A former Chem/Phys student, Seth Flaxman (Class of 2004), is lead author from Imperial College on predictions of COVID-19 in the coming weeks in 11 European countries. Check out their report, and see what a technical, scientific paper on this type of problem looks like. He made the code available, which is on GitHub, as well, if you want to see what this looks like for a complex system to model. Within the next week, most of the growth charts should start to turn over and begin the flattening of the curve...hopefully Europe is moving past the inflection point. I have not found a similar, up to date report for the US yet.
Thanks, Seth!! Seth did some really cool CABS research on periodic heat flow while at ETHS, and actually went to London to represent the US through the JSHS contest (which he won at Loyola, and then at nationals to advance as one of six US students to the International fair). He built the experiment in his bedroom, and also modeled the heat flow using FlexPDE.
Tuesday, March 31, 2020
Sunday, March 29, 2020
3 Chem/Phys: Juniors, How Have You Been????
HAPPY MONDAY, everyone!!
First things first - how is everyone? How are your families?
You know how I put an emphasis on not only your physical health, but social, emotional and mental healths, as well. We are entering week 3 of isolation, distance learning, and being away from each other, your friends, classmates (i.e. learning team members), and everything else at school. Small changes can be difficult, but this has been a BIG change in our lives and routines.
Here's the meeting schedule given to us from the administration, as of today:
First things first - how is everyone? How are your families?
You know how I put an emphasis on not only your physical health, but social, emotional and mental healths, as well. We are entering week 3 of isolation, distance learning, and being away from each other, your friends, classmates (i.e. learning team members), and everything else at school. Small changes can be difficult, but this has been a BIG change in our lives and routines.
If you are feeling lonely, anxious by the 24/7 news coverage and chatter about COVID-19, bored, depressed, stressed, or anything else, know that this is normal under these circumstances. And also know that we all have many resources to turn to if we need help, or just someone to talk to: counselors, social workers and psychologists are all available through the school.
Housekeeping items
- Keep checking in with the school each day this week
- While these three weeks have been 'Act of God' days with the state, and no grades have been given to anything you've done in classes, hopefully you have been trying the work to still best learn the content as best you can. STARTING TUESDAY, we have been told that we are back to more normal school, and will begin to issue formal grades for 4th quarter. In the coming weeks we will find out details about semester exams and quarter/semester grades. Official attendance also begins Tuesday - this will be done solely through an email link you will receive daily, and that is all teachers are allowed to use. We CANNOT mark you present if you do not check in with the school, even if we see you on a Zoom session!!
- AP Exams will be given in May. They will be 45 minutes, free response, and on material up to March in your AP classes. We do not yet know the logistics - should get this April 3.
- Try to keep up as best you can, and we all know this is a challenge because we are mostly on our own. Keep group chats going, call each other, do your own Zoom/Skype/other study groups, make use of video and other online resources, make use of your textbook, email me any time with questions/concerns/deep thoughts/the meaning of life/etc...
- We have a Google Sheet set up for us to share suggested things to try while in our quarantine. New games, videos, links, recipes, whatever! Also, a separate sheet is set up for anyone to ask questions about material, and anyone can help out with responses. This may be useful if you should be trying or thinking about something outside of a class session.
- If you ever are bored or curious or motivated to try any sort of project, don't forget to chat with me and there are all sorts of things you could try! Refer to the past email I sent, or check out an activities options page on the blog.
3 Chem/Phys
Hope your last unit of Chemistry went well! We will pick up with rotational motion, and complete it with angular momentum the next few days.
Here's the meeting schedule given to us from the administration, as of today:
We will offer a couple Zoom sessions each week, at 11 am Monday and 1:15 pm Wednesday. The links to the sessions will be emailed to the group each day. We are NOT allowed to video class sessions. We do have the individual topic videos on the blog, with nearly all topics we covered throughout the year. You can watch the videos before and/or after live class sessions. There will be one official 45-minute office hour for Science classes, at 10 am Friday. These are the only official times we have to meet as a class. I check emails constantly throughout the day and will be available just about any time, every day, if you have questions.
The other main online resource is our class site on the school web page. Our unit folders are there, the past quizzam solutions, review sets, and so on can be found for anything we've done this year. Check out the solutions to the last rotations quizzam. On the 3 Chem/Phys page, there are already review sets for the AP exam, and the solutions. There is the AP Exam page, with problems going back to the 1970s, and all the solutions in its own folder.
Unit Packet
Relevant videos for Angular Momentum
- Conservation of BOTH linear and angular momentum (hit a pencil on a table, and get both types of motion)
- This is the Mechanical Universe video on Angular Momentum I showed on Zoom; start around the 13:20 mark
- This is the Mechanical Universe video on Angular Momentum I showed on Zoom; start around the 13:20 mark
- Supplemental: Case where there is a non-constant torque, and non-constant angular acceleration
- Supplemental: Using Kepler's and Newton's laws to navigate in space - going to other planets
- a PowerPoint on Angular Momentum found by Sofia...might be useful for some!
- Supplemental: Using Kepler's and Newton's laws to navigate in space - going to other planets
- a PowerPoint on Angular Momentum found by Sofia...might be useful for some!
Practice Problems
Try to have the Ch 10 problems for Wednesday's 1:15 pm class session, so we can take questions and check setups.
Try to have the Ch 10 problems for Wednesday's 1:15 pm class session, so we can take questions and check setups.
- Ch. 10 #37,39,41,42,95 on page 3 of packet
Try to have the 2005 and 1998 AP problems by Friday morning's office hours at 10 am, so we can take questions and check setups.
Try to have the 2005 and 1998 AP problems by Friday morning's office hours at 10 am, so we can take questions and check setups.
- We will use most of the AP problems as examples during our sessions; recommended to try some of these old APs on your own or with a virtual group. These are:
Practice Problems on page 6
AP from 2005 on page 8
AP from 1998 on page 9
Friday, March 27, 2020
And Seniors....that's a wrap!!!
Happy Friday!!!! This should sound familiar, maybe not look familiar??!?! 😄
Today we finish off your high school physics career, as far as content goes!
Today we will wrap things up by defining one of the great mathematical achievements in science, which are known as Maxwell's equations. Maxwell was a wizard of math and had deep physics knowledge and intuition, and he was about the only one of his era that saw the connections between a bunch of individual, scattered discoveries over about one hundred years worth of work. Everyone knew that there was some connection between electricity and magnetism, but no one else really understood how to make the deep connections or to put things into a single theory or set of equations. This is what Maxwell figured out, and to this day the four equations are all that are needed to understand everything about electricity, magnetism, and electromagnetism.
We will use portions of a video to see what the equations are, and how they ultimately led Maxwell to predict electromagnetic waves and the speed of light, long before this was confirmed in the lab...just by using some MV calculus.
The other thing we will try are breakout rooms in Zoom. We will have a chance to meet up with others in the session and talk through a few questions about EM induction.
I know trying to do EM induction, which is one of the trickier topics in physics, through distance learning is not easy. But know HOW PROUD OF YOU I am, for your efforts, the way you've adapted, and how you've remained (hopefully) pretty positive despite the circumstances!! You are amazing, wonderful young women and men, and be sure to stay that way forever!! Go ahead and CELEBRATE a bit!
Today we finish off your high school physics career, as far as content goes!
CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR SURVIVAL SKILLS ever since sophomore year!!
Have a few seconds of celebration!!
Today we will wrap things up by defining one of the great mathematical achievements in science, which are known as Maxwell's equations. Maxwell was a wizard of math and had deep physics knowledge and intuition, and he was about the only one of his era that saw the connections between a bunch of individual, scattered discoveries over about one hundred years worth of work. Everyone knew that there was some connection between electricity and magnetism, but no one else really understood how to make the deep connections or to put things into a single theory or set of equations. This is what Maxwell figured out, and to this day the four equations are all that are needed to understand everything about electricity, magnetism, and electromagnetism.
We will use portions of a video to see what the equations are, and how they ultimately led Maxwell to predict electromagnetic waves and the speed of light, long before this was confirmed in the lab...just by using some MV calculus.
The other thing we will try are breakout rooms in Zoom. We will have a chance to meet up with others in the session and talk through a few questions about EM induction.
I know trying to do EM induction, which is one of the trickier topics in physics, through distance learning is not easy. But know HOW PROUD OF YOU I am, for your efforts, the way you've adapted, and how you've remained (hopefully) pretty positive despite the circumstances!! You are amazing, wonderful young women and men, and be sure to stay that way forever!! Go ahead and CELEBRATE a bit!
Tuesday, March 24, 2020
e-Learning for 4 ChPh: Last Topic!!
Happy Tuesday, one and all!! I hope you are well, and good health for you and your families! A good way to start each day is to think of something you appreciate; or think of something nice you have done for someone else the past day or two; or think about something nice someone did for you! Remember counselors, social workers and school psychologists and nurses remain available for anyone.
Some housekeeping items:
Some housekeeping items:
- be sure to vote for senior awards
- please keep checking in daily with the school on the Google Form
- the school is supposed to get more logistics answers for AP Exams by April 3, but for us plan on material covered being through electricity: electrostatics with point charges, equipotentials, Gauss, non-Gauss, resistor circuits, capacitors (w/ dielectrics), RC circuits; sounds like all free response so you have to show work, password protected files for the exam, 45 minutes long, I suspect a lot of Honor System built in to this. You can start review any time, and a good initial guide is our EM Objectives. There are all sorts of review sets in the 4 Chem/Phys folder. You can start looking over old material in any of your AP classes any time. Colleges should still be sticking to their policies about giving credit, placement, etc., according to the College Board.
- please email me with updates on any practice problems you have been trying. Because almost all of them are old AP problems, you can be self-checking/grading to see how you are doing, but please let me know and any questions you may have. You can also pose questions to the learning team, as well as share fun things to try while quarantined.
EM Induction is your last physics topic! We have one last item within induction, and that is an application in circuits: what happens when we put inductors, which are essentially little solenoids, into circuits with resistors, and finally when we combine inductors with capacitors? We will even throw in a blurb about transformers, and end with Maxwell's equations - and how did Maxwell predict light is an EM wave, and he even predicted the speed of light, decades before this was proven experimentally, just from math?!?!
Your last bit of physics is in Packet #4. The relevant videos for all this are:
- Maxwell's displacement current: how capacitors really work, and how a changing E-field behaves just like a current
- Inductors in series with resistors (RL circuit)
- Last circuit: LC Circuits, the heart and soul of wireless technology!
- Supplemental: The basics of inductors from an engineer's point of view
- Supplemental: How does a transformer work
- Maxwell's equations and EM waves: everything in E&M comes together!
Practice problems are in Packet #4. This includes a lab using a PhET simulation - I hope it works on your ChromeBook! There are some good explanations, examples, diagrams in your textbook for all the induction topics.
Friday, March 20, 2020
EM Induction e-Learning: Going into next week
Happy Friday, everyone! I do hope everyone is doing OK, as we have been out of school for a full week. Remember counselors, social workers and school psychologists and nurses are available as isolation continues into the foreseeable future. As you've been doing, keep each other entertained and in contact virtually, and look out for each other! 😀
Please be signing in with the school each week day.
Now that we know AP Exams will be held, but in shortened, online form, for us that means just the 'E' in "E&M,' and only 45 minutes. More details will follow as we get confirmed reports to the school.
Next week we will focus on the second version of Faraday's law, which is in Packet #3. This is when things are not moving, and we have a constant area but changing B-field: emf = -A dB/dt.
For this case, because there is a change in magnetic flux, there is still induced voltage, currents and forces on the wires. But physically, there is no longer motion, so F = qv x B does not explain why and how the current starts in the wire loops. Instead, there will be an E-field that is induced, or turned on, whenever the B-field changes.
The relevant videos for the AdB/dt type situations are:
- a case of B-field changing and the induced emf in a circuit
- induced, circulating E-fields when we have dB/dt
- Maxwell's displacement current...finishing off the laws of E&M (how capacitors really work!)
We will go through the AP problems in Packet #3 as practice. We will start several of them together to get going and go over the key concepts, and some can be used to get some practice. We will also use a video to get some graphics for how light itself works! It is an electromagnetic wave, where changing E-fields and changing B-fields induce each other in order to produce a wave in the fields!! Weird, but also really cool!
The very last thing for your high school physics career will be in Packet #4, on inductors and circuits with inductors, including the guts of wireless technology! Also, a little bit about transformers, power plants, and how the power grid is set up. More on that later.
In honor of Friday, an oldie but goodie (???):
Please be signing in with the school each week day.
Now that we know AP Exams will be held, but in shortened, online form, for us that means just the 'E' in "E&M,' and only 45 minutes. More details will follow as we get confirmed reports to the school.
Next week we will focus on the second version of Faraday's law, which is in Packet #3. This is when things are not moving, and we have a constant area but changing B-field: emf = -A dB/dt.
For this case, because there is a change in magnetic flux, there is still induced voltage, currents and forces on the wires. But physically, there is no longer motion, so F = qv x B does not explain why and how the current starts in the wire loops. Instead, there will be an E-field that is induced, or turned on, whenever the B-field changes.
The relevant videos for the AdB/dt type situations are:
- a case of B-field changing and the induced emf in a circuit
- induced, circulating E-fields when we have dB/dt
- Maxwell's displacement current...finishing off the laws of E&M (how capacitors really work!)
We will go through the AP problems in Packet #3 as practice. We will start several of them together to get going and go over the key concepts, and some can be used to get some practice. We will also use a video to get some graphics for how light itself works! It is an electromagnetic wave, where changing E-fields and changing B-fields induce each other in order to produce a wave in the fields!! Weird, but also really cool!
The very last thing for your high school physics career will be in Packet #4, on inductors and circuits with inductors, including the guts of wireless technology! Also, a little bit about transformers, power plants, and how the power grid is set up. More on that later.
In honor of Friday, an oldie but goodie (???):
Thursday, March 19, 2020
One of the Greatest All-Time Rube-Goldberg Machines!!
Thanks to Gavin for finding this OK Go video, with an entire warehouse turned into a Rube-Goldberg machine. Enjoy!! If you get inspired, try building one of your own with things laying around your home, to do some simple task! :-)
Wednesday, March 18, 2020
EM Induction e-Learning for Wednesday - Friday
Happy Wednesday - hump day!!
If you missed Wednesday's 10 am Zoom session, check it out here.
If you missed Thursday's 10 am Zoom session, check it out here.
If you missed Friday's 2 pm Zoom session, check it out here.
Thursday and Friday we will focus on a case of Faraday's law, or induced voltage = emf = -d(BA)/dt. The product BA = magnetic flux. If you can change the magnetic flux through a circuit or conductor, voltage 'turns on,' or is induced. You've done this before in the lab by moving a magnet in and out of a solenoid.
The first case we will look at is in Packet 2, which is when we do nothing with the magnet but move a conductor so that the area for the flux changes, or emf = B dA/dt.
Check out two short videos, which we will then get into the details Thursday.
- moving a conductor through a B-field makes it act like a battery
- moving a hoop of wire into or out of a B-field turns on a current in the circuit
For Friday, we will check the case if a circuit falls through a B-field (like that happens everyday!).
- circuit falling through B-field
For anyone who is interested, a supplemental case of rotating a piece of metal in a B-field is explained in this video.
Practice problems for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday:
In Packet 2, we will go through the 4 AP Problems on pages 5-8. The last one, "The Hardest Ever," is out there as a challenge!! Try them at your convenience, the ones with the years on them can be looked up in our AP Exams page on the school site. Help each other with chat sessions, or Zoom with each other, etc. We'll check some of these Thursday and Friday!
If you missed Wednesday's 10 am Zoom session, check it out here.
If you missed Thursday's 10 am Zoom session, check it out here.
If you missed Friday's 2 pm Zoom session, check it out here.
Thursday and Friday we will focus on a case of Faraday's law, or induced voltage = emf = -d(BA)/dt. The product BA = magnetic flux. If you can change the magnetic flux through a circuit or conductor, voltage 'turns on,' or is induced. You've done this before in the lab by moving a magnet in and out of a solenoid.
The first case we will look at is in Packet 2, which is when we do nothing with the magnet but move a conductor so that the area for the flux changes, or emf = B dA/dt.
Check out two short videos, which we will then get into the details Thursday.
- moving a conductor through a B-field makes it act like a battery
- moving a hoop of wire into or out of a B-field turns on a current in the circuit
For Friday, we will check the case if a circuit falls through a B-field (like that happens everyday!).
- circuit falling through B-field
For anyone who is interested, a supplemental case of rotating a piece of metal in a B-field is explained in this video.
Practice problems for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday:
In Packet 2, we will go through the 4 AP Problems on pages 5-8. The last one, "The Hardest Ever," is out there as a challenge!! Try them at your convenience, the ones with the years on them can be looked up in our AP Exams page on the school site. Help each other with chat sessions, or Zoom with each other, etc. We'll check some of these Thursday and Friday!
Tuesday, March 17, 2020
4 Chem/Phys Remote Class - Practice sets for EM Induction
Happy _____day, everyone, depending on the day you see this!
If you missed Tuesday's 10 am class session, click here for the video recording.
Electromagnetic induction: This is one of the greatest discoveries in physics history, if not science history, since it helped create our modern electrical civilization. The primary players in this were Michael Faraday on the experimental side, and James Clerk Maxwell on the theoretical side. You've already 'discovered' the gist of em induction in our magnet lab a couple sessions ago - I asked you to play with magnets and a solenoid to see if you could create voltage using nothing but the magnet.
How did you do it?
You had to move the magnet around inside the solenoid. So some combination of coils of wire, a magnet, and motion allow us to create electricity. I will demonstrate this in Wednesday's Zoom session, if you are able to join us. I brought some equipment home so we can still at least do demos.
We are starting with Packet 1 (you either have a hard copy or it is in the EM Induction folder of our school site). This introduces magnetic flux and Faraday's law of em induction.
Note that I will still be giving recommended practice sets, and we have relevant videos for each concept and type of problem. I hope you will still try them, and discuss with any study group or individuals as you normally do - but remotely!! Call or Face-time or use other social media platforms, or use Zoom or Skype to meet with each other remotely; we strongly discourage you from meeting in person. The whole point is social separation for the next couple weeks, not only to protect you, but to prevent the spread to those who have contact with older individuals who are much more susceptible to this virus than you probably are. Send pictures/video of your work to me or each other when stuck so we can discuss, or ask questions when we have our Zoom sessions. I'll be checking email a lot, as usual.
*With 'Act of God' days, teachers are not taking attendance. Even if we were to grade work and enter into the gradebook, it will not be counted by the school. So while this is the case, I hope you will keep up with your classes. Be curious! Enjoy learning! When you go to college, you will still be expected to know some of this stuff! Complete what you started, and give it your best shot! And at this time, we don't know the status of any AP exams.*
Magnetic Flux
Faraday's law revolves around magnetic flux. From Gauss's law, electric flux = (E-field)*(area it flows through); so same idea, magnetic flux = (B-field)*(area it flows through) = BA.
But what Faraday discovered is that if one changes the magnetic flux flowing through the area of a wire hoop, voltage is turned on, or induced. That's it!! Make a system where the magnetic flux through wires is changing, and you can power things with electricity. This is an electric generator, and the basis for how power plants work all around the world! Related to it are electric motors (think about how many electric motors are in your house and in your life).
Faraday's law: Amount of induced voltage = emf = -d(BA)/dt
Here, emf is what he called electromotive force...it is just voltage that gets turned on when the magnetic flux changes. We will study the 2 main ways to change the flux:
i. induced voltage = B dA/dt, which is Packet 2
ii. induced voltage = A dB/dt, which is Packet 3
For Wednesday:
- Watch a short video on finding flux through a loop of wire.
- Try Ch. 27 #11, 13 and Ch. 29 #1, 7. These are on pages 5 and 6 of Packet 1. Answers are in the back of your textbook, and check examples in chapters 27, 29 that are similar if you get stuck. We'll go over these and introduce Faraday's law in Wednesday's Zoom session.
Thinking ahead:
For Thursday and Friday, we will focus on Packet 2. This will be the case where we leave the B-field alone, and move things around so that the flux area changes (this is how generators in power plants work). We will focus on videos for a moving piece of metal in a magnetic field, moving a metal hoop through a B-field, and dropping metal hoop through a B-field. Believe it or not, these cases will be the same mathematically as an old favorite, air friction!! 😉😨
Note there are worked examples/notes in packet 2 that go along with the video examples. And we will be trying the AP problems in Packet 2. Don't forget we have AP solutions on the school website, in the AP Exams page, in the AP Exam Solutions folder. You need to be logged in your eths202.org account in order to access these solutions.
If you missed Tuesday's 10 am class session, click here for the video recording.
Electromagnetic induction: This is one of the greatest discoveries in physics history, if not science history, since it helped create our modern electrical civilization. The primary players in this were Michael Faraday on the experimental side, and James Clerk Maxwell on the theoretical side. You've already 'discovered' the gist of em induction in our magnet lab a couple sessions ago - I asked you to play with magnets and a solenoid to see if you could create voltage using nothing but the magnet.
How did you do it?
You had to move the magnet around inside the solenoid. So some combination of coils of wire, a magnet, and motion allow us to create electricity. I will demonstrate this in Wednesday's Zoom session, if you are able to join us. I brought some equipment home so we can still at least do demos.
We are starting with Packet 1 (you either have a hard copy or it is in the EM Induction folder of our school site). This introduces magnetic flux and Faraday's law of em induction.
Note that I will still be giving recommended practice sets, and we have relevant videos for each concept and type of problem. I hope you will still try them, and discuss with any study group or individuals as you normally do - but remotely!! Call or Face-time or use other social media platforms, or use Zoom or Skype to meet with each other remotely; we strongly discourage you from meeting in person. The whole point is social separation for the next couple weeks, not only to protect you, but to prevent the spread to those who have contact with older individuals who are much more susceptible to this virus than you probably are. Send pictures/video of your work to me or each other when stuck so we can discuss, or ask questions when we have our Zoom sessions. I'll be checking email a lot, as usual.
*With 'Act of God' days, teachers are not taking attendance. Even if we were to grade work and enter into the gradebook, it will not be counted by the school. So while this is the case, I hope you will keep up with your classes. Be curious! Enjoy learning! When you go to college, you will still be expected to know some of this stuff! Complete what you started, and give it your best shot! And at this time, we don't know the status of any AP exams.*
Magnetic Flux
Faraday's law revolves around magnetic flux. From Gauss's law, electric flux = (E-field)*(area it flows through); so same idea, magnetic flux = (B-field)*(area it flows through) = BA.
But what Faraday discovered is that if one changes the magnetic flux flowing through the area of a wire hoop, voltage is turned on, or induced. That's it!! Make a system where the magnetic flux through wires is changing, and you can power things with electricity. This is an electric generator, and the basis for how power plants work all around the world! Related to it are electric motors (think about how many electric motors are in your house and in your life).
Faraday's law: Amount of induced voltage = emf = -d(BA)/dt
Here, emf is what he called electromotive force...it is just voltage that gets turned on when the magnetic flux changes. We will study the 2 main ways to change the flux:
i. induced voltage = B dA/dt, which is Packet 2
ii. induced voltage = A dB/dt, which is Packet 3
For Wednesday:
- Watch a short video on finding flux through a loop of wire.
- Try Ch. 27 #11, 13 and Ch. 29 #1, 7. These are on pages 5 and 6 of Packet 1. Answers are in the back of your textbook, and check examples in chapters 27, 29 that are similar if you get stuck. We'll go over these and introduce Faraday's law in Wednesday's Zoom session.
Thinking ahead:
For Thursday and Friday, we will focus on Packet 2. This will be the case where we leave the B-field alone, and move things around so that the flux area changes (this is how generators in power plants work). We will focus on videos for a moving piece of metal in a magnetic field, moving a metal hoop through a B-field, and dropping metal hoop through a B-field. Believe it or not, these cases will be the same mathematically as an old favorite, air friction!! 😉😨
Note there are worked examples/notes in packet 2 that go along with the video examples. And we will be trying the AP problems in Packet 2. Don't forget we have AP solutions on the school website, in the AP Exams page, in the AP Exam Solutions folder. You need to be logged in your eths202.org account in order to access these solutions.
Monday, March 16, 2020
4 Chem/Phys e-Learning!!!!! We got this!!!
So, let's make the most of the situation. Let's get into the distance learning mindset! We can and will get some things done, learn a bit of electromagnetic induction, hopefully have a little fun, use a little technology for more than just doing Google searches or writing a Google Doc, and make it through an unprecedented period in our education and in our country's history. This will be one of those stories you'll tell your kids some day. Please think of this for what it ultimately is - closing public spaces will help contain and reduce the number of people who will be exposed and get the COVID-19 virus, and that saves lives! This is important that we are closing school, and we are all helping protect those who are vulnerable to this disease.
Before anything else, you know how big I am on health first: physical, as well as emotional, mental and social. This is new territory for you, and school is your primary time for social exposure. Not being with your friends in person, in a classroom or other space at school, will be strange, yes, but perhaps can begin to take an emotional toll on you. That's OK, and probably normal!! Never hesitate to reach out to me, friends, parents, your counselor, siblings, other teachers, or whoever, if you need to talk or de-stress about this situation!! And yes, counselors, social workers and school psychologists will all be available during the next weeks.
Set up
We are in decent shape already, since we have our video library in tact. Even if things like Zoom don't work well or crash (keep in mind online services could become overwhelmed, as it is estimated some 400 million students will be doing some type of remote learning around the world). I will have things linked that you can view any time, and we'll be using this blog to keep track of everything. You should have picked up hard copy packets, which most of you prefer to electronic, but the electronic files are in our EM Induction folder on my school site. There are 4 packets for induction, and we'll go in order since in the past students found it easier to focus on one main idea at a time.
Zoom
The way Zoom works is I will be the host, and all you will need is a link to the meeting. I will email the links, which will be for certain times, and all you need to do is click on that link at the appropriate time. For you, it should be that easy. We will have both audio and video, so if you want people to see you be sure your webcam is not covered. You will be able to see my screen, so we will be able to go over material, take questions and comments, show video clips or simulations, etc. If you ever want to try Zoom, you can hold free meetings for up to 40 minutes. I have an account since I'm on it a lot, and have unlimited time for meetings. We tested it at school, and Zoom was working on the Chromebooks.
Simple Class Chat
Let's keep things simple, because we don't want to have to keep worrying about new Apps, sites freezing, or not being able to download or get to different resources because of limitations of ChromeBooks. I'll just have a Google Doc set up, which one can only access if logged into your dist202.org account (so people outside our classes cannot access it). This will be for questions, comments, concerns, and general discussion items (related to school - do your personal chats on your own platforms). Again, simple and accessible and safe, so we can all share questions and responses as we go through new material. Also keep using whatever study groups and group chats you've been using since last year. We can still collaborate, peer tutor, hold virtual study group and Face-time sessions, and so on, like you normally do.
Good Resources
You have your textbook at home - take advantage of it for once!! If the videos aren't helping, or answers to questions don't click, the textbook is a great resource, with lots of examples!
An online textbook at CK-12 is good, and it has relevant demo videos, etc. Something called Physics Classroom is a good resource. And of course, Khan Academy has videos on most topics we'll be covering. We will use some PhET simulations at some point. One of the greatest compilations of physics knowledge ever written down is online - the Feynman Lectures on Physics. And if you want to keep up with general science headlines like we do many class periods, Science News and Scientific American are two of the best places to go.
For Tuesday, March 17, 2020
First thing to check out is a really well done video on the math modeling of the spread of something like COVID-19. This is about exponential growth, logistic curves, and why social separation and hand washing really are the right things to do to stop the rates at which diseases spread, which in turn saves lives! Please watch the following video, take notes on the way they develop the math model, and also take notes on 'sensitivity testing' they talk about near the end of the video. Many of you will do math modeling of some kind in college and careers, so this is an expert talking through what they do.
Before anything else, you know how big I am on health first: physical, as well as emotional, mental and social. This is new territory for you, and school is your primary time for social exposure. Not being with your friends in person, in a classroom or other space at school, will be strange, yes, but perhaps can begin to take an emotional toll on you. That's OK, and probably normal!! Never hesitate to reach out to me, friends, parents, your counselor, siblings, other teachers, or whoever, if you need to talk or de-stress about this situation!! And yes, counselors, social workers and school psychologists will all be available during the next weeks.
Set up
We are in decent shape already, since we have our video library in tact. Even if things like Zoom don't work well or crash (keep in mind online services could become overwhelmed, as it is estimated some 400 million students will be doing some type of remote learning around the world). I will have things linked that you can view any time, and we'll be using this blog to keep track of everything. You should have picked up hard copy packets, which most of you prefer to electronic, but the electronic files are in our EM Induction folder on my school site. There are 4 packets for induction, and we'll go in order since in the past students found it easier to focus on one main idea at a time.
Zoom
The way Zoom works is I will be the host, and all you will need is a link to the meeting. I will email the links, which will be for certain times, and all you need to do is click on that link at the appropriate time. For you, it should be that easy. We will have both audio and video, so if you want people to see you be sure your webcam is not covered. You will be able to see my screen, so we will be able to go over material, take questions and comments, show video clips or simulations, etc. If you ever want to try Zoom, you can hold free meetings for up to 40 minutes. I have an account since I'm on it a lot, and have unlimited time for meetings. We tested it at school, and Zoom was working on the Chromebooks.
Simple Class Chat
Let's keep things simple, because we don't want to have to keep worrying about new Apps, sites freezing, or not being able to download or get to different resources because of limitations of ChromeBooks. I'll just have a Google Doc set up, which one can only access if logged into your dist202.org account (so people outside our classes cannot access it). This will be for questions, comments, concerns, and general discussion items (related to school - do your personal chats on your own platforms). Again, simple and accessible and safe, so we can all share questions and responses as we go through new material. Also keep using whatever study groups and group chats you've been using since last year. We can still collaborate, peer tutor, hold virtual study group and Face-time sessions, and so on, like you normally do.
Good Resources
You have your textbook at home - take advantage of it for once!! If the videos aren't helping, or answers to questions don't click, the textbook is a great resource, with lots of examples!
An online textbook at CK-12 is good, and it has relevant demo videos, etc. Something called Physics Classroom is a good resource. And of course, Khan Academy has videos on most topics we'll be covering. We will use some PhET simulations at some point. One of the greatest compilations of physics knowledge ever written down is online - the Feynman Lectures on Physics. And if you want to keep up with general science headlines like we do many class periods, Science News and Scientific American are two of the best places to go.
For Tuesday, March 17, 2020
First thing to check out is a really well done video on the math modeling of the spread of something like COVID-19. This is about exponential growth, logistic curves, and why social separation and hand washing really are the right things to do to stop the rates at which diseases spread, which in turn saves lives! Please watch the following video, take notes on the way they develop the math model, and also take notes on 'sensitivity testing' they talk about near the end of the video. Many of you will do math modeling of some kind in college and careers, so this is an expert talking through what they do.
Sunday, March 15, 2020
Getting into the e-Learning Mindset
Hey there -
We know we will be e-learning for at least the next 3 weeks, so we will make the most of it. It is not ideal, but it is the right thing to do when facing a public health emergency. Thinking through the actual science of how disease spreads, maximizing the distancing between people and isolating the pockets where the disease has taken hold will minimize the 'damage' of the disease and minimize the duration of the disease. This is why shutting things down now is being done, worldwide.
Below is a really well-done video of the math behind what's happening. Seniors, I showed the juniors, so please check it out - about exponential growth.
Having said that, try your best to keep a positive mindset about this. Yes, it sucks you won't be with your friends and classmates (i.e. your learning team!), but with technology we will be able to simulate a real class better than ever before in human history! So that's pretty cool. We will try using Zoom videoconferencing. At the time of this writing, I'm still waiting to learn logistics about how the administration wants us to schedule online, real time sessions.
All throughout, please share with me feedback about what's working and not working, and do this with your other teachers, too. There's no single right way for doing this, and different things will work for different people, just like in a real class.
Please share interesting links and articles and videos. I can put those on the blog for everyone to check out.
THANK YOU in advance of all this, you are all awesome, and can't wait to see you online!! Let's do some e-Learning!!
- Doc
We know we will be e-learning for at least the next 3 weeks, so we will make the most of it. It is not ideal, but it is the right thing to do when facing a public health emergency. Thinking through the actual science of how disease spreads, maximizing the distancing between people and isolating the pockets where the disease has taken hold will minimize the 'damage' of the disease and minimize the duration of the disease. This is why shutting things down now is being done, worldwide.
Below is a really well-done video of the math behind what's happening. Seniors, I showed the juniors, so please check it out - about exponential growth.
Having said that, try your best to keep a positive mindset about this. Yes, it sucks you won't be with your friends and classmates (i.e. your learning team!), but with technology we will be able to simulate a real class better than ever before in human history! So that's pretty cool. We will try using Zoom videoconferencing. At the time of this writing, I'm still waiting to learn logistics about how the administration wants us to schedule online, real time sessions.
All throughout, please share with me feedback about what's working and not working, and do this with your other teachers, too. There's no single right way for doing this, and different things will work for different people, just like in a real class.
Please share interesting links and articles and videos. I can put those on the blog for everyone to check out.
THANK YOU in advance of all this, you are all awesome, and can't wait to see you online!! Let's do some e-Learning!!
- Doc
Saturday, March 7, 2020
Congratulations to Ulo and Josh!!
Congratulations are in order!
Josh Ahn and Ulo Freitas both qualified for the IJAS State Science Fair, which will be held May 1-2 at Millikan University. In addition, Josh won Best in Category for Astronomy, while Ulo was selected as one of the five students our region will send to the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), which will be in California this year.
Josh's work involved doing calibrations on photos and other imaging of candidate systems of binary neutron star mergers, which he did after being trained by astrophysics scientists at Northwestern's CIERA group this past summer. The mergers are first identified through gravitational wave signatures from the LIGO experiment (whose members won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2017), and then viewed optically - but there are 'artifacts,' or basically light noise in those photos, that scientists are trying to reduce and eliminate. Josh's work is showing what percentage of images are 'noisy' and recommends that an artificial intelligence algorithm may be the best thing to try to enhance the images. It is these types of mergers that produce the heavy elements above iron, that we are all made of. His paper can be viewed here: .https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8nURwQwI2RacElJTGhqQ24ydjFqVHFDVmZDZEVRV3ZPZUtr/view
Ulo's work was done in our Research Center, and involved new fluid dynamics measurements of two hydraulic jumps that interfered with each other on an inclined surface. His work will be expanded to use his functional fits to data to modify existing theoretical models of the hydraulic jump, which do not include parameters related to interference or inclined surfaces. We plan on trying to publish his work in a teaching journal, since this can now be used as a lab/inquiry project for other physics classes around the country. His paper and description of his work can be found on my CABS site:
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One way professors run their research programs, and as they go from year to year and have new graduate students joining their team while old...
basement-science.blogspot.com
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Ulo purposely looked for a 'basement' science project because he wants to help demonstrate that original work and discovery can happen in all sorts of experiments that use common household and school materials. The CABS site shares this type of work, as well as hundreds more research options, for any school/student/teacher to use; there are thousands of high schools that do not have access to university labs and do not have research programs of their own, even though there are plenty of students who would like to try research. We want to help those students and schools.
Monday, March 2, 2020
25th anniversary of top quark discovery.
How time does not stand still...25 years ago we published the discovery of the top quark, the 6th quark the filled in the last slot of quarks as predicted by the Standard Model. It is by far the heaviest fundamental particle, meaning we don't think it is made of smaller pieces, we know of, and has a very short lifetime before it decays into many possible sets of other particles. I was a member of the CDF collaboration that co-wrote the discovery paper with another experiment, D0, that was on the other side of Fermilab's 4-mile circumference ring. We ran at nearly 2 trillion volts in order to produce the top quark in 'mini Big Bangs' by colliding protons and antiprotons together, which produce a burst of energy; every so often a top-antitop pair would be produced.
Ah, the good ol' days! I'm in the audience somewhere! It was a packed house, with the international press all throughout Wilson Hall.
Ah, the good ol' days! I'm in the audience somewhere! It was a packed house, with the international press all throughout Wilson Hall.
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