Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Evelyn Glennie: Shows How to Listen
What will you remember about her performance? Be specific about the experience.
Describe what it felt like listening to her play. What factors helped create this moment? You can describe any of the times that she played on either instrument (the Snare drum or Marimba).
What elements of her performance influenced what the audience heard?
What did she mean by, "Each person experiences music in their own way"? Think about how you experience music and why everyone doesn't enjoy listening to the same music.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Momentum Review
If, and only if you have completed both of the write-ups for the problems of the week you may work on your momentum worksheets. Below is a link to the review worksheet for this unit. While we have not yet covered the final topic of impulse you can still work on the majority of this review.
Momentum Review: Worksheet #7
Hopefully I will see all of you tomorrow!
Be good.
Monday, February 15, 2010
More Conservation of Momentum: Worksheet #5
Sorry I am out sick with the flu. Bleh! Hopefully I will be back on Wednesday. Below you will find the links to two different google docs. Choose wisely!
Worksheet #5: Concept based
The conceptual worksheet focuses on conservation of momentum and understanding how its variables change conceptually.
Worksheet #5: Kinematics and COE based
The kinematics worksheet utilizes both conservation of energy and kinematics to solve complex conservation of momentum problems.
You need to choose one of these worksheets and only one. If you want to solidify your understanding of conservation of momentum and challenge its concepts then choose the first one. If you want to look at complex situations of conservation of momentum then choose the second one. I will leave the decision up to you.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Your Guide to the Year in Science: 2010
Popular Science wrote an article that summarizes multiple topics that are promising for significant breakthroughs this year in the following fields:
1. Medicine
2. Space and Aviation
3. The Environment
4. Entertainment
5. Technology
Write two blog posts about two different topics. Each one needs to be in a different field so that you are not writing about two topics in the field of Technology. In your blog post include the following about each topic:
1. A brief summary of the topic. What is it? What field of research does it fall under?
2. What's the big deal with this topic? Why should you care about its developments and any new discoveries that are made?
3. What's going to happen to this topic in 2010?
4. What obstacles or setbacks are in the way of this topic's success?
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Semester Academic Goals
Goal: Write the goal.
First Step: The first step you will take.
Example of non-specific goal: I want to get good grades.
Example of specific goal: I will ask for help when I don't understand something instead of not working.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
The Origin of Zero
What is the origin of zero? How did we indicate nothingness before zero? by Robert Kaplan, Scientific American
The Origin of Zero by John Matson, Scientific American
Monday, October 12, 2009
The Boy Who Built A Windmill
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Mathematizing
The Locker Problem
The Locker Problem
You get to check out the new digs at HTHMars. The new school has these brand new state of the art expandable lockers. The
- Suppose the first student goes along the row and opens every locker.
- The second student then goes along and shuts every other locker beginning with locker number 2.
- The third student changes the state of every third locker beginning with locker number 3. (If the locker is open the student shuts it, and if the locker is closed the student opens it.)
- The fourth student changes the state of every fourth locker beginning with number 4.
Imagine that this continues until 1000 students have followed the pattern with the 1000 lockers. At the end, which lockers will be open and which will be closed? Which lockers have been switched the most often? How many lockers, and which ones, were touched exactly five times?
My students were posed with this problem. After two weeks of solving, writing, and revising, they posted their final solutions on their blogs. Read their blogs and learn about perfect squares, factors, and patterns!
Friday, September 4, 2009
What is Math? What is Physics?
What does it mean to do math? What does math look like? Where do you find math? Who uses it?
What is physics? Are we doing physics? Where can you find it? Who uses it?
This post should be at least two paragraphs and include a picture. This picture should be an example of how you see or view math and/or physics.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
30 Things You Didn't Know About Me
2. I can speak Japanese.
3. I don't have a car.
4. I don't own a TV.
5. My favorite colors are green and brown.
6. I have a cat named Ruby. I think she's really a monkey disguised as a cat.
7. I love to knit and quilt.
8. I love reading Science Fiction.
9. I was born in the same hospital and went to the same high school as President Obama.
10. I played soccer in college (as a goalkeeper!).
11. I grew up catching my own rain water in a huge water tank in my yard.
12. I also grew up harvesting my own apple bananas.
13. My favorite vegetables are kabocha and renkon.
14. I love making ceramics.
15. I have never been out of the country.
16. I broke my collarbone twice playing football.
17. I am a thespian.
18. I love origami.
19. The first time I traveled East of CA was two years ago.
20. I eat a lot of rice.
21. I have seen the green flash twice.
22. My favorite impressionist artist is Degas.
23. I have slept through three earthquakes.
24. I have only seen snow twice.
25. I have caught, prepared, and eaten an octopus.
26. I visited four states outside of CA this summer.
27. I love the ocean (despite how cold it is on the mainland).
28. I love playing board games (chess, checkers, go, scrabble, othello).
29. I started doing yoga this summer.
30. My cousin is a ballerina.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
That's Mathematics!
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Perseid Meteor Shower
Jury Duty aka Five Days of Fun?
I got selected and served for five days on a civil trial that involved two tenants (the plaintiffs) suing their former landlord (the defendant) for a complete refund of rent and compensation due to pain and suffering. I'll be brief...the content of the case was not interesting. Even being a tenant myself I had a difficult time remaining engaged. However, the judiciary system itself was really really cool.
The real fun was being a witness to the system: observing how the lawyers interact with the judge, each other, their clients, and how each person in the courtroom has a part. I could not wait until deliberation. When the 12 jurors went into the deliberation room it sometimes felt like a scene from 12 Angry Men.
In the end, the plaintiffs got nothing. I, on the other hand, learned a lot about what it's like to be in court, how to reason with 11 strangers from varied backgrounds and have 9/12 of us come to an agreement. This was an interesting social experience and one that, for the most part, I thoroughly enjoyed.
I highly recommend everyone serving on a jury at least once in their lifetime.

