There are two weeks left to first quarter. Be sure to check PowerSchool for any missing or late assignments. All late credit work is due by this coming Friday, October 20.

This Week in Physics
By Monday please take notes on PODCAST 1: Introduction to Vector Operations and by Tuesday please take notes on the exceptionally short PODCAST 2: Vector Resolution. We will go outside at some point mid-week to complete a vector operations activity, so be prepared for the weather as announced. We will finish the week by completing assignment 1 and assignment 2 and taking a quiz or two when announced.

Cool Science of the Week
A couple of weeks ago we learned about octopus cities in our CSOTW feature. Not that I’m obsessed with octopi, but they are AMAZING at camouflage. Stop this video at 0:08 and see if you can find the octopus. Then let it play again to see if you were right. Phenomenal!

How do they do it? They have tiny muscle-controlled pigment cells called chromatophores in their skin that dilate and contract easily. Nature rocks!

We are entering the last three weeks of first quarter, and this is a very short week for us due to (a) the PSAT on Wednesday & (b) no school on Thursday and Friday. Stay focused for a strong finish to quarter one!

This Week in Physics
See below to see what your particular class has due for Monday. Everyone has the unit 1 test on Tuesday. For Wednesday please take notes on Unit 2 Podcast 1: Introduction to Vector Operations.
1st: Nothing is due Monday.
3rd: Assignment 4 and goal set 4 are due Monday. (Most of you are done or almost done.)
8th: Nothing is due Monday.
11th: Nothing is due Monday, but bring your books and be ready to work fast.

Cool Science of the Week
In 11th period this week we talked a bit about the “beginning” of the universe according to physics’s Big Bang Theory. One of you brought up the multiverse theory, which suggests that there may be a field beyond space and time from which multiple universes are born and die, and that we are but one of these universes. While this sort of topic is phenomenally complicated, I found a short article that gives a fairly understandable explanation of various perspectives on this idea. Check it out!

Due to a server crash, my website has reverted to its early 2015 version. Therefore if you were subscribed to the blog then and are receiving this, you may need to click “Unsubscribe” again at the bottom of this message. Additionally, the ONLY page currently functioning at 2017 levels is Physics Unit 1. I am collecting my tears in a bottle of sadness. Nonetheless we journey forth!

This Week in Physics
All but 11th period: On Monday we will take a quiz over the kinematic equations. Following that we will explore the remainder of Podcast 4, covering free fall, so be sure to take notes on all of Podcast 4 by Monday. During the middle part of the week we will do assignment 4. Ideally we will take the unit 1 test on Thursday or Friday. For 11th period’s assignments, read on…
11th period: Your quiz and podcast are due Tuesday. Everything else is the same as for the other classes.

Cool Science of the Week
The octopus city of Octlantis? This video!

Well, who expected a two day week last week? Obviously we’ll be continuing with some of the items from last week’s blog. We ALSO have to do scheduling this week, so that will take up some extra time. We’ve got to stay focused and work efficiently, so be ready! 🙂

This Week in AP Physics
The Analysis of P-V Diagrams lab is due on Monday along with homework 3. We wil debrief these on Monday and possibly into Tuesday. On Tuesday and possibly into Wednesday we will finish the unit on thermal physics by examining the 2nd and 3rd laws and doing homework 4 for Wednesday or Thursday. Expect the test by the end of the week UNLESS our course scheduling takes more time than I anticipate.

This Week in Physics
We spent a lot of time last week discussing scheduling options for next year, so we still need to debrief the first three podcasts on circular motion. Then we will do our Centripetal Force Lab and assignment 1 followed by a quiz as announced. Expect the test late next week.

This Week in Astronomy
We’ll examine how and why the sky changes throughout the year so that you’ll know how to figure out what the sky should look like on any day at any time at any latitude. Cool stuff! Podcast 4 – Seasonal Constellations and Star Magnitude covers the topics we’ll be going into to finish this unit. To do a final reinforcement of our skills, we will do a virtual lab using Stellarium freeware. We will likely test by the end of the week, although we may not test until early next week. On the day of the test, Unit 1 – Homework Questions are due. These make for a quick review to prepare you for the test. It is also time for you to begin your first outdoor lab. This will require you to go outside on a clear night at one hour intervals to make a total of three observations of the night sky. Please follow the instructions on the lab to complete it correctly, and see me if you have any questions. Obviously the weather is pretty dangerously cold right now, so I will give you a few weeks to do this lab. We’ll watch the weather and can extend the due date if necessary, but as of now, I’m anticipating making it due on Friday, March 13. Note: You do not have to print the homework questions. You can just write your answers on notebook paper. However, you will need to print the outdoor lab, which is only two pages. (Be sure to print in black-and-white. 🙂 )

Cool Science of the Week
You may have heard in the news this week about a privately-funded, privately-run project called Mars One, which plans to send humans to Mars to begin colonization in 2024. This week Mars One announced that it has narrowed the applicant pool down to 100 candidates for the 24 spots available to go to Mars…and never return. Will it work? MIT says it will face big technological challenges that will make it impossible using today’s technology. This will be an interesting project to watch over these next nine years!

You’ve been working hard…Why not take Monday off? (While your relaxing, you can think about the contributions of the U.S. presidents. 🙂 )

This Week in AP Physics
On Monday we will complete the Behavior of Gases lab and homework 2 from our thermal physics unit. The lab report for the gas behavior lab will be due next week as announced. We will take a quiz over the ideal gas law and the kinetic theory of an ideal gas as announced and will also begin our exploration of the laws of thermodynamics. During the remainder of the week we will do homework 3 and our Analysis of P-V Diagrams lab activity (short form.) Expect a test by the end of next week. After that…electricity!

This Week in Physics
We begin our unit on circular and rotational motion this week. (This is a quick one, so be ready for fast action!) For Monday please take notes on Podcast 1 – Introduction to Circular Motion, Podcast 2 – Circular Motion Formulas, and Podcast 3 – Formulas. For Tuesday please take notes on Podcast 4 – Centripetal Force. We will go over these and on Monday, Tuesday, and possibly into Wednesday and will then do our Centripetal Force Lab. (Guess what…GOGGLES!!!!) We will also round out the week with assignment 1 followed by a quiz as announced. Expect the test late next week.

This Week in Astronomy
We will continue to explore the celestial sphere as we complete our examination of how the sky varies with latitude. Expect a quiz as we close out that topic, likely on Tuesday or Wednesday, as announced. Podcast 2 – Celestial Equator and Celestial North Pole, and Podcast 3 – Circumpolar Stars will help you study, and if you’re feeling a bit lost, please check these out. They can be a big help. 🙂 Following the quiz we’ll examine how and why the sky changes throughout the year. This will round out* our full view of the celestial sphere…latitude changes, daily changes, and annual changes. You’ll know how to figure out what the sky should look like on any day at any time at any latitude. You’ll be THAT cool. 🙂 Expect a test early next week.
* celestial sphere pun

Cool Science of the Week
I love candy hearts for Valentine’s Day. Do you? Here’s some fun science behind our delicious treat…

Happy Valentine’s Day Week!

This Week in AP Physics
We will continue our exploration of our unit on thermal physics as we cover methods of heat transfer on Monday so that you can do homework 1 for Tuesday. Next we’ll cover the mathematics of probability as it relates to the ideal gas law and the kinetic theory of an ideal gas so that we can do a swell lab* and homework 2 toward the end of the week and into early next week. Finally, your lab report on the Bernoulli’s experiment is due on Wednesday with a hard copy at the start of class and an upload to TurnItIn.com by 3:00 pm.
* volume change pun

This Week in Physics
We will complete our study of momentum as we finish the topic of the impulse-momentum theorem by doing assignment 4 and a fun little lab activity involving ramming cars into things. Expect a test by the end of the week.

This Week in Astronomy
If you have not already done so, please download the Astronomy Course Policies and Procedures document, go over it with your parent(s) or guardian(s), print the last page, sign it, and turn it in. This was due on Friday, January 23rd. This week we will continue to explore how the appearance of the sky changes when we travel across the Earth. First we will finish analyzing the E-S-W apparent motion of the sky and then will turn to the north to analyze what we see there. Expect a quiz or two scattered throughout the week. Podcast 2 – Celestial Equator and Celestial North Pole will help you study but is not required viewing.

Cool Science of the Week
This is LITERALLY cool science that takes you on a “Snowflake Safari” to discover whether the old adage is true that no two snowflakes are alike.

Happy Groundhog Day! I’m sure winter will be over any day now. Right!

This Week in AP Physics
On Monday and Tuesday we will finish our Bernoulli’s experiment and the final homework from our fluid mechanics unit so that we can take our unit test on Wednesday. Next, things will heat up as we examine thermal physics.

This Week in Physics
On Monday, Tuesday, and into Wednesday we will complete our analysis of the role of kinetic energy in collisions by doing assignment 3 and taking a quiz as announced. Following that, we will look at the impulse-momentum theorem. To prepare for that topic, please take notes on Podcast 10 – Introduction to the Impulse-Momentum Theorem and Podcast 11 – Impulse-Momentum Theorem Sample Problem when announced. Expect a test by the end of next week. Finally, your conservation of momentum lab report is due at the start of class on Thursday with the upload to TurnItIn.com due by 3:00 of that day.

This Week in Astronomy
We will complete our constellation activity by the end of class on Tuesday, and this will wrap up our star mapping learning objectives. On Wednesday we will take a star mapping quiz in the planetarium. Podcast 1 – Star Mapping will help you study. After that we will start to examine how the sky changes when we travel north-south on the planet.

Cool Science of the Week
On Monday of this past week, a large asteroid flew fairly close to Earth. It is widely accepted that a huge asteroid impact on Earth led to the extinction of the dinosaurs about sixty-five million years ago, so we have reason to be aware of asteroid behavior. To prepare, NASA’s Near Earth Object Program analyzes the trajectories of asteroids with the intention of finding potential impacts years before they might happen. This will give us time to do something about it. Check out this video to find out more!

We’re almost done with JANUARY! Time FLIES when you toss an exam week into a month!

This Week in AP Physics
We will continue to explore fluid mechanics by completing our debrief of homework 1 on Monday so that you can take a quiz over hydrostatic pressure on Tuesday. Also on Monday we will examine buoyancy so that you can do homework 2 for Wednesday. Our next topic will be fluids in motion as we explore fluid flow continuity and Bernoulli’s equation. Expect a test by the end of next week.

This Week in Physics
On Monday we will complete assignment 2 so that we can take a quiz on Tuesday or Wednesday, as announced. Next we will perform our collisions experiment, which I think is a lot of fun! As announced after the lab, please take notes on Podcast 5 – Elastic Collisions part , Podcast 6 – Elastic Collisions part 2, Podcast 7 – Totally Inelastic Collisions part 1, Podcast 8 – Totally Inelastic Collisions part 2, and Podcast 9 – Inelastic Collisions.

This Week in Astronomy
If you have not already done so, please download the Astronomy Course Policies and Procedures document, go over it with your parent(s) or guardian(s), print the last page, sign it, and turn it in. This was due on Friday, January 23rd. This week we will continue our quest to master star mapping and will turn our attention to analyzing the position of stars as viewed from different latitudes on Earth. Podcast 1 – Star Mapping and Podcast 2 – Celestial Equator and Celestial North Pole will support your learning. This is a big week for the planetarium! 🙂

(Not Really) Cool Science of the Week
Two things happened this week that made me think about climate change. One was the news that 2014 was the warmest year on record for our planet. (Yes, even though it was cold here, the rest of the world more than made up for our polar vortex chilliness.) The other thing that happened was I saw an ad by Skype about a Pacific island nation called Kiribati that is literally drowning as sea levels rise. I questioned this…How can a whole island drown? It turns out to be true. The island is only ten feet above sea level, and the oceans are rising at an accelerating rate. Within twenty to thirty years, the ocean waters should be so high that the groundwater (the only source of fresh drinking water on any island) will be contaminated. The government of the island is faced with the enormous challenge of finding a new home for all of their 102,000 people. Emotionally, the country is bracing itself to lose its culture and its community, raising the question, if a nation drowns, is it still a nation?

Welcome to a new semester! Congratulations on all you have accomplished. If you were in my first semester astronomy course, please note that you can unsubscribe to this blog by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of this email.
P.S. We don’t have school on Monday in honor of Martin Luther King Day. (You probably don’t need me to remind you.)

This Week in AP Physics
We will begin our unit on fluid mechanics, which is our first purely AP Physics 2 topic. We’ll get right back into the swing of things with notes, homework, and a lab this week. 🙂

This Week in Physics
It’s momentum time! For Tuesday please take notes on Podcast 1 – Introduction to Momentum. This will prepare us for a very short assignment followed by a quiz, as announced. For Wednesday please take notes on the more complex topic covered in Podcast 2 – Conservation of Momentum part 1, Podcast 3 – Conservation of Momentum part 2, and Podcast 4 – Conservation of Momentum Sample Problem. We will complete an assignment on these in class on Wednesday and Thursday in order to prepare ourselves for our experiment, the Conservation of Momentum Lab. Finally, remember that your energy research paragraph is due to TurnItIn.com on Wednesday.

This Week in Astronomy
WELCOME TO ASTRONOMY! I’m definitely pumped to work with all of you, and this is a pretty cool course. To get started, please go to our main class webpage and read the course policies and procedures document. Please print and sign only the last page and turn it in by Friday. This week we will take an astronomy readiness assessment. Let me reassure you that this test will not count for a grade. It is merely a skills and prior knowledge assessment. Then we will begin to explore the techniques of sky mapping in order to locate stars and constellations using our Star Map – North and South Declination. This means we will get to spend a significant amount of time in the planetarium! Alright! Our focus is Unit 1: The Celestial Sphere. Celestial Sphere Podcast 1 – Star Mapping and Celestial Sphere Podcast 2 – Celestial Equator and Celestial North Pole. You don’t have to watch these podcasts before class, but they will help you if you are confused, are absent, or wish to review.

Cool Science of the Week
In astronomy at the end of the first semester we had some cool discussions about the shape of the universe, namely that there is no “outside” and that it is finite, yet without an edge. Brain-numbing stuff! Here are the first two parts of a three-part series of short, fairly understandable videos explaining different theories about the shape of our mysterious home. (Part 3 isn’t released yet.)

We’ve almost made it to the end of the first semester! Congratulations on your accomplishments! This blog post will cover our last week before mid-term exams as well as the mid-term exam schedule, which is as follows:

These Weeks in AP Physics
On Monday we’ll tie up loose ends with angular momentum so that we can take our circular and rotational motion unit test on Tuesday. We will spend Wednesday through Friday covering the oscillatory (back-and-forth) motion of pendulums and mass-spring systems. There will be one homework associated with this. With the remainder of our time and into Monday of exam week, we’ll review a smidge by going through old tests. EXAM WEEK: Your FRQ exam will be during the first period slot, and your MC exam will be during the 2nd period slot. Both will take the full period. Please be sure to bring a calculator to both exams. For the MC exam, you will need a number two pencil.

These Weeks in  Physics
We’ll start by wrapping up our unit on energy so that we can take the unit test on Tuesday or Wednesday. This will give us some time to review for the mid-term exam, but we will also likely start our momentum unit. However, momentum will be on the final exam in June but not on this mid-term exam. EXAM WEEK: Sixth period, your exam will be in the 6th/7th period slot. Tenth period, your exam will be during the 10th period slot. No class will take an exam during our lab periods (8th/9th.) Please be sure to bring a calculator and a number two pencil to your exam.

These Weeks in Astronomy
Aaahhh!! NO!!! I can’t believe our time together is over!!! You’ve been such a great group of people to work with, and I will miss you! OK, so with our remaining days, we will travel across the universe to its deepest regions, its darkest past, and its possible futures. This is a really fun topic to end on! We may or may not have time for a unit test on the universe, but it will be incorporated proportionally into the final exam. Our exam period is 11th period. Please be sure to bring your star maps (both rectangular and circular) with nothing written on them except your name. Also you may bring a calculator, which can be helpful but isn’t absolutely necessary. Finally, please be sure to bring a number two pencil.

Cool Science of these Weeks
NASA announced this week that it’s found another clue to the “Is-there-life-on-Mars?” puzzle. The Mars Curiosity Rover (a robot that’s cruising the surface of Mars doing research that it beams back to Earth) has detected regular bursts of methane gas coming out of a rock formation. In addition, Curiosity found organic molecules in that rock. Organic molecules, as you may recall from chemistry, are necessary for life as we know it, and methane is an excretory product of many forms of life. This doesn’t mean there’s necessarily life on Mars; methane and organic compounds can exist in the absence of life. However, their presence is also indicative that life on Mars may be present now or may have been present in the past. We do know that billions of years ago there was flowing water on Mars that was at the right temperature, salinity, and pH for a “primordial soup,” such as the one scientists speculate started life on Earth. Curiosity continues to collect data, so more answers could be coming down the line.

The Mars Curiosity rover takes a selfie in front of Olympus Mons, a giant mountain on Mars. (No, that’s not a desert on Earth. That’s MARS!!!)