Weekly Update Dec. 17th-20th

It's midterm week. On Monday and Tuesday we will be reviewing material from the entire semester, from dimensional analysis to energy conversions. Students will have a review packet due on Tuesday. Also due on Tuesday will be the roller coaster project Technical Report packet.

The midterm schedule is different for Freshman Experience students as compared to the rest of the school. On Wednesday, students will take their D block midterm followed by their C block midterm, both in the regular 65 minute class time. That will be followed by a 115 minute final in their 4th block/elective class. On Thursday, they will have the same schedule in the morning, B block midterm followed by A block, and then we will be showing a movie for the last period of the day.

I will be holding tutorial every night this week after school until 4:30 or later as needed. It is recommended that any and all students see me after school who need help completing their review and/or roller coaster project. Have a good week and a safe holiday season.

Chaperones needed for Dec. 11th and 13th - Tuesday and Thursday

All the freshman physics classes will be building model roller coasters for our end of semester project. All four of my physics classes will be in one place at one time (either in the gym or at the REC). All of the freshman teachers will be helping with this project, but we are asking for help from some parents to be chaperones for this event. The event happens on Tuesday, December 11th and Thursday, December 13th from 8:30 AM until 2 PM. Even if you can help for part of the day, we would appreciate any help you can provide. Please e-mail me (bboettcher@csdecatur.net) if you are interested in helping.

Thank you.

Grade Reports on Tuesday

Students received progress reports today from their other teachers, but will not receive one from me until Tuesday. They will be taking a re-quiz on Monday and will have a new grade from that for Tuesday so expect to see them then. I had problems with my grading program on Thursday night so I was not able to update grades when I had hoped. I hope to input more recent grades tomorrow (Saturday) so you can check the "parent portal" on Sunday and see them for sure. More about next week, coming soon.

Weekly Update Nov. 26th - 30th

This week students will be working on the second part of their energy conservation lab. They will be using equations for kinetic and potential energy to analyze the motion of a marble on a "roller coaster". This will be an important topic as they complete their semester project that will ask them to work in a group to create a 2 meter long marble roller coaster.

The quiz we took week before last will be handed back this week and most students will make corrections on Wednesday. They will be able to retake this quiz to replace their previous grade. Some students still have to make some retakes from the last test, so make sure students have scheduled a time to review with me and are ready for the retake when it is time.

Weekly Update Friday, Nov. 16th

The recent on-line assignment has increased traffic and awareness of the class blog. I would like to establish a habit of giving a weekly update on Fridays for the rest of the year. This is a tall order for me, but I know students will benefit from having consistent reminders and updates that may have been overlooked during class.

The purpose of the weekly reminder is to highlight the key aspects of the past week of class and to look ahead to the activities or challenges the next week may provide.

From the past week, students had the treat of traveling to the Carter Center with Mr. Billingsley and Miss Shepherd. This gave us one less day to review the pulley lab and analyze the data, but we worked in class to make sense of how the pulley works. The end of the week was a reality check for us all as we tried to explain how the pulley provides a mechanical advantage and how it does work by taking a quiz.

This next week will take us into a new topic of study as we move toward calculating potential and kinetic energy. We have two days, over which we will be reading the textbook to gain key information about types of energy, and we will be using a new piece of lab equipment that demonstrate the physics involved in a roller coaster.

Air Track momentum transfer simulation

Click here for the Air Track simulator.
http://www.sciencejoywagon.com/explrsci/media/airtrack.htm

Homework 11/9/07

This week we made a word wall during our lessons on momentum and movement (click on the photo above to make it bigger and easier to read). The right side of the word wall is filled with physics terms that relate to momentum. The left side shows some of the key terms for movement that we learned in class. For your assignment PICK ONE OF THE FOLLOWING and e-mail Mr. Boettcher with your response:

Option 1: Pick 2 of the physics terms and 2 of the movement terms from the board and connect each of them to something you did in class during our movement lessons on momentum. You should give at least one complete sentence for each word.

Option 2: Most of the physics terms are congruent with at least one movement term. Write a sentence that describes how a certain physics term relates to a movement term. Do this for THREE pairs of words. For example, I think the word "space" in movement is like "mass" in physics because anything with mass has matter which is positive space.

Option 3: Watch the video of the momentum study and describe in complete sentences:
*how they showed one moment of no momentum
*how they showed velocity affecting momentum
*how they showed mass affecting momentum
In this option you are encouraged to use "action" words like 'slide', 'roll', or 'bend'.

This assignment is due as an e-mail by Wednesday, November 14th.

Homework for Friday, September 21st

Progress reports for the first 6-weeks were sent home for all classes today. Signed grade reports are DUE ON WEDNESDAY (9/26).

Remember that any blanks are assignments that still need to be turned in. The blanks are not counted on the current report, but they will soon be incomplete and counting as a zero. It is true that some "zeros aren't permitted," but failure to do an assignment in a reasonable time frame will count as a zero! Please turn in missing assignments by the 9 week report card, October 12th.

I'm taking suggestions for a new poll question. Please comment on this post if you have any ideas.

Lab Report Questions & Comments

If you have any questions about your lab report click the "comments" link at the bottom of this message to leave a comment. I will answer the comment with an e-mail or another comment. Check back here for the answer to your comment. Also, feel free to e-mail me and I will be able to read and answer your question via e-mail. Have a great weekend!

The ultimate lab procedures

Unlocking the iPhone

If you want to see a list of procedures that has been making waves, and making one college freshman a celebrity (he even has his own wikipedia entry), check out the steps on this blog.

Fun with Dimensional Analysis

Fun with Dimensional Analysis

A number of dimensional analysis problems are shown on this page. This page has lots of text, but shows how useful D.A. really is when you are not using conventional units to solve problems.

Welcome to our blog...

Welcome students to Decatur High School and welcome to the blog. This is where you will find some of the postings I'll talk about in class. You will also see me go to this website on my ACTIV Board. You will likely be reading this for the first time while sitting in my classroom. So, again I say, welcome!

Notice the links to the right, they will be changing over the coming days, but they are there for you to access at any time. Your first chance to excel will be to comment on this post by clicking the "comment" link at the bottom of the posting. You can comment about how the first day or week of class was for you, or comment on something physics related that you think you saw today. I will receive an e-mail for every comment you make, so please post only once, thank you.

Do not forget to bookmark this page on any computer you use (even at the school). Good luck in all your classes during these first days back.

-Mr. Boettcher