Category: Physics

All schools need to run fire drills to comply with local laws, and to practice ‘just in case’ (when I as at Berkeley HS, we did have a ‘case’). Some do it well, others not so well. Today was a drill at my new school, Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory, and I would give my school an A (OK, maybe a...

All  done with the Bouncing Ball lab, getting the hallway ready for the constant velocity buggy lab. Eight signs on the wall so students know where to start, which direction they are going, and if they are in positive or negative land. Every year you learn something new, and the signs on the wall are this year’s addition.

Three years ago my school switched to 9th grade physics, and I’m teaching the last year of ‘first year’ senior physics (since next year all seniors will have taken physics as 9th graders). Today we had a bit of a traffic jam as freshmen and seniors both met to drop balls 🙂

Today my regular physics students conducted their ball drop test. Students mark where they predict the ball will bounce to. After my first day with this lab, I realized I needed a better sheet for them to mark on (I film each drop to get the ‘exact’ bounce height), so here’s a copy of the new prediction half-sheet I developed:...

OK, I didn’t take any photos today, just too busy helping students to remember. Today’s reflection: Don’t worry about spending too much time establishing good lab/classroom practices with your students. If you lead a student-centered class, it may be the first time they have really experienced that, and they need to learn the ropes. Today I didn’t get nearly as...

OK, I broke down and did a PowerPoint slideshow 🙂 I let my students know that I realized that I hadn’t provided enough instruction in what I was looking for in a whiteboard, then showed the slideshow. I then gave them time to update their whiteboards, and the improvement was dramatic!

Today my students collected data for the bouncy ball lab, then processed it and started on whiteboards. I have them using Desmos to plot their data (my fist time using this with a class), and it seems to be going well. Tomorrow will be our first whiteboard meeting!