Live Science's Top 10 Science Discoveries for the 2010s

An interesting list of Live Science's Top 10 scientific discoveries for the 2010s, from the Higgs boson to gravitational waves, and synthetic life to exoplanets in habitable zones and new CRISPR techniques, have fun reading and seeing videos on these game-changing discoveries. We cannot even imagine what discoveries await today's teenage, future scientists!!

Enjoying the Night Sky - Very cool site to see when we have meteor showers

If you just want to enjoy the wonders of Nature and space, check out this site that allows you to see the solar system, and track when planets orbits intersect with the orbits of dust and rock clouds...and when this happens is when we have the occasional meteor showers! This is a really interesting perspective to see some of the dynamics of the solar system in a way we generally never see or think about.

Astrophysics Research? Check out CIERA Summer Program at NU

Applications are now being accepted at Northwestern, for the CIERA Astrophysics Summer Program. We have had six students do this the past two summers, and they have been involved in cutting-edge research, resulting in submissions to state and national research competitions as well as being authors on papers published in peer-reviewed journals. There is a tuition for the 6-week program, but also some level of financial aid, depending on your status. Something to consider if you want an intensive learning and research experience.

Greta Thunberg is TIME Magazine's Person of the Year for 2019

At 16 years old, Greta is giving one strong voice advocating for the environment and to fight climate change. She has earned TIME's Person of the Year!!

Teens can and are making a difference in many ways around the world - is there some issue you are passionate about? You can take a stand and advocate for what you believe in, and actually get things done to help make the world a bit better!

Structures that collect water from atmosphere

Check out structures that started to be built a few years ago in parts of Ethiopia, that collect ~25 gallons of water overnight via condensation or moisture from the air.

Can we think of other cheap ways to do this? Are there natural structures or organisms that can do this? Keep in mind that these structures cost about $1000 US, but that is a fortune in local currencies in poor parts and countries of Africa and other continents. Clearly this is the type of thing that is necessary with population growth and climate change. This could be a new path of research for high school students! Think biomimetics - what are natural plant structures that can take any condensation and funnel it for absorption by the plant? Are there 3-D printed shapes and materials that would work well for this? 

Senior review

The review sets and their solutions are on the 4 Chem/Phys page of our school site. Keep in mind that there are videos on just about anything we have covered (electrostatics - capacitors) on the blog, numerous worked examples in the textbook and odd problems that can be done if more practice is necessary. We have all the AP free response problems, their solutions, and several multiple choice exams on the school site (you need to be logged into your eths202 account to access). All old quizzams and labs are helpful, and there are review sets and solutions in each of the unit folders, as well. Look at the AP EM Objectives file in the 4 Chem/Phys page for a topic by topic summary of what we have covered.

The final next Monday will be effectively an AP exam, with 30 multiple choice and 3 free response, and one or two short answer; almost certainly there will be a curve. Take advantage of the class time to get as far as you can on review sets, which will be collected as the last semester HW grade on Monday; check solutions as you go.  These are the files AP EM Review Set I, II Solutions. There are practice multiple choice exams called Review Sem 1 final - Practice Mult Choice 1,2, with answer keys at the bottom of the files.

For Tuesday, Dec. 3

Since I have to leave a bit early, check out the following videos for capacitors and take notes:

What are they? What are they used for?
How do we find the total capacitance in series and parallel? 
Example of how to find the charge on capacitors in a circuit (analogous to finding current through resistors)

Then you can group together and try some of the practice problems. Thank you!