Dear Parents and Guardians of EMS ISD Physics Students,
We would like to take this opportunity to tell you what your student will do during the 4th six weeks. We will extend our work on motion during the second six weeks by learning three new concepts: momentum, energy, and work. These powerful concepts can be used to do more analysis of simple projectile motion and open the door to more complex motion such as collisions. We will connect back to the concept of force through the impulse-momentum theorem. At the end of this six weeks, students should have mastered these new tools to analyze motion and be able to make connections to real world situations.
The first major assessment for this six weeks is a lab that uses a marble to simulate a roller coaster. The students should apply their understanding of energy and the conservation of energy in the lab assessment. The second major grade will be a traditional multiple choice exam that covers energy, work, and power.
We have two projects for this six weeks, selected to challenge the students’ in real world situations. In the first project, they will design a container to protect an egg during a free fall. There is a limited list of materials. They will construct the container, take data during the drop, and perform analysis on the data using force, impulse, momentum, and energy concepts. At the end of the project, they will make recommendations for improvements to shipping materials. In the second project, students will determine the series of events in a multi-vehicle collision using only a map of the final positions of the cars and skid marks. They will apply momentum conservation, and work and energy concepts to make their case. The students will defend their position in a presentation.
Sincerely, Physics Team