end of waves.... here comes electricity

yeah Friday!
Well, the quiz didn't go so well for a few people.
But we had a healthy curve, so hopefully that helps dampen it a bit.

This first topic was sort of a "trial run" through a physics topic...
Things to learn for next time:
- when you hear a word repeated a few times, you'd better make sure you understand it.
(like frequency, etc.)
- Things that we talk about in class, things that are on the homework, and things that we do in lab all are important and will show up on the quizzes. While memorization is not a focus, understanding is. It is probably easier to memorize 100 words/definitions than to understand and calculate harmonics on a guitar string or in an organ pipe. Yet once you have learned how to do it, it really is pretty straightforward.
- Labs are part of the learning process. This is especially important in this next unit on electricity, where we have lots of labs that lead you through a process that is designed to help you learn on your own.
REPEAT: you are expected to learn by doing stuff in the lab. The lab is NOT just for writing stuff down and getting a grade. It is to increase your understanding of the material. So make sure your brain is ON.

The next unit, electricity, will start with some basic circuit stuff, and then continue to more complex things. We will use words that you have heard, but you probably don't really understand. So be careful. Voltage, current, resistance and power are some of the basics.

One activity that we will be doing is a "home energy audit" where you will need to track your energy usage over a 24 hour period. I have several meters to help you measure the electrical usage of different appliances, but we need to share them. So this assignment will be handed out early, so that we can line-up and check out the meters.

Have a nice weekend, we'll start fresh on Monday.