The End

Due to schedule constraints next week, it looks like this will be the last time I was able to be at Ypsilanti High School for the partnership program, so this will be my last post about it. This was also the last day for seniors, and unexpectedly a half-day - teachers are given the other half of the day to work on taking stuff off of the walls, and packing up, since there will be a lot of renovations going on over the summer.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the first-hour physics students, since the half-day was the later classes (although in the morning). I did get to visit with one of Mr. Ambrose's afternoon chemistry classes, and I was in Ms. Colwell's algebra class. Her students were working on factoring polynomials, and they were actually pretty diligent for a half-day/last day for seniors/day before a holiday weekend. Some of them were having trouble, so I showed them how I handle difficult polynomials - set up a table of the factors of the constant term and go through them to see which one works. Given only a few possible factors for the kinds of numbers they're seeing, this isn't very time-consuming, and it helps when you can't see things right away. I wished them all good luck, as well as Ms. Colwell.

As I think back on the year - on what I expected, and what I experienced - a few things come to mind. First, I've got a much greater appreciation for high school teachers. It's a tough job. Second, I was surprised that there don't seem to be any books of "typical labs". There are books teachers can buy with worksheets that they can photocopy and use in their classes, but if there are books of labs - instructions and lab sheets for students - no one seems to have them. If I had known this up front, then before starting the program I might have tried to work on some ideas for labs. During the year, it's difficult sometimes to plan things "on the fly". Third, I was interested to see the ways that it's possible to connect with students. Sometimes, a chance comment about an experience of mine would tie in to something that they had dealt with - often when least expected. Fourth, it was great to see that the students really liked to see practical applications of what they learned, since that was something that we as Teaching Fellows are capable of bringing to the classroom.

It's been a really interesting year, and the partnership program is a great one. Although I won't be able to participate next year, I look forward to reading the posts by the students at Michigan who will be participating, and I wish them the best of luck.

Cedar Point!

The field trip to Cedar Point was very tiring, but a lot of fun. Mr. Ambrose and I carpooled, while his students who were going rode the bus with Ms. Jones' physics students. When we got there, the students started out by getting the work done so they could concentrate on having fun after lunch. For their first activity, they had to try to find the height of the Space Spiral using their sextent - looking at its top, getting an angular measurement, then pacing off a particular distance and taking another measurement. We discovered that the sectant was difficult to use to get accurate results - while they did get a pretty good result, it took a number of different tries, and was very touchy. Small errors in the angular measurement could result in large errors in the result, which was an important point. The photos below show Mr. Ambrose and the students using the sextant, pacing off distances (and calibrating their pacing with a tape measure), and doing the data recording and calculations.

The students analyzed several other rides as well - the carousel (circular motion measurements and calculations), the Demon Drop (free-fall), the Wicked Twister, and their choice of one of the park's roller coasters (energy and kinematic equations). Of course, once the analysis was done, it was time for fun, and they went on quite a few rides just to enjoy them - including some that were a little much for me, though I did go with them on the Demon Drop, a few of the roller coasters, the carousel, and one of those rides that spins you around really fast.

I've got a lot of pictures, more than I can reasonably post here. I'll put the rest of them on CTOOLS for anyone else in the program who wants them, and I've already burned a set of CD's for Mr. Ambrose and for the students - I'm sure they'll want to have them as a memento of their trip.

Upcoming Field Trip

In Mr. Ambrose's physics class, they're now covering electric potential, preparing to do a little bit with circuits. They're also preparing for a field trip which some of them are taking - a trip to Cedar Point on Monday. I've been invited me to join them, so Mr. Ambrose and I will be carpooling down there, and the students will be on the bus with physics students from the other physics classes (taught by a different teacher). It should be a lot of fun - I've just put new batteries in my camera, so I should be able to get one or two pictures of students using homemade accelerometers on amusement park rides. Watch this blog for a few good photos... if all goes well with the camera, I'll post pictures and a summary of the trip sometime next week.

In Ms. Colwell's class, they were working on a review sheet for an upcoming test - they're having a test on trigonometry next Tuesday. Ms. Colwell mentioned that she'd like to take a field trip, if there was something that would be both fun for the students and relevant, and I thought that perhaps a planetarium trip would be suitable, if someone could explain how trigonometry has been used for celestial navigation. I'm going to investigate the possibility and see if there's anything suitable at U of M - even if it doesn't work out for this year (time is rapidly running out), it might make a great trip for her classes next year. I'm sure there are lots of great things at U of M that would make good field trips for students - maybe someone could make a list of them, and supply that to our partner teachers. Not only would it make it easier for them to plan field trips to the university, it might spark some ideas on their part for programs or trips.

Starting to wind down...

The school year is winding down for Ypsilanti High, and the teachers are planning on what material they need to finish up for the year. In Mr. Ambrose's physics class, they're going to be doing electric potential, capacitance, and circuits next - they had a test today over electric charge and electric fields. I've got an idea for an interesting lab - I talked to Mr. Ambrose about it, and he likes the idea, so I'll make sure it'll work and then we can look at getting the necessary supplies. If it does work, I'll describe it in a blog entry, and post the handout sheet on CTOOLS.

In Ms. Colwell's class, they've gotten to the Law of Sines and the Law of Cosines. Most of them seem to be doing pretty well with trigonometry, despite the fact that they're distracted and anxious for the end of the school year. Most of the seniors I've talked to have a countdown calendar, and they're really anxious for their graduation - understandable!

I'm starting to give some thought to what I'll do on the last day I'm in the classroom. I'd like to leave them with some kind of memory of that last day - not sure what yet. But I have a few weeks yet to think about it.

Bridge Pictures!

Here are the pictures from the bridge-testing day... I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

Just a few weeks to go...

There are only a few weeks left for seniors - about five weeks, as I recall, though if you ask them, they can tell exactly how many days they have left! Some of them are getting restless and it seems harder for them to settle down and pay attention. I can certainly sympathize - I remember what it was like when I was a senior - the weather was warm, an exciting future beckoned, and it was difficult to keep in mind that high school wasn't quite over yet.

In physics, Mr. Ambrose is teaching them electricity. Some of the material is difficult, but he's giving them a variety of harder and easier problems, so they can work their way into the hard stuff. Even though some of them grumbled a bit at first about the bridge project, they were asking for a new design project, so we're going to see what kind of an electric design project we can come up with - perhaps something where they make resistors, or capacitors, and put them into a simple circuit. It has to be complex enough to be challenging, but simple enough to get done in the remaining class time.

In Ms. Colwell's class, they're starting to get into trigonometry. Some of them seem to be picking up on it easily, but others aren't quite comfortable yet with our friends sine, cosine, and tangent. As usual, they wanted to know what this stuff is good for. One use, naturally, is in physics, with vectors. I also mentioned that you can use it anytime you're looking at angles - for example, if you want to know if you can get a piece of furniture through a doorway and perhaps around a corner. I'll give some thought to it, and see if I can come up with a few other good examples of trig that would be interesting and connect it to their lives.

Bridge testing

Well, today was bridge-testing day in Mr. Ambrose's class. All of the students' bridges passed - all held at least the specified two pounds! Most held more. First, we tested Mr. Ambrose's bridge; it started to crack with about 1.5 kg on it (which is a between 3 and 4 pounds). Then, we went through the students' bridges. Some just wanted the test weight on it; others wanted to keep putting on more to see how much it would hold. They seemed to be having fun, even those who hadn't been too enthusiasitic in the beginning. One bridge COULDN'T be destroyed with the weights available - we ran out of weights, and the stack was getting unstable, but the bridge didn't even visibly bend.

After testing the bridges, I put most of them onto the balance to see what their mass was. The heaviest was still under 20 grams in mass. We gathered back together as a class, and I pointed out that by using physics knowledge, they were able to make bridges that would hold many times their own weight, and contrasted that to early bridges, which were made large and massive since the people building them didn't know how to design them to be lighter. It seems like they learned something, and they had fun, so I'd call the project a success.

I did take my camera with, but the batteries died. Fortunately, Mr. Ambrose had his camera and took pictures; as soon as I get them from him, I'll post them on CTOOLS and perhaps put one or two on the blog. I should have them next week.