CONCEPTUAL PHYSICS: SCALARS AND VECTORS

 

VIDEO: COSMIC VOYAGE!

Mr. Hatfield's students will be viewing a 36-minute IMAX video in class, and will be using that video to complete a worksheet based on part of the video. The film, 'Cosmic Voyage', was made in 1996 for the Smithsonian Institute and was clearly inspired by a classic science education film called 'Powers of Ten', originally produced in 1977 by the husband-and-wife team of Rae and Charles Eames.

The video can be accessed on Youtube, HERE.

'Cosmic Voyage' approaches the idea of using the metric system, which is based on powers of ten, to explore the question: "What is really large, and really small?" The film first zooms out from an acrobat's ring in St. Mark's Square in Venice, the place where Galileo first trained his telescope on the heavens.

Through 23 powers of ten, we leave first the Earth, then our solar system, then the Milky Way Galaxy behind, until we reach the limit of modern astronomy, where we can see images from about 13 billion years past.

Reversing course, the video then zooms in on drop of water in the Dutch town of Delft, where Antonie Van Leuuwenhoek first trained his early microscope to discover the hidden world of microbes.



As we zoom in on a paramecium, we penetrate its cell nucleus, then zoom in on a molecule of DNA.

Within that molecule is a carbon atom, and the world within that atom is mostly empty space! Within the atom, the atomic nucleus contains virtually all of an atom's mass, made of particles called protons and neutrons. These, in turn, are formed from even smaller particles called quarks.

The film continues with a discussion of the search for a fundamental theory in physics through the use of particle accelerators like Fermilab, along with an overview of the likely "recent" events that led to our sun, our solar system, the Earth and life itself.

VIDEO: SCIENTIFIC METHOD IN CHEMISTRY

Mr. Hatfield's students can watch this video, which summarizes material covered in the Study Guide 'The Nature of Chemistry.'   

The actual Power Points notes which both items are based on will be shared in a future blog post, soon:

YOUR FIRST ASSIGNMENT IN MR. HATFIELD'S COURSE

Students should've received, completed and returned a Course Contract that outlines some expectations for the learning environment in Mr. Hatfield's Science Classes.

Since every period has a different 'class color', the same Contract has been made available to students in a color that matches their class:

Students receive 10 points of extra credit for promptly returning the Contract, which is their first assignment in this course.  

Students will receive a three-hole punched copy of the contract to keep in their Binder.  Students and their parents can also access that information at any time by returning to this post and clicking on the image below:

WELCOME TO MR. HATFIELD'S CLASSES

 

Students, my name is Scott Hatfield. 

I will be serving as your Science Instructor in the 2023-2024 school year.  Periods 1, 2, 5 and 6 are sections of Chemistry, while Period 3 is a section of Conceptual Physics.  We will often distinguish those classes on the basis of color:

SHS students need to be prepared to function as citizens and consumers in a world that increasingly uses digital resources to communicate information. 

This includes email!  Mr. Hatfield's email is:

Scott_Hatfield@sangerusd.net

This also includes  apps like Canvas, Clever and Google Docs, as well as this blog, 'Chemistry Nation', which you can think of as a virtual classroom notice board, constantly being built and rebuilt: 

THE 'ROOM'