9-30 and 10/3

Today we worked some practice problems involving acceleration, I helped out with questions on post-lab work, and classes held class meetings.  Some changes to be made affect all classes, and some are for individual classes; thank you all for your input.
Remember, our exam is Tuesday, so try to work the review WS problems and graphs if you haven't done so yet.  If you're still shaky on the math problems, try p. 880, #27, 28, and 30-33.  You can check your answers with me on Monday.
Monday's agenda:  take common assessment (multiple choice version of test, but not for your grade, for my statistics) and discuss correct answers to help guide your review.
We'll also take some video of objects in motion and use this video for analysis of gravity starting after the exam on Tuesday and continue through Wednesday.

9-28 exam postponed!

Amid concerns for a large number of struggling students, I have rescheduled the exam for Tuesday.  This means the optional assignment (see an earlier blog post) isn't due until Tuesday either.  Tomorrow we'll try some human graphing as a demonstration, discuss homework answers, and work some practice motion math problems on the board.
Friday I will probably have classes take their common assessment (the scantron - test that doesn't factor into your grade) and we can look over answers there as a means to also review, and Monday we'll probably do some video analysis and find out how much the Earth's gravity accelerates objects (for next unit).  I'm not going to double - book many of you for LBS's exam.

9-28, today in class

HMWK tonight (see yesterday's post) Band people!  Take your test:  Tomorrow in class, Before school Friday (let me know if you plan to, so I can be here plenty early), or before/after school on Monday.
Exam 2: motion is Friday for everyone else. 

Today we did an exercise of explaining what was happening in graphs (above) verbally, then making (sketching) different graphs (velocity-time) based on what they would look like to represent the same motion.
You can use your notes on these graphs and your sketches from today to help you work on the practice WS from yesterday.
All classes got to see how to work on the optional assignments on my webpage, and I showed some classes that I had put the online textbook access code on our class EDLINE page.

Afterward, I showed different ways to solve for acceleration from your lab data:
1. use the: delta x = 1/2 a t ^2 equation and solve for acceleration after inserting your change in position and time.
 2. From a position - time graph, compare the slope at the start (0 m/s) with the slope between the last points (___ cm/s) with time from start to the mid point of the last two points and use the:  a = delta v / t  equation to solve for acceleration.
3. Make a position time^2 graph and (double) the slope of the line.  This is acceleration.
4. Make a velocity time graph and find the slope.  This is acceleration.  (this method is the easiest, but very few people chose it for some reason??)

9-27: Matchbox Car Lab

Homework (due Thursday):  p. 92, #1-3,5,9,11-14, 18,19,21,24. 
Today's lab should be turned in by Friday. 
Today in class, students picked up a review WS (optional, and get an answer key here)
Also handed out today:  Unit 2 objectives (see yesterday's post) and the matchbox car lab instructions WS.
Tutoring limitations this week were addressed; open schedule today (Tues) and after 3:00 Wednesday. 
Thursday is tight; I host Science & Discovery club, but I do have a couple of other students and sophomores who tutor then and can help if you come by, plus I will be staying after the club is over around 3:20.
BAND STUDENTS!! you may elect to take your exam one of three times; Thursday during class, Monday before school (arrive by 6:30 to have time to finish) or Monday after school. 

Optional Assignment (help your grade!)

If the link doesn't work through FB, see my blog for a good link to how to do it:
mrfreemansclass.blogspot.com
Optional assignment :  link below
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wk8Ub0i9DCYzth6DlzRaZreRpnzXE-kNyT9yNZXbFP8/edit?hl=en_US

9-26 Exam Thursday! HMWK tonight; lab (journals!) tomorrow.

Today answers were given to the 1/2 page WS from Thursday.
In notes today:  We copied the equations we found using our graphs of motion last week into regular notebooks for easy access and use:
average velocity = change in position / time

change in position = 1/2 * acceleration * time^2

acceleration = change in velocity / time

Ranking Task: acceleration today - a challenge to agree on.

Homework:  Prepare your lab journal for tomorrow's acceleration lab:  Title lab, TOC, p#, pre-lab:
1. Sketch a motion map of a car rolling down a ramp (predict its motion)
2. If an object accelerates at 1.4 cm/s^2, find:
a. its position at 4.0s
b. its velocity at 4.0s

Honors Physical – Earth Science Unit2 Motion Objectives

1. Represent and analyze the motion of an object graphically.

2. Analyze the velocities of two objects in terms of position and time

(verbally, with diagrams, graphs, and mathematically)

3. Measure and analyze an object’s motion in terms of speed, velocity, and acceleration

(verbally, with diagrams, graphs, and mathematically)

4. From graphed data, determine how an object is moving, and predict its motion for times/situations outside graph.

5. Describe how a graph of a rate of change of one variable relates to others (using slope and units)

9-22 Happy Thursday(Friday!)

Announcement: Exam next Friday!  Or...for those who hate the "E" word, we will have a festival of understanding next Friday!  :)  Topic?  Motion:  speed, velocity, frames of reference, acceleration
Today in class:  p.80 homework was graded and looked over/corrected.
classes worked to answer acceleration practice problems WS  (get a copy here)
Most classes also worked (as a class, with Mr. F.) to answer questions on the front side of the WS.  If not complete, please try to finish the back side on your own this weekend; we will discuss/debate answers first thing on Monday. 
We will have our 2nd official lab on Tuesday; bring your lab journals to class!
Monday we will also be working on some new ranking tasks involving acceleration.  You will get a pre-lab as homework to be worked in your lab journal.  I will also hand out unit objectives so you can start studying.  If all goes well, I will post these online this weekend along with an optional assignment.
Tuesday (lab) Work on graphing and analysis/post-lab as homework.
Wednesday we may try a different type of lab/demonstration.... Human graphing! and maybe discuss lab analysis.
Thursday we'll discuss how we've met (or not met) objectives for this unit, hold class meetings where your voice can be heard to steer the class environment, and answer any questions involving motion for the exam.
The week after will be filled with exciting, fun toys:  Forces and Newton's Laws...

9-21 Science today

Homework for tonight: Read p. 76-80; work problems #1-7 on p. 80.  #4 can have some different answers, and you will use one of the equations that we found in class today to solve #6&7.  Show your work with units!
**If anyone is successfully using the online or CD version of the textbook and doesn't need their paper one anymore, please bring it in; I have 2 students who have no computers and no books either.**
Also in class today:  Described motions that were represented by sketches of position - time graphs and velocity-time graphs.  You'll see more of these tomorrow and next week.
Today after our warm-up and after correcting people's homework (plotting graphs), we calculated slopes and equations for the lines you plotted last night. 
Our position - time graph showed us a curve: changing slope, which indicated changing speed (cm/s was the unit for that line's slope).  A line drawn between two points on this graph shows delta x over t, or average velocity over that time period.  (you already have that equation in your notes)

The position - time^2 graph shows the same data, but it looked straight.  This we could work with: we calculated its slope and gave an equation for the line.  We got a new (weird) unit of cm/s^2 by taking delta x / t^2.  Later we found this value to be 1/2 of acceleration and made a new equation for the line:
delta x = 1/2 a t^2

The velocity - time graph's slope shows how much velocity changes per second, also with that weird unit of cm/s^2.  The slope of this line gave us another new equation;
a = delta v / t

Tomorrow we'll have more practice and hopefully a practical measurement of an object that accelerates as well.

9-20 today in class

3 graphs - homework tonight:  Just get the graphs complete (number axes properly, label, units, title) as homework tonight; we'll do analysis tomorrow during class.  The graphs should be: Position - time (many people did this graph in class on Friday so it should look familiar), Position - t^2 (you will plot the x-axis as usual, going up to 25 s^2, and your data points will be plotted wherever they lie.  They will get more and more spaced out, that's ok.  Velocity - MidPoint Time will use the last two columns of your data table (again, this graph should look familiar - several groups plotted this on Friday with their wheel & axle data)
get a data table here

Also today:
Handed back lab journals (and more were turned in - grades will all be smoothed out tonight)
Discussion of how to act with a substitute teacher and Freeman's promise not to bore you next time - tougher work.
Speed vs. velocity notes  (we did this in a T-chart)
Speed:  how fast....   ........... uses distance    ........................ speed = distance/time   ... s = d/t  
Velocity: speed & direction.... uses displacement (change in position)..... v=displacement/time  v = (delta)x /t
Speed is always positive
Velocity may be + or -, depending on the frame of reference.
BOTH:  share units:  cm/s, m/s, mph, km/h and the two are often the same when describing motion.

9-19 sweet video huh?

Today Mr. F. was home sick. Will be back tomorrow. Grades were updated twice today; once with some homework and our exam, and a second time with lab journal grades.  If your grade just took a turn for the worse, it could be for the test - you all saw grades on the test by last Wednesday and how they affected your grades.  If your test was ok but now your grade looks rough, check that you have a grade for your lab journal; I have several no-names and about 50 that weren't turned in.  These will be full credit, don't worry; just get them in to me asap.
Graphs were on the board today for you to check your own answers to weekend homework; we'll get back to discussing those and other related motions tomorrow.
Hope you enjoyed the terrifically awful video today and got at least some review out of it and the back side of the worksheet.  Those who were gone today; your homework is to work p. 894#1-10 except for #4 and 6.
See you Tuesday!

9-16 Today in class

Wheel & axle lab: Changing speed / velocity. Weekend HMWK: see below.
Today groups represented motion of the wheel and axle different ways, mostly:
*motion maps (showed increasing distance between points)
*distance/time graphs showing cm on the y-axis and seconds on the x-axis (graphs should have curved upward, showing a changing slope (slope = speed or velocity in this case)
*torn-tape distance/time graphs showing a similar upward curve
*speed or velocity/time graphs showing the change in position per second on the y-axis. Most of these had a line of best fit showing a gradual, but steady, increase in speed.
*torn-tape graphs with pieces side to side showed mostly the same trend
*data tables representing the distance at succeeding intervals of time, which were used to find instantaneous speed at the beginning and end of the activity as well as an average over the whole event.

HMWK: work to answer #1-7 of the graph questions on the back of last night's practice sheet. #1&5 are asking for labels such as "time" to go on the axes of the graphs. (both x axes are time, but the y axes should be different - see the units)
Units for #2 and #6 are different - see y axis units again
#7 is tough; recall what you chose as the y-axis label and this should make things go smoothly.

Next week we will discuss this idea of changing velocities, name it, and work lots of math and graphs around it; the concept is crucial for our first real Science topics next unit; Forces

9-15 hmwk answers

I gave most classes answers to the "homework" - the practice sheet that accompanies your book homework tonight. Sadly, I gave the WRONG answer to #3 to some classes. See below:
1. 130 km/h
2. 2 m/s
3. 240,000 km
4. 4.07 s
5. 86 m
6. 34,545 s
PLEASE try these problems out for yourself and try to do some of the back side tonight.
When I ask for labels, I am asking for things like: speed, position, distance, mass, time, volume, etc. on the x or y axis. We'll discuss the graph pictures tomorrow.

9/14

HMWK: p. 879#21-26. Due FRIDAY.

Today in class, we worked on ranking tasks - some hard stuff - and had good discussions about speed and velocity. Some classes finished work on a graphing worksheet and had time to work on homework, and 4th period finally saw their exams (won't go live on Edline until at least Friday - lab grades will be entered as well so your grade isn't as hammered by one bad score.)

Tomorrow we'll practice working with algebra and solving speed/distance/time type problems like in your homework. I'll also explain Friday's lab / activity so we'll have plenty of time to do the lab and present results on Friday. We'll have an official lab (in your journal) again next week.

9/12 and 9/13 in class:

Most classes got to look over exam 1 (4th hour will see tomorrow)
Other activities: Scientific Method - growing/graphing WS (discussed answers - keep as notes / guidelines/review)
Ranking Tasks - handed out packets and started the first one in class - more to come this week.
Discussion of homework answers and speed/velocity
Wednesday and Thursday - more ranking tasks using motion maps, and practice with speed, velocity, and graphing.
Tomorrow I'll be posting some homework problems for practice that are due on Friday.

Today in class

HMWK due Tuesday: Read p. 70-75; work problems: p.72#1,2, p. 75#1-3,5-7.
Today classes had time to finish yesterday's test, and I re-taught the density of water and the idea that mL are the same volume as cm^3. (that was apparently taught poorly by me - most people struggles with or missed it - that question will be curved off the exam)

Exams will be handed back Monday, with answer keys and discussion of how to have avoided mistakes, best answers, etc.
**** Most students have a 100% A in this class right now. This is because I have scored homework assignments based on effort put in; the only points missed were for late work, answers not attempted that should have been, or work which was way off course from expected after activities in class. Test and lab grades are big in this class; they're where I ask students to perform, to prove beyond any doubt that they understand material and concepts from class. The majority of your grade, therefore, comes from these regions, and some of you may be in for a tough wake-up call.
If you need extra help to keep up, I am here daily after school. For more than a few questions, I also have many sophomores who excelled in my class last year and need A+ program tutoring hours. See me to arrange a study schedule and I will supervise tutoring (for any of your classes, really) in my room or another teacher's class.

Tomorrow we'll work with motion maps some more, preparing for our next lab on Tuesday.

9-7 Exam Day

Today's exam went pretty smoothly; I made some changes to last year's version, so I admittedly cut 2nd hour a bit short.

Tomorrow I'll allow some time for folks to finish and we'll take a non-graded multiple choice assessment in classes that didn't get to it today.

We'll also begin working on some real Physics; using skills you've (hopefully) acquired to analyze motion.

Tuesday - Exam Tomorrow

Study!  Sorry for the late post today.  Remember, I will be assessing your understanding of what I tried to teach in the following ways:
Unit 1 Assessment categories: (I expect you to perform well in all of the following areas)
1. Why is SI important/valuable? What are drawbacks of SI? (vs other measurements)
Use SI prefixes to represent quantities and convert between measurements:
2. Express (some measurement of an item) in: a. (some SI unit) b. (different prefix, same unit) 
3. Determine the density of the object provided to you. Relate this item’s density/ characteristics relative to others.
4. Use tools to measure real items accurately and precisely, using appropriate SI units.
5. Design or critique an experiment using your understanding of science and experimentation.
6. Use density values to determine the volume or mass when one is unknown. Ex. Find mass of 1 liter of water.
7. Represent results from an experiment visually with an appropriate, correct, complete graph.
8. Use a graph to interpret data, explain observations, and predict other events.  (use slope to interpret and predict values outside the graph)
Review your notes and your returned homework; practice getting slope (and units) from a line of best fit.  See last week's post for instructions if you get lost.

September 1st

Today we graphed.  Pretty much took a step back and re-did yesterday's lesson much more slowly; I found that I ran over many of you with the graph analysis yesterday. 
Working with data that I gave to you yesterday, we did lines of best fit, found slope of those lines, and made equations to represent the lines in y = mx+b fashion, used units in our slope and y-intercept, and tried out a different x value to see what the y value came out as.  Much more successful this time. 
Tonight:  Find the slope and equation for the other line (LBS) - many of you have already done so and just can spend some time studying for Wednesday's exam 1.