Beginning-of-Year Survey

Welcome to my class!

Let's get to know each other.

Please follow this link to complete a survey.

Goodbye

Thanks for another great year, physics students! I hope you have a great summer and that those of you graduating succeed in whatever path you choose.

As most of you know, I will not be back next year. If you need anything (like recommendation letters) you can email me at miss.volkening@gmail.com.

Finals

Your final is a take home final. Please pick one up in class.

For your final:

• Exempt if we can put a zero in the gradebook for your finals grade and you still have an A
• Due dates:
• Period 5 & 6: Tuesday 5/20
• Period 1: Wednesday 5/21
• Period 4: Thursday 5/22 for juniors, Monday 5/19 for seniors
• On your actual finals day we'll watch a movie. To vote, take the online survey for your class period (the address is posted in the classroom)

Electricity Test

After you finish your Electricity Test today please pick up a final.

For your final:

• Exempt if we can put a zero in the gradebook for your finals grade and you still have an A
• Due dates:
• Period 5 & 6: Tuesday 5/20
• Period 1: Wednesday 5/21
• Period 4: Thursday 5/22 for juniors, Monday 5/19 for seniors
• On your actual finals day we'll watch a movie. To vote, take the online survey for your class period (the address is posted in the classroom)

More Work Time/AP Literature

A lot of you are taking the AP Literature test this morning and I am proctoring it, so there will be a sub today. Class will be a continuation of your last class. Please remember to count your bellwork stamps and make a notecard for your test tomorrow if you haven't yet.

Study Guide

Today and Thursday are work days to complete your work and study guide.  We also counted stamps.  Abridged answers to the study guide are below.

More Compound Circuit Practice

Today is our last bellwork and last worksheet together! I have video of the bellwork from last year. Homework is Electricity VII, due tomorrow, and the extra credit ranking tasks (due whenever).

Tomorrow I will pass out the study guide for your last unit test (which is Friday).

Compound Circuits Practice

Today on bellwork we learned a trick to solve a compound circuit when there is a junction where the current does NOT split evenly. This is kind of hard to explain in a picture, so I have a video from last year that uses the same trick to solve problem #2 on your homework, which is Electricity VI.

Here's the finished bellwork too:

Solving Compound Circuits

Today we finished or notes about solving compound circuits. I go through all of the procedure in a video from last year. Your homework tonight is Concept - Development 35-2.

Overload, Circuit Breakers, and Compound Circuits

Today we first talked about the purpose of a circuit breaker or fuse and how overload happens. Then we worked on Electricity IV (below) for a bit. If you didn't finish in class, that's homework.

Later we started talking about compound circuits and how to find their total resistance, but we are going to add to and finish those notes on Thursday so I'll post them then.

Review

Welcome back from Spring Break! Today we are reviewing series and parallel circuits. Your homework is Electricity V.

AC/DC

Today we talked briefly about alternating current and direct current, as well as the war between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla. We also watched the Epic Rap Battle of History between those two - one of the only ERBs that is school appropriate :)



Another related video is Drunk History: Nicola Tesla. This has some bad language!

Series and Parallel Circuits

Today we named the two types of circuits you made yesterday in your lab: series and parallel. We went over the characteristics of each and did some math. Homework is Concept-Development 35-1.

Circuit Lab II

Today you are lighting two bulbs at once in a qualitative lab. First we practiced drawing circuit diagrams on bellwork, then we started Circuit Lab II. You can continue working on that tomorrow too.

Work Day

A lot of people are gone on that field trip to GCU today, so we're having a work day. Plus period five was at that assembly yesterday...so they can work on Electricity III.

Practice: Electricity III

Today we are just practicing some problems, first on bellwork and then with Electricity  III.

Electrical Power

POWER! Homework tonight is Concept-Development 34-2.

Ohm's Law

Today we talked about the results of your lab as well as how voltage might affect current. Putting those ideas together gave us Ohm's Law. Your homework tonight is Ohm's Law.
We also played with the PhET of Ohm's Law from the University of Colorado Boulder.

Ohm's Law Lab

Today you are completing a short lab to discover how resistance affects the current through a resistor. Your homework is to finish the analysis questions - you'll need graph paper!

Circuit Lab

Today we completed a qualitative lab to light a lightbulb using one wire and one battery. We compared all the ways that worked and found they all had two things in common (see bellwork - it ended up on the board). We also took some brief notes on circuit diagrams. Homework for tomorrow is Concept-Development 34-1 (below).

Electric Current and Resistance

Our block day unfortunately fell on a time just before we're ready to do a lab, so I had to put together two separate lessons. We'll be doing labs on Thursday and Friday instead.

First we discussed electric current:



There is a great xkcd comic about this last thing.

You then had about 10 minutes to complete Electricity II, which was due right then.

Next we moved on to the second lesson about electrical resistance:
We ran out to the cafeteria to figure out the three things, then came back to go over each one and practice:



Finally, your homework for tonight is Resistance.

Flow of Charge/Potential Difference

Today we begin our last unit: Electricity! We know that electricity is made of moving electrons, but what makes them move? It turns out all you need is a potential difference (voltage difference). When you don't have a potential difference, no charges flow and therefore there is no electricity. Watch this video of some kids touching an electric fence; until the last dude, all of those kids were at the same potential, insulated from a different potential (ground), so there was no electricity flowing through them.

Homework tonight is Electricity I - due tomorrow.

Study Guide Answers

Below you will find the abridged answers to the electrostatics study guide as well as a couple of problems we did together for bellwork.

Faraday Cages and Electrostatics Study Guide

Today we talked briefly about Faraday cages and why a car is a pretty good place to be during a lightning storm. We also watched a Top Gear video with a car being hit by lightning.


After that we counted and recorded your stamps from 2/6 until 3/24. Finally, we started work on your study guide. Thursday will be a work day and your test is on Friday.

Voltage and Electrical Potential Energy

First we compared gravitational potential energy to a new quantity, electrical potential energy.

Then we took some notes about electric potential, also known as voltage.

Your homework is Voltage.