High School Physics
Countryside students typically take our physics course in their sophomore or junior year.
As soon as students have successfully completed Algebra I, they will be prepared to take this challenging but terrific course that will surely answer the question; "why do I need to know algebra?"
Find a course syllabus on the following button. Please excuse formatting issues, embedded documents have a mind of their own. I'll get it sorted out.
As soon as students have successfully completed Algebra I, they will be prepared to take this challenging but terrific course that will surely answer the question; "why do I need to know algebra?"
Find a course syllabus on the following button. Please excuse formatting issues, embedded documents have a mind of their own. I'll get it sorted out.
Check out our Bull's Eye Lab, below, for a great example of physics, and physics students, at work.
The Bull's Eye Lab
I love this lab! We actually do this using various scales of equipment and environment.
In the example above, students construct a ramp and a track (from humble materials) to launch a billard ball toward a target. This is seen from a second story balcony overlooking our lunchroom. There is no trial and error allowed. Students are permitted one launch based on a calculation of horizontal velocity and acceleration due to gravity from a known height. We complete this activity early in the school year before we've introduced air resistance or coefficients of friction so we do allow for some imprecision by using a one peck basket as a target. Still, students do not find this a simple task and the example above is a degree of succuss that we find gratifying.
In the example above, students construct a ramp and a track (from humble materials) to launch a billard ball toward a target. This is seen from a second story balcony overlooking our lunchroom. There is no trial and error allowed. Students are permitted one launch based on a calculation of horizontal velocity and acceleration due to gravity from a known height. We complete this activity early in the school year before we've introduced air resistance or coefficients of friction so we do allow for some imprecision by using a one peck basket as a target. Still, students do not find this a simple task and the example above is a degree of succuss that we find gratifying.
Bull's eye 2016
Well; members from the class of 2016 earned this large scale effort at one of my favorite lab activities. And have we got ideas about next year...