Postponed test and notes

Due to spiritual emphasis week taking one day this week as well as the spelling bee, I have decided to postpone our test over energy until Monday. This is not ideal, but it is fair. I will review more tomorrow, as well as assign practice problems over the weekend.

I have gone to a new file sharing service that will hopfully be easier to use than the one before. You may access the notes for our next test here. You should download both PowerPoint presentations by which to check your notes.

Link for help with simple machines

Go to this link for help with simple machines.

Week of Nov. 8

Hope your weekend was restful. I know mine was. I'm grading the tests from last Friday, as I speak. I hope to have all of the grades in the system tonight.

1) We will have a major test over basic energy concepts and force on Friday. This will be a 100 point test over notes. A couple of problems will be involved. I will not be uploading notes for this test as the students should have them all. I will conduct a review on Wednesday.

2) We will be covering energy this week. I know its a short week, but students should have all they need to test by tomorrow.

3). We are approaching the middle of the quarter. Please make sure that you are completing all assignments on time and accurately.

Have a good week!

Sorry for these being a little late...Practice Problems

I'm giving the answers below with the questions. I strongly suggest you work the questions before you glance at the answers. The reason being that if you can write out each problem using the GUESS method and derive the equations, you will get the answer right.

1. A 40 kg deer accelerates from rest to a speed of 5 m/s in 1.5 seconds. What was the force needed to provide that acceleration?
2. A .5 kg ball accelerates downward at a constant rate of 9.8 m/s/s. What is the force on the ball?
3. A motorcycle uses 300 N to accelerate at a rate of 2.5 m/s/s. What is the mass of the motorcycle?
4. A baseball bat with a mass of 2.5 kg is swung with a force of 45 N. What was its rate of acceleration?

Practice Problems: Due Wed, November 3

1. How much force is needed to accelerate a 1200 kg car at a rate of 6.0 m/s/s?
   
2. How much force is needed for a 60 kg. runner to accelerate at a rate of 2.0 m/s/s?
   
3. How much friction force was used to slow down a car with a mass of 1200 kg at a rate of -3.8 m/s/s? (The value itself is not negative, but the negative sign implies the direction of the force is opposite the direction of travel
   
4. What is the forward acceleration of a 60 kg rocket in level travel that has an engine supplying a forward force of 1400 N?

This week (Nov 1)

Hopefully you had as restful of a weekend as I had. I'm getting caught up this afternoon and want to let you know what to expect this week.

1. Newton's Laws test has been graded. Some of you really helped your grade. Some of you bombed badly. Here's a deal: if you did poorly, come back in during growth period on Wednesday and re-take it. You have to know all of the laws anyway, so why not just work on them tonight and tomorrow and re-take them for full credit. That's a "no-lose" proposition, isn't it? :)


2. Many students are doing well so far. Please contact me if you are (or your child is) doing poorly, as I want students to succeed and will do all I can to help. Growth period is a must.


3. We will be finishing up force and acceleration this week and will test on Friday. I don't see this being a long test, but it will have several problems as well as some multiple choice and writing.


4. Notes for this unit are here. I will begin using folders on 4shared this week. It is much easier than Megaupload. Check this folder for Newton's Laws Notes

Good luck this week. Keep working hard.

Grades updated

Post title says it all. :)

Week of Oct 25

A few things...

1. Tests will be back on Wednesday. Practice is the key to consistently solving word problems in science, so this is not the end, but the beginning :).
2. I will be out tomorrow to attend a science conference in Birmingham. A sub will be here and your assignment will be out of the book (vocab. and 19.1 review). Please check out a book if you don't finish. Assignment is due Wednesday.
3. We will be covering friction and Newton's first and second laws this week.
4. I apologize for the lack of updates on the blog during the middle of the quarter. I will be updating far more frequently moving forward.

Hope you have a great week.

Red Ribbon Week

Remember, Monday is "Be a Part of the Team" Day. Wear the attire of your favorite team...$1 for each item you wear.

More Problems

1. A rifle fires a bullet at a velocity of 645 m/s. If the bullet travels for .6 seconds, how far will it have traveled?
2. A conveyor belt that is 60 meters long is moving at a rate of 1.5 meters per second. How much time will it take the belt to complete one cycle? (click the link to see what a conveyor belt looks like)
3. A maglev train travels a total distance of 35 km from the train station to the airport. It completes this journey in 5 minutes and 25 seconds. What is its average speed during each trip?
4. A small rat runs 6 meters to escape a diving hawk. He makes it to his burrow in 2.4 seconds and just escapes. What was his velocity?
5. A Chevrolet Volt accelerates from 15 m/s to 25 m/s in 4 seconds. What was the car's rate of acceleration?
6. Cam Newton was running at 5 m/s when he had to slow down to avoid a tackler. (This is really painful, fellow 'Bama fans. BEAR with me.) He slowed down at a rate of -3 m/s/s for .7 seconds. What was his final speed?
7. A small deer was walking at 2 m/s when he was shot by a hunter. He accelerated to 8 m/s in .5 seconds. What was his initial rate of his acceleration?

HW Problems 10/18

1. A cross country runner covered a 2000 meter course at an average speed of 3 m/s. What is the total amount of time the runner spent on the course? Convert from seconds to minutes and seconds if you dare.
   
2. A volleyball player served a ball that landed 8 meters away in 1.5 seconds. What was the velocity of the ball.
   
3. At the entrance to a curve, Corvette ZR1 slowed down at a rate of -4m/s/s for 3 seconds to a final speed of 22m/s. What was his initial speed?

Think you want to do a science experiment?

One word, folks: SAFETY!

Read here for an interesting story about an experiment gone awry.

No, I haven't fallen off the face of Earth.

Hey folks. I apologize deeply for the lack of posting. I've been working double time trying to unpack in our new house as well as manage a classroom. A lot of give and take lately.

Now for some business.

1. Quarter 1 is complete. All grades are in the system. Some assignments were not visible previously despite numerous attempts to make them so. This made averages appear wonky (is that a word?). All should now be visible in INOW. I NOW would like to say something to the makers of THAT program, and no, it isn't nice. By the way, our admin has done a stellar job in keeping things up and running and none of the INow issues can be faulted to them.
2. If a blank appears next to a grade in your grade report, that means the you are exempt from that assignment, and the assignment does NOT count against you.
3. Homework assignments will now be ascribed 5 and 10 point values depending on the length of the assignment.

I am loving this school and this job more by the day. Thanks to all of YOU who make it fun and exciting. Keep up the good work.

Notes and a Balancing Equations Worksheet

Alright, the notes are posted here. A good page for balancing equations is here.

Good luck on your test.

Wow...what a week...make that two.

Finally an update! Well, the last two weeks have been rough. Not only have the nuber of assignments piled up, but cleaning/painting, moving in our furniture, in-service meetings, and a funeral have not helped at all.

First, we will have our final test of the quarter on Tuesday, Oct. 5. Each student has been given a study guide. Notes will be posted over the weekend.

Second, grades have been updated. There should be approximately 11 grades in the system right now, including the project. Including the project, there should be 6 major grades from this quarter after the upcoming test.

Third, about half of the projects have been graded. I will finish the others tonight, and all grades should be posted over the weekend.

Last, I do not give extra credit. I know this is a change for some, but the only way to a good grade is to master the material. Make sure you finish all the assignments that are there. From now on, missing assignments will be given a grade of 1.00 in the system to let you know they are missing. If an assignment has not been given a firm due date, I will give full credit. I was gone last week, so any assignment from that week, even if it is turned in late will counted at full credit. Let's get those done.

OK, this has turned into an epistle. I have a class to teach right now. Let's finish strong.

PowerPoint for Electron Configuration Uploaded

Check out this link for the PowerPoint for Ch. 16. Test is on Friday. Come in tomorrow morning if you have questions or need help. I am going to be working from home tonight and will not have internet access, so be there early.

Grades Updated and Test on Friday

Your note quiz has been added. You also have a test on Friday, Sept 17. If you get together with your partner to work on your project, take a few minutes to quiz one another. The PowerPoint will go up on Wed. Don't wait for that to start studying.

Project Due Next Monday, Sept. 20

If you have not started construction of your atom model project, I encourage you to get started within a couple of days. Parents: Students have had this project for 3 weeks, and most of them have made lots of progress in class. It is a partner project as it has two parts, and it is a bit of work. Please ask to see the rubric and project information sheets if you have questions. Good luck as you finish.

Grades posted tonight...

1st Pd. grades have already been posted. The rest should be posted in a bit. The last test was the first I've issued in a while which showed an "inverted bell curve". That basically means that a lot of people passed with A's a few D's and F's and there were not a lot of C's and B's. I took the time to ask several students how much they studied and of the ones who passed almost all studied an hour or more. I cannot reiterate enough the importance of good study habits and notes. Make sure you come and ask if you do not understand a concept, or communicate with me on the blog. I am delighted to help when asked.

Test Friday

I apologize for not posting earlier, but as I said yesterday, your test is Friday. All students should have a printed study guide, and I have made books available for checkout if needed. Please download the notes for this chapter from this link. Remember to enter the captcha letters, click "download file" and wait 45 seconds for the free download link to appear at the bottom.

Test Score Posting

Parents and students, by tomorrow afternoon I hope to have the test scores posted. The score will be the corrected test grade, NOT the original grade which was pretty much a train wreck for all involved. I understand that everyone (well, almost everyone) got in a couple of hours studying last night which was good. The objective is to know the material, not just pass the test, so I believe that objective is accomplished.

About 20 minutes per night reading and reviewing the notes is a good way to keep from having to cram. In the meantime, I'm going to get back to grading the corrected test.

Be ready for a pop ____ tomorrow. :)

Posting in text speak is prohibited

When you post on the blog, please do not post in text messaging language (i.e. SA for essay). Show your parents, peers and me that you can write properly.

Thanks!

Today's Assignment

Since you are finished with the test, please do the following assignment.

1. Choose a partner.
2. Go to this link using Safari web browser.
3. If the computer asks to install Flash, you may do so.
4. Click on at least 5 of the elements in the periodic table and see what each element is all about (they are represented pictures) so you'll have to click around a bit. You may click on either link on the bottom left side where it says "Chemical Data" or "pdf". PDF will give you an easier time reading.
5. You and your partner will choose an element for which you will do a report and a model.
6. Take down the following information today in your notes.
   - Name of Element
   - Atomic Symbol
   - Atomic Number
   - Atomic Mass
   - Who Discovered It
   - Appearance

I will have a complete description of your project on Monday along with a rubric and the due date. Have a good weekend

Get the PPT here

You can click here to get the powerpoint for the test review.

Hey if you want to see a CRT in action, go here. The video at the bottom rocks.

Interactive Periodic Table

Students, click this link for an interactive periodic table in which you may click on any element to discover more about it. You may need to enable pop-up windows in your browser to use it. This will help you in the upcoming chapters.

Test on Friday

Alright, the first test of the year is coming up on Friday, August 20.

The following material will possibly be covered on the test:

1) Unit conversions
2) Atomic Theory
- Describe or label a cathode ray tube (not a TV, but the tube which Crookes used for his experiments).
- State how and why Thomson proved the existance of negatively charged particles (essay)
- List the three subatomic particles and describe the location and charge of each.
- Describe Thomson's model
- State why Rutherford was able to prove that positively charged particles were not scattered throughout an atom.
- Define
* nucleus
* Bohr model
* atomic number
* radioactive decay

My tests will have a few multiple choice questions but are mostly short answer, labeling and essay. Please comment if you have any questions. I will post in the comment section anything that I think will help you in your review. Blessings, and honor God.

Grade Updates

Grades will be updated starting Monday.

Unit Conversion Problems

Unit conversion problems are due Friday, Aug 12, at class time.

Posting in the Blog

Please make sure you are responding using the comment button under the appropriate post. I have had a few responses under an unrelated post, and that makes it difficult to know how to respond. We are having a solid first week. Keep up the hard work.

Open Office Software

This one is for parents, so if you are a student ask them before installing.

What if I told you there was a program that would both open, edit and save word processing documents, spreadsheets, databases and presentations in almost any format you can think of? What if I told you that program was FREE? Allow me to introduce you to OpenOffice.org, a free program that does all of the above and more. It can be installed on either Mac or Windows operating systems. It is about 350 mb in size which is similar to MS Office or Corel Suites but much more powerful. You can even create .pdf documents directly. OpenOffice is very similar in functionality to older versions of MS Office (XP, 2003). Since we use OpenOffice on our school computers, you may wish to install it on your home computer, so your child may use it to work on their projects at school and at home. Download from www.openoffice.org.

An Assignment

Alright kids, here's an assignment. Click on this link for some interesting reading. Now write a paragraph in your Science notebook telling how you may have used the scientific method to solve a common problem. A paragraph is 6 to 8 complete sentences. Good luck!

Smooth Opening

I could not have asked for a smoother beginning to the school year. I've been around education for over 13 years, and that was surreal. Hey, I'm not a Pollyanna, but the multiple prayers of those associated with our school have availed much. For them I thank God.

Welcome!

Alright, here's the first post for all students and parents. I'm looking forward to a great first year at PCA. Make sure to keep up with this blog as I will be posting regularly. A reminder to parents and students. Keep your posts respectful. If there is any question regarding school policy or a disagreement, please send an email directly to me so we can keep the blog an informational tool rather than a discussion board.

Here are a few things you'll need to have for this class.

• You'll need a green, pocketed, 3-ring binder for this class. No spiral notebooks allowed as they are messy. Please put your name and SCIENCE (yes, all caps) on the front. That way we can ID it if it is lost.
• A pen or mechanical pencil. Don't use regular pencils in the classroom, as the computers don't like the dust from the sharpener.
• A 1-2 GB USB thumb drive. Make sure it has your initials etched on it.
• A calculator will be required later. You may bring your calculator from math class.

My rules for class are very simple and few. If you do these things, I guarantee you'll pass.

• Respect people and property
• Show up on time
• Show up prepared
• Work hard

Your syllabus should be kept in your binder at all times. This is a handy reference. I will send an electronic copy with my first newsletter to parents.

I know this is a long blog post, but there's a lot of info that must be digested. I hope all of you have a great year. Keep in touch.