From Stargazers to Starships

The class examines graphs in the form r = F(¿¿) in polar coordinates (r, ¿¿), in particular with the circle, ellipse and other conic sections. They determine the nature of an ellipse by studying the role of the semimajor axis and...

Young scholars explore concept of acceleration and motion under the influence of gravity, starting with free fall and ending with motions that start out with both horizontal and vertical initial velocities.

High schoolers listen to a lecture and complete a number of problems as they go. There are a variety of examples given and they are guided through the problem solving steps for each of the real-world scenarios regarding the purpose of...

Students see that light and heavy objects fall at the same rate, as established experimentally by Galileo. They see that falling objects, and balls rolling down an incline, tend to accelerate at a constant rate a. Their velocity...

Young scholars distinguish between weight and mass. They examine how in oscillations of a mass against an elastic spring--in the absence of gravity, or in horizontal motion--the length of the oscillation period is proportional to the...

Students explore how Newton tied together the gravity observed on Earth and the motion of the Moon. They apply an earlier lesson about centripetal forces.

Students recognize the daily motion of the Sun across the sky, defining the main directions of east, west, south and north. They see how the first calendars were based on changes in the Sun's noontime elevation, and on locations of...

Students are introduced to the apparent motion of the Sun across the sky and the way it changes in summer and winter.

Students observe the daily motions of the sun and relate them to the functions of a sundial. They determine the locations of sunrises and sunsets and determine how the elevation of the sun effects temperature.

Students learn the concepts of momentum and its conservation, using the recoil of a cannon as an example. They examine how momentum is a vector, allowing its conservation to be applied to problems in 2 and 3 dimensions.