Embedded Files
HANDOUT # 15 (Oct 14): PowerPoint Presentation Momentum:
Fill-in numbers as we move through this!
This is a PowerPoint notes handout for student note taking during the presentation. The presentation reviews new material that came from Handout #14 (online reading and investigation of momentum).
It also helps greatly to explain the difference between elastic and inelastic collisions and the math backing up the conservation of momentum.
A recording of the presentation can be found in our Forces & Motion Support Videos 10-15. It's what we did in class.
HANDOUT # 14 (Oct 13 - 14): Momentum Organizer
Technically, this is a handout. But your #14 will be the notes you take from the following website:
Through the CK-12 website, students are introduced to momentum and conservation of momentum through text reading, simulations and activities found within the site. They are encouraged to take notes because there will not be a typical handout from their teacher introducing/explaining this topic. You can take notes on the handout or in your science notebook.
Start with the Text Reading section and move through the site to simulations and activities. You do not have to suffer the outrage of the momentum song unless it's the sort of thing that stirs your curiosity.
Watch the following videos:
The Physics Classroom - What is Momentum? (scroll down to find the 6:57 video)
Collisions by Let's Talk Science
Video link: Elastic collisions
Video link: Elastic collisions vs. Inelastic collisions.
Video link: Elastic collisions with bowling balls
HANDOUT # 13 (Oct 10): PowerPoint Presentation - Gravity:
The PowerPoint notes printout was a copy of the slides presented in class as a follow-up to their reading.
See Forces & Motion Review videos #8 & 9 for reinforcement of the law of inverse squares.
HANDOUT # 12 (Oct 9): Gravity Organizer
The gravity organizer is two-page handout for students to organize notes taken from text and online reading.
Online text reading --> CK-12
Exploratorium : Your Weight on Other Worlds
HANDOUT # 11 (Oct 8): PowerPoint Handout: Acceleration
DISCOVERY CHANNEL SKYDIVER: Students will watch a 3-minute Discovery Channel video that detailed a skydiver's descent from 10,000 feet to the ground and the forces acting upon her, the periods of acceleration, deceleration and constant speed (terminal velocity). A PowerPoint presentation breaks down the many important Students are given a copy of the notes version. This is a recording of the presentation seen in class.
Link to Discovery Channel video
HANDOUT # 10 (Oct 6-7): Contact Forces & Non-contact Forces [Read & Take Notes]
Handout #10 introduced students to contact forces: applied force, normal force, friction & air resistance, and three non-contact forces: gravity, magnetism and the electrostatic force.
Introductory video → Red Bull Stratos World Record Free Fall (2012) was shown to remind students (with dramatic effect) of the presence of air, and in this case, the force air resistance as it applies on falling objects. They were introduced to the concept of air resistance (drag) and terminal velocity, because falling objects actually have a speed limit due to the resistance of the air through which they fall. This is relatable to many students, especially those that have pulled off both the perfect dive and a belly-buster. To increase speed, a skydiver could position their fall in the shape of that perfect dive – while the belly-buster position would reduce speed due to increased air resistance.
a. Short Red Bull video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHtvDA0W34I
b. Longer Red Bull video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYw4meRWGd4
c. 1960 Col. Joe Kittinger's free fall from 100,000 feet. https://youtu.be/sbVQ33ujzFw
d. NASA's Space Place helps visualize Jupiter’s effect on our Sun. https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/barycenter/en/
e. Gravity Compilation: Crash Course Kid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwY6p-r_hyU
f. Coin Funnel Thingy: Visualizing large objects pressing down on the trampoline mat known as space-time. Massive objects (our sun) press down much more than less massive objects (planets). So, the eight planets travel around in different lanes within that bowl. The closer a planet is to our sun, the faster it needs to travel.
f. Coin Funnel Thingy: Visualizing large objects pressing down on the trampoline mat known as space-time. Massive objects (our sun) press down much more than less massive objects (planets). So, the eight planets travel around in different lanes within that bowl. The closer a planet is to our sun, the faster it needs to travel.
HANDOUT # 9 (Oct 3): Physics Check-up
This is a two-page handout for students to show an understanding of Newton's three laws of motion by writing their own examples of each law, They are also asked to explain inertia, velocity and acceleration. This is not a graded assignment -- just a check-up before our physics content gets more complicated.
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HANDOUT # 8 (Sep 30 - Oct 2): Lab Investigation: Newton's Three Laws of Motion [Graded assignment due October 3]
Students completed a two-day exploration of Newton’s three laws of motion via Handout #8 by moving in groups through seven hands-on stations set-up around the room.
Each station had students objects that would be set in motion. Having set those objects in motion, students would explain which one of Newton's three laws best described the object(s) in motion at a given station.
One last thing . . . Whisky Tango? HOW DID OUR STOMP ROCKET GO MISSING???
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HANDOUT # 7 (Sep 25-26): Newton's Laws of Motion Intro [Reading]
Critical handout for student mastery of physics as students are introduced to the definitions of force, inertia, velocity as a vector (speed + direction) and acceleration as a change in an object's velocity. It is vital that students understand these concepts before reviewing Newton's Three Laws of Motion. Students were asked to complete a graphic organizer of sorts on pages 5-8 of the handout.
1st Law of Motion: Video Link --> NASA should have caught this mistake by now!!!
2nd Law of Motion: Video link
3rd Law of Motion: Video link
The Secret Side of Sir Isaac Newton
Spanish version of handout.
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HANDOUT # 6 (Sep 25): Physics Intro [Reading]
Day 1 of Physics Unit
Students are asked to predict (on their own, not a group decision) the order in which three objects would hit the ground. The three were a 3,000-gram SpongeBob bowling ball, a 146-g lacrosse ball and a 3-g Ping Pong ball.
Handout #6 introduces students to physics as the study of how forces and energy interact with matter.
Each year we kick off the physics unit by watching the following videos: Conservation of Energy & Falling Objects
Spanish version of handout.
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HANDOUT # 5 (Sep 17-20): Feeling Pressured? [Graded assignment due September 23]
Students examined, illustrated and explained the contributing factors in the sudden and somewhat violent crushing of their soda can by air pressure. They didn't crush the cans. They allowed them to be crushed. Drum sticks were used in class to annoy Mr. Wright and/or simulate the changing pressures inside the can that eventually lead to its demise. We even recorded their drum sessions. See the Student Video section.
See the support videos 7 & 8 in the AIR, AIR PRESSURE & TEMPERATURE section. They should help answer any and all questions in the handout.
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HANDOUT # 4 (Sep 12-13): PowerPoint Notes Presentation: Thermal Expansion
Each student was given a paper copy of the slides shown in the PowerPoint presentation which (hopefully) reinforced student understanding of thermal expansion and the many ways we engineer for it (sidewalks, bridges need room to grow/shrink). This followed a day where each student experienced thermal expansion with the brass ball/hoop apparatus. Each student placed the brass ball on the open flame at Mr. Wright's lab table. This allowed for a rapid temperature increase and subsequent thermal expansion. After about 30 seconds in the flame, students tried to pass the ball back through its hoop.
Though its expansion cannot be detected with the human eye, students quickly recognized that the ball has indeed expanded because it was too large to pass back through its hoop. Students then plunged the hot brass ball into a beaker of water, which rapidly slowed down (cool down) the movement/vibrations of its particles thereby reducing the size. Following its plunge, the ball again fit easily through the hoop.
HANDOUT # 3 (Sep 9-10 ): Temperature Observations Lab [Graded assignment due Sep 12 ]
Students observed the different mixing rates of food coloring dropped in cold water vs. hot water. Each came to understand that temperature measures the average kinetic energy of the particles within a substance. Put another way, temperature measures how fast a substance’s particles are moving/vibrating. The higher an object’s temperature, the faster its particles are moving/vibrating. The concept of temperature is foundational to the physical sciences and plays a key role in student mastery of density, especially changing densities (warm air rises because it is less dense than its surrounding air). It is also helpful in explaining thermal expansion and the transfer of thermal energy (heat) among other concepts.
HANDOUT # 2 (Sep 16) - Air Pressure [Reading]
Yes, this handout is out of order.
Here on earth, air pushes into all things. So, it applies a force on objects. The force applied by air is called air pressure. Those students brave enough to sit in a trash bag and have the inside air vacuumed out can tell you how much air is slamming into us. For those that chose not to . . . the Shop Vac is still in our classroom!
Air pressure exerts (puts) a force of 14.7 pounds per square inch at sea level. If you think about your body’s total surface area (all those square inches), it’s obvious that there is an incredibly large amount of air pushing against you.
HANDOUT # 1 (Sep 7) - The Mass of Air [Reading]
We started the year by asking you to calculate the mass of the air in our classroom. Most students wrestled with the idea of trying to find the mass of something that can’t be felt. You can’t just put a box of air on a scale and write down its weight.
Air is made up of atoms/molecules just like you are. So, if you have mass, then air has mass.
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