LAC2014: Physics and Calculus with the TI-89

LAC2014:

Physics and Calculus with the TI-89

This year's Life After Calculus 2014 (LAC2014) focused on applications of Calculus to Physics. What's nice about these applications is that they serve as a brief introduction to Calculus III, IV and V!

Since we are switching to the TI-nSpire next year, we also demonstrated the use of the TI-89, aka Hal, for the last time whenever possible. It's about time we upgraded our Graphing Calculator in AP Calculus BC class. I think we've been using the TI-89 for over 20 years. So, let this be Hal's Swan Song!

Next year, LAC2015 will be similar to this but we will showcase the TI-nSpire instead! Can you guess what LAC2016 will be like? Yes, you guessed it! We'll redo this project one more time showcasing SAGE!

What follows is a series of ScreenCasts summarizing what we did. Each ScreenCast has the handout and SmartNotes used in class as attachments to the YouTube description.

LAC2014 (TI-89) 101 Day01 2D Vectors!

LAC2014 (TI-89) 101+102 Day02 2D Vectors and Work! 

LAC2014 (TI-89) 102 Day03 3D Vectors! 

LAC2014 (TI-89) 102 Day04 3D Vectors and the ShoeLace Algorithm! 

LAC2014 (TI-89) 102 Day05 3D Vectors and the Cross Product and Torque! 

LAC2014 (TI-89) 103 Q1 Day06 Free Fall without Friction! 

LAC2014 (TI-89) 104 Q1-Q4 Day07 Free Fall with Friction! 

LAC2014 (TI-89) 107 Q1-Q7-ODD Day08 Power Series DiffEqu Solutions! 

LAC2014 (TI-89) 107 Q9+Q10 Day09 Power Series 2nd Order DiffEqu Solutions! 

LAC2014 (TI-89) 108 Q1+Q2-Q6 EVE Day10 Hooke's Law without Friction! 

LAC2014 (TI-89) 109 ALL Day11 Hooke's Law WITH Friction! 

LAC2014 (TI-89) 106 ALL Day12 Simultaneous DiffEqus! 

Well, that's all folks!

Sincerely,

A. Jorge Garcia

Applied Math, Physics and CS

http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/calcpage2009
2013 NYS Secondary Math PAEMST Nominee

Teaching with Technology, 

pastebin youtube slideshare 
mathforum apcommunity
sage ebay

Flipping The Classroom: "To flip or not to flip," that is the question!

What follows is an email I recently posted to the AP Computer Science listserv that I thought you'd appreciate:

Flipping the classroom has been a controversial issue for science teachers for some time now as evidenced on the AP Physics listserv. It's only natural that we, as Computer Science teachers, would like to emulate this fad. The idea is this:

(1) if you have sufficient electronic materials such as ppts, pdfs or mp4s, and

(2) if you have sufficiently motivated students ready for said material, then

(3) you can assign most of the traditional class work to be done at home, and

(4) you can focus on the lab work with the students in class!

The problem is that this model is meant to make the most of lab time for lab intensive courses. However, many teachers are flipping their classes even if they teach non-lab based courses. For example, some on the AP Calculus listserv are doing this. I have resisted this trend as I think that the students loose something in the translation. They are there, at least in part, to benefit from your guidance. You can flip a few classes or a unit or two for variety's sake and to see how it works for you. However, if you flip the whole class, you miss interacting with the students and adding your unique perspective on the topic at hand.

The Flipping Trend is a hard one for me to ignore as I have many of my classes recorded as ScreenCasts and SmartNotes that the students could easily view online at home and still get my perspective on things. I share these files with my students already for those that need to review a difficult concept or need to make up work due to an absence. I post these files as mp4s and pdfs on my ftp, blogspot, youtube, slideshare, pastebin and edmodo sites. I don't think I'd flip a Math class. However, my Computer Science classes could use more lab time....

Here's the rub: most of our students are not as well prepared or dedicated as we would like to think. So, many students probably won't complete the assignment at home. Those students will still be wasting lab time trying to catch up on what they missed at home. Let's face it, today's AP students are way too over booked with other AP courses and activities. Now the student is even farther behind the 8-ball!

HTH,
A. Jorge Garcia
Applied Math and CompSci
http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/calcpage2009

Well, that's my 2 cents for the week. I am now stepping off the soap box.

Generally Speaking,