Day 93

Well, this was a bad day, kind of like the song. I was sick all day and finally, on the way home, I had to pull over and take care of business. I caused some rubber-necking, I think. Hopefully, no accidents.

In class today we discussed pressure some more--this time fluid pressure. With fluids, the particles individual forces all add up, producing a force in all directions. So, with water for instance, if you are under the surface, you will feel pushed on every square inch of your skin. In the meantime, the inside of your body pushes back out, equalizing the pressure, balancing it out. We talked about inverse variance and direct proportions. Elevation and pressure vary inversely, while depth and pressure vary directly.

More fun on Monday when Dr. Awesome pays a visit. Hopefully, we can capture him on camera.

Day 92

The first day of third marking period, the second half of the year. Overall, I think it was a good day. In the W, L, and O sections we had day 2 of pressure. We learned that pressure depends on force and area, specifically, force/area. The units for pressure are either psi or pascals. If area is held the same, pressure goes up as force goes up--this is a direct proportion. If force is held constant, pressure goes down as area increases--this varies inversely. I demonstrated a balloon in a bottle, showing how the balloon stays inflated if I close the hole in the bottle once the balloon is blown up. The air pressure cannot get back in. I assigned 7-2a and 7-2b for homework.

In the S section, we did the bouncy ball lab. They did an excellent job, though I'm not sure they enjoyed the lab questions on the worksheet. And I still have all four raquet balls I started with. Yee-hah!

I also introduced the new cheer today. Much more complicated than the last one, and a lot louder.

Sweet justice.

Day 91

The last day of the marking period. Halfway. Whew!

I started pressure with the L and O sections today. It wasn't a terribly exciting class--a short video on why the Titanic sank, and then some time to work in class. It helped students get their HW out of the way.

In the W section we did the bouncy ball lab, a lab that explores the difference between how well different types of balls bounce. We used 8 different bouncy-type balls and recorded the height they bounce back up to after being dropped from 100 cm, 70 cm, and 40 cm. Then the students graphed their results and took the papers home to answer the questions on the back of the worksheet.

The S section did their second day on pressure, Unit 7. We went over HW, took notes, and worked on the next HW assignment. I showed a simple demo of a balloon in a bottle. There is a hole in the bottom and it makes for a magical thing, when the balloon stays inflated even though it is not tied off! Amazing to see.

Sweet justice.