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.

Back from Spring Break

Today, everyone was back from Spring Break, and a lot of people looked very tired - it's difficult to get back to waking up in the morning. Students have heard back from most of the colleges, it seems, and are making their decisions. One young man in Mr. Ambrose's physics class is going to Hampton, in Virginia. A young lady in the same class is trying to decide among Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. It sounds like the choice will come down to either Yale or Princeton for her - all are well-respected schools, of course. Of course, quite a few are going to Eastern. In that class, no one has selected the University of Michigan, but in Ms. Colwell's advanced algebra class, there are several juniors who have said they might consider Michigan.

In both classes, they were reviewing. Mr. Ambrose is giving a physics test, on light, tomorrow; Ms. Colwell is giving a quiz tomorrow on logarithms. The students all needed the review - many people forgot a lot over the break.

On Friday, we'll be testing the bridges in physics. If I remember my camera, I'll get some pictures of them, and post them, either as part of the blog post or on CTOOLS.

Day Before Spring Break

Next week, Ypsilanti High will be on spring break. A lot of students are already gone, and most were having trouble concentrating. It looked like about half of Mr. Ambrose's physics class was there. They worked a bit on a review worksheet on light, and had time to work on their bridges. Most are coming along pretty well; during the week after break, we'll put the two-pound weight on them, and see if they hold. Mr. Ambrose built a bridge himself, and it holds a full kilogram (2.2 pounds) without breaking. A few of them were surprised to see that, but the point I want them to get is that it isn't how much material but how well it's used.

In Ms. Colwell's class, I gave the presentation I'd prepared on logarithms. I tried to keep their attention by asking questions - when talking about decibels of sound, I asked them how many have iPods (most). And, when talking about pH, I asked how many of them are taking chemistry. Most of them at least listened politely - they seem to like it when I give little presentations, especially since the short worksheet I put together to go with it takes the place of their normal warm-up assignment. And, since some of the questions are conceptual, there are no right or wrong answers to worry about.

I also spoke to Ms. Colwell about an idea I had for an activity - have them make up their own number system, similar to the imaginary numbers. Make a few definitions, then figure out what they lead to. I have to think a bit about how to make it structured enough to give them some direction, but unstructured enough to allow room for creativity and fun. And, she wants to think about where best to place it in the schedule. One of the things I'd like them to see is that math isn't a robotic enterprise, it's a creative one. This will take a little bit of time to figure out, and maybe the best time for it would be in early May - maybe when they're between units towards the end of the semester.