T 1/2 lab, new unit, Cumulative Exam May 8/9, optional assignments

Remember, optional assignments (presentations) must be done the first class period next week!!!  See older posts for details.
Also, here's another:
Optional Assignment:  Alpha Decay lab simulation.  Due May 7.

Next week most classes will start with our official half-life lab (not getting to it this week as I planned for most classes), discuss Marie Curie and a bit more with radioactivity (presentations), have a brief quiz to check for understanding, and then move rapidly into our next to last unit of the year, Earth's Interior.
I did not assign any homework for this mini-unit except for labs and review of element names and symbols; here's a chance to catch up:  Next homework (assigning to classes after today) is to read p. 786-795, 801-806 (I will try to give you a chance to start in class) and work problems:  p. 790#1,2,3-5, p. 795# 1-6, and 805#2,3,6.
Nuclear Stability and decay notes here

If you want to work or read ahead, our next homework assignment after that will be to read 354-361, p. 361#1-9.
The optional assignment for this unit is here:

Optional Assignment: New Madrid Turns 200
This one is due May 9.

I also need to announce formally the date of our cumulative exam.  It will take place on May 8&9 (Wed. and Thurs.)
Main topics to study:
Electricity/Magnetism
Astronomy
(these two units you had official tests on - I will not use any new material on these - if you study your test corrections then you already have the answers)
Meteorology
Radioactivity
Earth's Interior

I am splitting the test into two days since there is a broad range of content and I will be gone at a conference both days (sorry, not my choice to be gone at the end of the year).

Our last unit will be exactly five days long and will be studying waves - general wave properties, then specifically EM waves (light) and mechanical (sound).  This should tie up many loose ends as we've had both types of waves interweaved in our study of Meteorology, Radioactivity, and Earth's Interior.  There will be only one homework assignment and the rest will be in-class lab activities and demonstrations.  I am still up in the air on whether to have a test; will be determined by individual classes' performance and participation I think.