included ideas about translating between representations to get a better understanding of what was happening with an object’s motion. The Circuits class started figuring out more about what must be happening in the … Continue reading Day 7: What is happening in the wires when a capacitor is in the circuit?

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LREI, Physics 10, Science Electives

Day 6: Quarks, Whiteboards, and What in the world are capacitors doing?

The Modern Physics class had a board meeting to discuss the rules they came up with for how quarks combine. They also watched a couple of Physics Girl videos to give more overview of quarks and then went on a particle adventure. Both of my Physics 10 sections met today. Both classes finished the Constant Velocity Particle Model packet on paper and have only a couple of … Continue reading Day 6: Quarks, Whiteboards, and What in the world are capacitors doing?

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LREI, Physics 10, Science Electives

Day 4: Circuits Assessment and Whiteboarding Motion Diagrams

The first assessment of the year happened in my Electric Circuits class. I am adding in “practical objectives” to the list of skills, so the test included building a simple circuit. (This is Unit 1, folks.) I’m sure it seemed trivial to them today, but I was really glad to see them all find it so easy since it wasn’t an obvious task (even when looking … Continue reading Day 4: Circuits Assessment and Whiteboarding Motion Diagrams

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LREI, Physics 10, Science Electives

Day 3: Starting Particle Physics

My Modern Physics class started thinking about particle physics with the gold foil experiment. We used another QuarkNet Data Portfolio activity and simulated the experiment using marbles as the alpha particles and dice as the gold atoms. They made a histogram of hits per 10 rolls by using sticky notes on the wall, then figured out the size of the particles (the dice and marbles are … Continue reading Day 3: Starting Particle Physics

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Physics 10

Day 9: Students Interacting with Test Questions

I started the day at a coffee shop writing on the tests from last class so that I could return them this morning. And just overall being psyched about what these kids can do. For a variety of reasons, these students were ready to interact with the test in just the kinds of ways that I wanted (even though it was their first graded assessment). … Continue reading Day 9: Students Interacting with Test Questions

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Physics 10

Day 7: Cyclists A and B

Here are the 10th graders creating whiteboards to discuss some position-vs-time graphs. Best part of the discussion was the super picky, super passionate argument about whether you could really make any comment comparing the speed of cyclist A in the old graph and the new graph. “I took out my ruler and protractor and the angles are the same.” vs. “It doesn’t give a scale so … Continue reading Day 7: Cyclists A and B

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Physics 10

Day 15: Tortoise and the Hare Graphs

Today the 10th graders turned in their free quiz (not graded, just feedback, take-home). It was our 5th class together, and we are getting close to finishing our Constant Velocity unit. The other day, one of my students had a side conversation with me about the graph from this problem: She said that it reminded her of the tortoise and the hare. We talked about it … Continue reading Day 15: Tortoise and the Hare Graphs

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