Conceptual Physics

During this semester of conceptual physics we learned a lot. I mean a lot. A full year curriculum packed into one semester. These circumstances were clearly not ideal that didn't stop us from learning plenty about physics and energy in particular. Energy can be found everywhere in life and is an important physics concept to understand because of so. Specifically kinetic and potential energy stood out to me.

An example of potential energy is a truck sitting at a top of a hill. Though the truck is not moving its potential energy is the amount of energy it would have were it to roll down. Once it rolled down, this would be an example of kinetic energy because it is energy in motion. This can be important to know if someone decides to take physics further and information like this helps expand someones mind while relating it to real life scenarios. I'm focusing on potential energy. That is the amount of energy an object theoretically could have if it to were be put in motion. To find an objects potential energy you use the equation: PE=mgh (Potential Energy=(mass)(gravity)(height)).

I was very worried about my education this school year. The year before I had a very hard time with the sudden change to at home schooling and was lucky to catch a break then. This year I knew that it mattered and learning over zoom while it wasn't ideal, I still managed to learn a lot and exemplify some of the 6 C's of Learning. More then any thing I became better at critical thinking along with collaboration. We had very little opportunities to work with others effectively so I learned to take full advantage of that time, for example with our final presentation on hydroelectricity. I also became a better critical thinker because of the hardships I had to teach myself many things and keep myself up because there was no teacher over my shoulder to help me do so. I believe the way my teacher gave us lots of room and time to operate helped me achieve these and grow as a student and grow as a person.

Though there was good to come out of our not so good situation, I still had my hardships. I had a very hard time focusing during my classes over zoom because I would be half asleep in class or completely asleep. Throughout the year I improved on this and still am becoming better at getting up and being ready. I am also still working on getting in all of my assignments on time. I will continue to work on these as the weight of doing well on my work becomes heavier and heavier. This class specifically has allowed me to identify these things and given me the chance to help myself and continue to work on them.