Week 6 | The days before MEA Break | #Teach180

In Minnesota, every school takes two days off in the month of October for the annual MEA (Minnesota Educators Association) conference. This, plus the additional day off for seniors to visit and apply to colleges meant that it was an extremely short week.

Can you hear me now?

I love teaching about the Physics of Sound. There is something really powerful about learning the "hows" and "whys" behind experiences that we all have every day.

We started our discussion of sound by talking about pitch and frequency and how they are related. With stories like the Mosquito Ringtone and Mosquito Device to deter loitering, teenagers are really interested in the idea that they can hear things that I can't. Even more powerful is the realization that their are even some frequencies that they CAN'T hear but others can.

How do you stack up?

#Day25: How does your hearing compare? Talking about frequency. http://t.co/sGilKdWdUw #CanYouHearMeNow #Teach180 pic.twitter.com/XXbahbn7nP

— Joe Cossette (@cossettej) October 13, 2015

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#Day26: Introduced the Physics Phil-Harmonic. Construct an instrument using properties of standing waves #Teach180 pic.twitter.com/MAI69U8ori

— Joe Cossette (@cossettej) October 13, 2015

Physics Phil-Harmonic

The physics of sound is what makes instruments play the notes that make the music we all enjoy. To get us ready for the project build on Monday, we talked about the idea of resonance and harmonics for open and closed tube systems. This is a hard concept to fully understand. Last year, I presented this using the resonance equation (with n representing the harmonic number) but I found that it made the concept hard to conceptualize. Instead, I am approaching the topic this year by visual representation and mini equations that represent the length/wavelength relationship for each harmonic. So far, this seems to be clicking a little bit better. 

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PSAT Proctoring

Since my 4 sections of seniors were visiting colleges for the day, I was recruited to proctor the PSAT for the Sophomores. Many of these students were in my classes last year but many of them I didn't know. I spent a lot of time thinking about testing during this time and watching how differently students approach the test. Listening to some students talk during break about how they "barely read the test booklet" or "made a pattern with the bubbles" reminded me that the reported scores don't really represent the achievement potential of students as much as it represents their buy-in.

#Day27: last day before the long MEA weekend! Seniors had the day off for college visits so I got to proctor the PSAT #Teach180

— Joe Cossette (@cossettej) October 14, 2015