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Home Department of Physics and Materials Science Memphis SHOPP 2015-spring-topics

Spring 2015 Topics

Dates of classes: February 14 - April 25, 2015

Classes meet every Saturday in manning hall room 201 for 2 hours (9:30 am – 11:30 am).

There will be intense development in three critical areas:

  1. fundamental conceptual development,
  2. connection to real-world experiences through scientific inquiry and
  3. Critical thinking skills using mathematical applications and problem solving at the single-variable calculus level.

With the learning cycle to be used, students will encounter engagement, exploration, explanation, extension, and evaluation. Animation and short videos will be used in some instance in order to engage students in initial activities to introduce questions before moving to exploration and explanation. This will also initiate discourse between students where opportunities to address misconceptions will often surface.

The labs would predominantly be hands-on and will rely on more fundamental equipment and graphs would be plotted by hand. Occasionally, a Pasco data collection and analysis system would be used so students would be prepared for different techniques. Students will work in small groups in order to promote group work in a variety of ways beginning with experimental design and report writing. Students are expected to maintain two folders, one for the overview and another for the lab activities.

Spring 2015 Topics

Part I: Motion & Kinetics

    • Motion in 1D
      • Displacement & Distance
      • Velocity & Speed
      • Acceleration
    • Motion in 2D
    • Vectors
      • Addition & Subtraction
      • Multiplication

Part II: Forces

    • Newton's Laws
    • Frictional Forces
    • Impulse

Part III: Work Energy and Power

    • Work done
    • Energy
      • Kinetic energy
      • Potential energy
      • Thermal energy
      • Internal energy
    • Power

The next six sessions will cover the following topics

  • Work Energy and Power – March 21st 2015
  • Data storage on DVDs and Blue-rays – March 28th 2015
  • The importance of ray optics to bio-physics research – April 4th 2015
  • An Amazing Cosmic Perspective, the Busy Lives of Stars, and the Strange Things They Leave Behind – April 11th 2015
  • Nuclear Physics and our World – April 18th 2015
  • Space Materials – April 25th 2015