Category: Physics

Grading tends to be the biggest time consuming task for teachers. For those teachers who want students to complete lab write-ups that truly reflect discover and learning, providing feedback on labs can be an even more daunting task. This year I started using a system that has significantly sped up grading the mechanics of the lab, allowing me to spend...

Today as a finals review “warm up” (although it ended up taking the whole period) I presented the students with four beakers of water: One with ice, one at room temp, one on a hot plate “low” (about 37C) and one boiling. I used Logger Pro to show the four temperatures on a projector screen (a sensor in each beaker)....

On the Physics Modeling email list there has been a discussion of finding tangents to a parabolic curve using an Excel spreadsheet. The primary way we use this is when students graph position vs time of a ball rolling down a ramp. Students discover that the relationship can be modeled as a parabolic equation, x = at2+bt+c. If they can...

I have updated my Analyzing data using your TI-83 or TI-84 calculator handout. New features include: Using the Table features to have the calculator solve for variables. Using Draw to calculate the slope of the tangent to a curved line. Standard letter size (8.5×11 inches) for easier printing. You can download a copy here: TI-graphing-calculator-tips-for-science.pdf. It is in PDF which...