Marshmallow Catapults

The description and rules were passed out on the day before break, but since I know about half of you weren't here that day, you can find the document under "Schedule --> January." We'll be launching the catapults on January 13th (next Friday). This is an indoor project, so insanely large catapults are not needed. The goal is to launch a regular sized marshmallow as close to 5 meters as you can.

We'll be starting Unit 6 on Monday which is about combining everything we've done to date. It's motion in 2 Dimensions which means projectiles (do the catapults make sense now?). We only have 9 days before the final, but we should be able to get through Unit 6 without much of a problem.

Results from Unit 5 were less than spectacular. Please understand that the goal is the demonstrate proficiency on the standards that have been laid out. If you weren't able to do that by the test, you're not a failure, you're just not done yet. You can reassess after the holiday break, and you will also see questions addressing those standards (as well as everything else) on the final exam.

A word of advice, if you're struggling, you need to take the initiative to stop the cycle of bad habits you've created for yourself. Stop breaking off into groups that you know to be unproductive. Stop sleeping in class. Starting coming after school for help. It's on you.

Unit 5 - here we come!

Unit 4 is in the books and we're fully immersed in the standards-based grading now. I converted lab report grades into proficiency scores as well as the Mousetrap Car results.

What we'll do for retakes is this: there will be short (~4 questions) quizzes focused on EACH standard. Take the reassessment quiz for the standards you choose with the goal being demonstration of progress toward mastery. Only struggled with Standard 6? Work on that one. Let;s just try to get it all taken care of before break.

The next building project will be the catapult and you'll work on it over break. The lab report for the Atwood Machine lab will be due Friday, the 16th.

Unit 4 Progress

I know it seems like we're moving really slowly as we talk about forces, but trust me: it will pay off in the near future. Everyone is making real and permanent connections about what forces are and how we can identify them which is fundamental to understanding dynamics and the nature of motion.

Please remember that is this is considered a lab-based class and as such, it's extremely difficult to be successful if you are not participating in labs and creating complete lab reports. In general, the worksheets are assigned to help you toward mastery, but do not account for much in terms of your grade, but lab reports still account for roughly 20% of your overall grade.

In this unit, there was a lab report for the mousetrap car and for the Force vs. mass lab. I will not accept any lab reports after the conclusion of the unit which should be sometime around 12/9.

Standards based grades

We're almost through Unit 3 and I wanted to make sure people understood the new grading system I'm testing out. You will NOT see grades for the quizzes appear in Zangle. Instead, your scores are being kept in a spreadsheet as indicators of your proficiency on the 15 standards that I've written for the unit. Proficiency scores range from 4 (expert) to 1 (not proficient). After the test, your overall proficiency score will be translated back into a number grade and that will be entered into Zangle.

Lab reports are still required and are counted separately from the standards. Please ask if you have any questions.

The unit 3 test is planned for Friday 11/4 and the Mousetrap Car building project will be assigned today (10/28) and is due on Monday 11/7.

Unit 3 Update

Everyone seems to be soaking up this acceleration stuff. Just remember, when we use the word "accelerate" in class, we do NOT mean "speed up," but instead we mean "change speed." If you are moving to the left (negative direction) and accelerating to the right (positive direction) then you must be slowing down.

We've been working on graphical/qualitative analysis so far, but now we'll shift into quantitative reasoning (using the equations we derived in class last week). Hopefully, the graphical basis will help, because this is typically when the class gets a little harder. Be sure to ask if you have any questions.

And a new building project will be assigned soon, so get ready.

Holy cow!

Every did very well on the last HW Quiz we had before the test, but I wasn't sure how the results would translate over to a major assessment. 4th hour had a class average of 80% on the test and 5th hour was at 77% which are both way higher than ANY class average I've ever had on a physics test.

We're starting Unit 3 which deals with non-constant motion. If Unit 2 felt easy, try to avoid getting complacent - the terminology we use and the concepts we'll discuss are going to get trickier.

First major quiz/test/whatever

So we're basically done with unit 1. By now, you should be comfortable graphing scatterplots from sets of data, identifying the relationship, creating a linearized graph, and writing the mathematical relationship (y=mx+b). You should also be familiar with the prefix and scientific notation conversions.

The quiz will be Tuesday and will cover all of that stuff plus some questions about the pendulum lab. After that, we start Unit 2 in which you will create a model for motion with constant velocity.