Brian Cox on Stephen Colbert

This is great. Stephen Colbert takes on the LHC, and then he interviews Brian Cox, rockstar physcist.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Big Bang Theory
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Religion

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Brian Cox
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Religion

Great Quote on Intelligence from Mindset

I think intelligence is something you have to work for ... it isn't just given to you. Most kids, if they're not sure of an answer, will not raise their hand to answer the question. But what I usually do is raise my hand, because if I'm wrong, then my mistake will be corrected. Or I will raise my hand and say, 'How would this be solved?' or 'I don't get this, can you help me?' Just by doing that I'm increasing my intelligence." -- 7th grade girl.

How do you change to a growth mindset

Here's the link to the article we talked about today

How to change to change to a growth mindset.

This is amazing

This guy is drawing the NYC skyline from memory starting two days ago, and is filling an 18 foot with his artwork, and is expected to finish Friday.

Want to see scribes at other schools?

We aren't the only class in the world with a blog and scribes who post summaries of the day's class. Take a look at these, and you might find some good ideas:

Scribes at other classes

Getting it wrong: surprising tips on how to learn

There's a GREAT article in scientific america talking about some of the latest research on how to learn.

When you have 15 free minutes you should ready this. (You probably have 15 minutes when driving to school, so why not download instapaper to your iphone, and read it on your phone).

Some highlights:

People remember things better, longer, if they are given very challenging tests on the material, tests at which they are bound to fail. In a series of experiments, they showed that if students make an unsuccessful attempt to retrieve information before receiving an answer, they remember the information better than in a control condition in which they simply study the information. Trying and failing to retrieve the answer is actually helpful to learning. It’s an idea that has obvious applications for education, but could be useful for anyone who is trying to learn new material of any kind.

By challenging ourselves to retrieve or generate answers we can improve our recall. Keep that in mind next time you turn to Google for an answer, and give yourself a little more time to come up with the answer on your own.

The article seems like it practically lifted my FARMIPS idea from today's class, but it talks about how you can adapt this method to any course—imagine making a super study guide for history, or English. How much could you rock those classes?

Class on 10/19/09

Today in class we discussed a couple of concepts.  The first concept we discussed was Newton's 2nd Law.  This law states that  a = Fnet/m.  This law is also stated as Fnet = ma.  In both of these cases m = mass and a = acceleration.  There are many ways to interpret this formula.  First of all, it is shown that mass is inversely proportional to to acceleration.  This can also be proved by showing that 1/a is proportional to m.  Also, in this formula is it shown that acceleration is directly proportional to Fnet.  All of these conclusion can be proved by breaking down the formula a = Fnet/m.

Examples:

1/a  (proportional to)  m    a  (proportional to)  Fnet  a  (proportional to)  1/m

The other concept we discussed was free - body diagrams.  We went over an exercise we completed in Minds on Physics, and discussed all possibilities with the problems given.  There were examples when we would be given a diagram, and we would have to say whether or not it was valid, and also examples when we would have to name forces given the description of an event and a valid diagram.  We then discussed free - body diagrams and what goes in them.

• They show forces that act on an object
• They only show forces (no velocity or acceleration vectors)
• They NEVER show Fnet
• All vectors start at a center point and move in the direction of the force in relation to the object
• All forces are resembled by vectors

In class, we also had time to work on our labs and have small discussion about the main ideas of the lab.  At the end we were given some time to work on homework, and put some finishing touches on our lab.