Week of May 5, 2014

We are getting close! As this is the first of two AP testing weeks, please let me know if you need me to be flexible with you about due dates. Preparing for all of your tests is important.

This Week in AP Physics
We will complete Unit 14 and Unit 15 this week. As announced I will run an additional after-school review session covering thermodynamics. Be sure to view the podcasts (and print the notes) for Unit 16. Homework from unit 13 and unit 14 is due on Wednesday, May 21. This due date allows you freedom to choose how best to spend your time before next week’s AP Physics B exam. I do recommend that you try to get the homework done prior to the exam so that you are reinforcing your learning. However, the choice is yours. Keep your spirits up, stay focused, and remember to get some rest every now and then, too. You’ve done a great job overcoming the loss of so much class time due to snow days, and I’m really proud of you!:)

This Week in Physics
Almost all of you have heavy AP schedules this week, so we will take things a little easy. By Tuesday please take notes on Podcast 3 – Series Circuits and Podcast 4 – Series Circuits Sample Problem. We will do assignment 2 together in class. We will also do another virtual lab which will lead us into Podcast 5 – Parallel Circuits and Podcast 6 – Parallel Circuits Sample Problem, so please take notes on these when I assign them. We do need to take a quiz this week, but we can talk about the best day to do this. I want to support your work in your AP classes. 🙂

This Week in Astronomy
We will finish our creepy fun unit on the universe and will take a test at some point this week. As with my other courses, I’m willing to be somewhat flexible so that I can support you in your work preparing for the AP tests many of you have this week. After the test we will begin our exploration of the solar system! 🙂

Cool Science of the Week
This is a pretty rock, right? Well it’s also making news! Geologists regularly discover new minerals. However, most newly-discovered minerals bear strong resemblances to the characteristics of known minerals. This pretty purple noob mineral that scientists just discovered in Australia consists of a chemical combination never before seen in nature. That rocks!

A Strange New Mineral Has Been Discovered in Australia

Putnisite, the world’s newest mineral