Day 4 (Thursday) – Practice Worksheets: Scientific Notation, Significant Figures, Percent Error, Accuracy & Precision

Day 5 (Monday) – Quiz – graded in class.  Do corrections for homework.  Notes on describing motion.  Lab – Motion of a ball down a ramp.

Day 6 (Thursday Jan 26) – Measurement Quiz 2 – a quiz over similar material as that on day 5.  Discussed Semester Project and handed out summary & due dates.  Continued on with lab from Day5.  Readings: Complete reading chapter 2. Notes

Day 7 (Monday Jan 30) – Finish lab from Day 5.  Finalize semester project topic. Discussed dimensional analysis (converting inches to nanometers, and similar things), types of physics (classical, relativity, and quantum), acceleration, and the EE button. Notes for all of it can be found here. Notes

This is the start of Unit 2 – Forces & Acceleration

Day 8 (Thursday Feb 2) – Review dimensional analysis.  Complete worksheet.  Newtons 3 laws of motion. Homework: read chapter 3 in textbook. Notes

Day 9 (Monday Feb 6) – Practice dimensional analysis, create notecard, take Dimensional analysis quiz. Notes

Day 10 (Thursday Feb 9) – Graphing Practice, Review Newtons Laws of Motion. Notes

Day 11 (Monday Feb 13) – Review definition of forces (push/pull).  Forces can be contact forces (push / pull) or field forces.  Gravity acts even at a distance.  Newtons law of universal gravitation: Fg = Gm1m2 / r-squared.  Motion Graphing Packet. We did a lab about Newtons 2nd Law:  Force of Gravity Lab .

Day 12 (Thurs Feb 16) – Students who were in my advisory group or in study hall gave presentations on Wednesday for their research projects.  Students who were NOT in those groups gave them today.  Students were asked to summarize their project goals, how their first build went, how they tested the device and analyze its performance in comparison to the goals.  All of the above should be written in their lab notebooks following good notebook techniques.  Following presentations students were given an open-book, take-home exam covering motion & graphing.

Day 13 (Monday Feb 20) – Review of graphs we started last Monday.  The slope of a mass vs. Force graph is Newtons / kg = m/s/s (Acceleration!).  Everybody should get a slope near 9.8 m/s/s.  Also discussed Science Research project.  Round 2 focuses on demonstrating improvement in design, documentation, data collection & analysis.  Students have until this Wednesday to make improvements to Round 1 on their projects.  Completed Round Two – Planning Document in class.

Day 14 (Thursday Feb 23) – Correct take-home exam.