Tuesday, May 15
Physics: We reviewed for the exam on Thursday. It’s super nice to have two days to review instead of the usual one. We had much deeper discussions and were able to really talk about the subjects instead of being focused on trying to rip through everything in 40 minutes.
Honors Physics: Over half my class is gone for the AP Calc test, so I started talking a bit about tubes open at one end and how to find the speed of sound using a hollow tube in water. The kids left are not the ones who are usually super active in class, so it was really fun to work with them in a small group. I did demos with the pipe and tuning forks, a music box thingie to show forces resonance, whirly tubes, my pan pipe, and two bottles of coke plus a couple wine glasses filled with water. After I did the demos, I asked them how they could use these things to discover the speed of sound in air, which they did quite neatly, and then just let them play for a while. Whacking the coke bottles with the mallet and finding the resonant lengths in the pipes were the favorites. Watching students be absolutely flabbergasted by a singing wine glass was pretty spectacular to watch.
More kids trickled in from the AP over the course of the second period, so I let them rest a bit and work on a project that’s due next week to keep it calm and not make them come in and immediately try to process new information.
AP Physics: My entire morning class was in the AP Calc exam, so I cancelled the afternoon class as well, so I have some time this afternoon to grade papers and research stuff to buy for robotics. Woo!
Val Monticue 