Ah, Grade-a-Thon
Friday, 25 April 2014 15:39![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dr_phil_physicsIt's that time of the year when I have two big piles of Topic 1 -- the Science Literacy Book Report -- and Topic 2 -- the real world data worksheets.
So far... I haven't run into the perennial favorite word in the papers, defiantly. As is, I defiantly agree with the author...
But this year, everything is futuristic. In a paragraph where futuristic is used six times, I begin seeing futuristic novel as something which is post-Kindle electronic...
And on the worksheets, despite being warned that towards the end of the course they will in a given problem tell me that there is a non-zero acceleration in one part and in the next, cheerfully use d = v t, which assumes constant or average speed... basically a = 0. AND I get a lot of people pulling that on the real world data worksheets.
Or failing to use the correct time. They have to figure out their car's acceleration, by going from zero to V mph in T seconds, and also figure out a longer trip of TTTTT seconds. And of course if you go from 0 to 60 mph (26.8 m/s), then a = v / t = 26.8 m/s / 12 seconds is going to give a very different answer than 26.8 m/s / 16,450 seconds...
PTPBIP -- Put The Physics Back Into the Problem is our battle cry. The problem is not done when the calculator spits out an answer and you write it on the paper.
I tell 'em. I warn 'em.
Doesn't do everyone any good. (sad-grin)
Grade-a-Thon continues.
Dr. Phil
So far... I haven't run into the perennial favorite word in the papers, defiantly. As is, I defiantly agree with the author...
But this year, everything is futuristic. In a paragraph where futuristic is used six times, I begin seeing futuristic novel as something which is post-Kindle electronic...
And on the worksheets, despite being warned that towards the end of the course they will in a given problem tell me that there is a non-zero acceleration in one part and in the next, cheerfully use d = v t, which assumes constant or average speed... basically a = 0. AND I get a lot of people pulling that on the real world data worksheets.
Or failing to use the correct time. They have to figure out their car's acceleration, by going from zero to V mph in T seconds, and also figure out a longer trip of TTTTT seconds. And of course if you go from 0 to 60 mph (26.8 m/s), then a = v / t = 26.8 m/s / 12 seconds is going to give a very different answer than 26.8 m/s / 16,450 seconds...
PTPBIP -- Put The Physics Back Into the Problem is our battle cry. The problem is not done when the calculator spits out an answer and you write it on the paper.
I tell 'em. I warn 'em.
Doesn't do everyone any good. (sad-grin)
Grade-a-Thon continues.
Dr. Phil
