Looking back at the beginning of the school year and reflecting what we have done as a class and where we are now I am so proud of all of you. This last few weeks have been tough material wise and we are working so hard to understand all this new material. For a lot of you the effort is paying off, and you have grown as physics learners. The hardest part is behind us and the work will get a lot easier for you if you put in the time to understand how to use and work with formulas. The goal of this week is to build on that and introduce a few new formulas and integrate them with our older ones. Keep up the good work because it is paying off. Let's have a great week Lancers.

Science

Monday Nov. 12
Remember that progress reports are due today. Today's lesson is going to continue with working on Newton's Third Law. We've been reading about it and taking some notes, but today we are going to do some labs on it. Students will be working in groups at their tables and will be doing various projects depicting Newton's Third Law.

Tuesday Nov. 13
Since we will be starting a new unit on Wednesday we need to first learn the vocabulary we will be using. Today student will be working on word boxes on chapter 5 vocabulary. We will be working on this all day in class and if students are unable to finish this assignment it will need to be done as homework.

Homework: (If students are unable to finish their word boxes in class) Here is the vocabulary words for chapter 5.

• Energy
• Kinetic Energy
• Potential Energy
• Work
• Mechanical Energy
• Law of Conservation of Energy
• Temperature
• Thermal Energy
• Heat
• Specific Heat
• Celsius (unit)
• Kelvin (unit)
• Joules (unit)
  

Wednesday Nov. 14
Since we wrapped up chapter 4 on Monday we will be moving on to chapter 5 which deals with energy. Today we will be learning about energy and work. We will also introduce a new formula for work, w=Fd. For homework students will have to do a few example with the new formula.

Class Notes: Energy_and_Work_Notes.pdf
Work Examples Worksheet: Time_to_Go_to_Work_Worksheet.pdf

Thursday Nov. 15
Today we are going to continue working on energy. We are going to do another large physics problem where we connect multiple formulas together to solve an every day situation. For this problem we will be finding the amount of force it takes to lift a stack of books and how much momentum some one has if they were to fall backwards into a chair with the books if they were too heavy. The worksheet is linked bellow.

Slightly Smaller Physics Problem: Slightly_Smaller_Physics_Problem.pdf

Friday Nov. 16
Today we are going to start learning about thermal energy and what it means. We will be talking about the different phases of matter and how they relate to temperature, and that heat is a form of energy transformation. There will be a short quiz at the beginning of the hour based on the material we have covered this week. There is also be a homework assignment on the units we use in physics and how they explain what is happening in a physics problem.

Questions from Reading: Section%205.2.doc
Homework: Follow_the_Units_Worksheet.pdf

Ecosystems

Monday Nov. 12
Today we will be working with current topics in environmental news in the Great Lakes Region. To do this we will be listening to a 20 minute news report from Michigan Radio, Michigan's NPR station. A link to there website is found below. Students will be expected to write down information based on what they are listening to and give a short reaction to them afterwards.

Also progress reports will go out today and will be due on Wednesday.

Notes and Response Handout: Michigan_Environmental_News_Nov12.pdf

The Environment Report Website

Wednesday Nov. 14
Today we will be learning about our ecological footprint and it's impact on ecosystems. To do this we will be taking an online quiz that calculates your footprint. Students will be using the laptops in class to do this. We will be comparing our results to averages around the world.

Progress reports are due today.

My Ecological Footprint Quiz

Class handout: Ecological_Footprint_Worksheet.pdf

Friday Nov. 16
Today we will be learning about PCB clean up in the Kalamazoo River. We will go over what PCBs are and how they were released into the river. How they effect the local wildlife and what is being done to clean it up. This is based on the debate that occurred earlier this year about how to clean it up and who is responsible. We will be connecting this to what we have been learning about in ecosystems and how this effects the food chain.