This Week in AP Physics
We will complete our work with unit 1 this week. Guided reading is due on Monday, and all homework problems, listed at the end of the lesson plan document, is due on Tuesday. In addition, your lab report for Lab 1 – Uniform vs. Accelerated Motion must be uploaded to TurnItIn.com by Tuesday to avoid a score deduction. (The TurnItIn.com class ID is 6936815, and the password is Einstein.) Our test will be Thursday. During the week we will also work on our second lab, Lab 2 – Acceleration due to Gravity.

This Week in Physics
Please take notes on Podcast 4 – Slope of Position vs. Time Equals Velocity for Monday if you have not already done so. On Monday 3rd period will do a graph analysis activity (that 6th period did on Friday,) and then both classes will do assignment 1 in class…so bring your books! 🙂 The day after we finish assignment 1, expect a quiz over the topics covered in podcasts 1-4. When announced, please take notes on Podcast 5 – Introduction to Acceleration. After we discuss that podcast, we will do assignment 2 in class, followed by a quiz the next day. If time permits, we will also get to Podcast 6 – Acceleration Signs vs. Velocity Signs, after which we will do a quick activity and another assignment/quiz combo. 🙂 NOTE: You should be working on your lab reports for the Analysis of Uniform Motion Lab. The lab reports are due next Tuesday, September 17.

This Week in Astronomy
We will take our star mapping quiz in the planetarium on Monday and then discuss what you discovered in Podcast 2 – Celestial Equator and Celestial North Pole as we begin to examine the appearance of the sky at different latitudes. We will spend the early and middle part of the week practicing drawing meridian diagrams for different latitudes, and then we will take a quiz over this skill. Following this we will turn our attention to the northern sky specifically and examine how its appearance changes as our latitude changes. Podcast 3 – Circumpolar Stars will aid your work.

Cool Science of the Week
On Earth we have terrifically beautiful solar eclipses when our moon blocks out the sun. Have you ever imagined what solar eclipses might look like on other planets? Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos, and here is what happened when the Curiosity Rover captured photographs of Phobos passing in front of the sun on August 17. Notice that Phobos doesn’t cover all of the sun the way our moon does. Think about relative sizes! 🙂