Physics/Earth Science
Instructor: David Heerschap
Duration: Full Year (Semester 1
– Physics, Semester 2 – Earth Science)
Grade level: 9
Office Hours:
Tuesday 3:15-4:00
Email: dave.heerschap@animashighschool.com
(best way to contact me)
Digital Porfolio:
davidheerschap.blogspot.com Check here DAILY for HW assignments!
Course Description
9th Grade physics/earth science is a course designed to
benefit all college-bound students, and particularly those with a career
interest in medicine, mathematics, engineering, or any of the natural
sciences. You will learn physics and earth science concepts through
theoretical and laboratory approach that will include many activities, projects,
readings, discussions, and experiments. Successful completion of this course will help
prepare you for biology, chemistry, and other college-level science courses. This will be a demanding class, taught as a
college preparatory class. As such it
will help prepare you for college classes in general. Proper organization will be emphasized. It is particularly important that you do not
fall behind in reading assignments, homework, daily lessons, discussions, and
project work. Catch-up becomes
increasingly difficult throughout the course.
This class will build familiarity with basic hand and power tools and
will involve much workshop time. Safety
is paramount and so an adequate amount of time will be dedicated to proper
construction techniques, procedures, tool selection, and material selection. In addition, physics and earth science
projects require that students be extremely resourceful. There will be many times where you will have
to hunt down materials for a project.
Purchasing is always an option but we will need to work within our
budgets and plan well!
Prerequisites - None
Text – Zitzewitz, et al. Physics: Principles and Problems.
McGraw Hill Glencoe, 2009
Readings – Will be distributed to
you as we go
Class
Materials
(You MUST come with these every day – subject to preparedness checks!!!!)
Ø Planner! This will help you stay organized and is a
place to note HW for the day.
Ø Physics Text Book
(exception - we don’t always take these home and they live in the shop
otherwise)
Ø Pen (blue or black ink!!)
and pencil
Ø Basic Scientific
Calculator (TI 30X) GET A TI 84 IF POSSIBLE – LIFE WILL BE
BETTER!!!!
Ø Notebook with perforated pages (for nicer
tear-outs) Get one with a folder to store assignments passed back. The 5-star ones are pretty sweet!
Ø Ruler – Metal is better – Draw a line that isn’t
straight and suffer the consequences!
Ø Graph paper – Get a size that doesn’t make you
dizzy when you look at it. (4squares/inch is nice)
Ø Laptop Computer (will not use every day but will
give a “heads up” when we’ll need them.
You need to have these materials in class every
day.
Grading
Your
course grade is based on the percentage of the total available points you’ve
accumulated in the semester : A: 90 –
100%; B: 80 – 89%; C: 70 - 79%; Below 70% is unacceptable and will require
immediate action to remedy the problem. D
work is failing and will require repeating the course. The hope is that
students will advocate for themselves before I have to open up this discussion
with them. Grades will be posted
adjacent to my desk in the classroom and students can see how they are doing
via student ID#. They can also be seen
at anytime online via csipowerschool.com.
General
Point Breakdown:
~65%
of points will come from projects
~15%
or points will come from homework
~20%
of points will come from tests, quizzes, and other assignments
Late Work
For
every assignment it is imperative that students keep up with due dates,
deadlines and benchmarks.
If assignments are not
completed on time, 50% will be taken off if it is turned in within 2 days and
after that the late assignment may not be turned in at all! Assignments that are long overdue cannot be turned
in at the end of the semester and extra
credit will not be an option! Keep up ! (or please come and talk to me -
adjustments can certainly be made if you present an adequate case!!!)
Classroom Policies:
UNIVERSAL
SCHOOL RULES:
– Violation of the following means immediate consequence at the highest level
1. Swearing.
2. Listening to music
anywhere in the building without instructor permission is forbidden. Wearing headphones around your neck is
considered the same as listening to music.
3. Not following the fashion
guide while at school. (Hats are not allowed)
4. Chewing gum.
5. Using technology
inappropriately.
6. Any behavior that could
break one of the low hanging sprinkler heads in a classroom (throwing objects,
swinging swords around, etc.)
MY
PERSONAL RULES:
- Violation of the following will result some form of consequence
7. Ipods and cell phones may
never be used unless permission is granted by me first – I sometimes allow you
to listen to music – always check with me first. Violations mean that I keep them until the
end of the day.
8. Using equipment without
permission. This is for the workshop
too.
9. Unsafe behavior in the
classroom or shop environment.
10. No eating or drinks in the
classroom or the shop!
11. You must pay attention to
safety!!! Running, using tools you are
not certified to use, using tools in an incorrect manner, and roughhousing will
earn you severe consequences.
Use common sense and always ask me first if you are unsure of something – especially
if it relates to your safety!!!!!!!
In Earth
Science we will study: The Geologic Time Scale, Origins of Earth and the Solar
System,
Plate Tectonics, The Earth-Sun System, and
Earth’s interaction with extraterrestrial forces
and energy such as radiation, gravitation and impact events, Climate, and
Natural Hazards
In
Physics we will study:Scientific Processes, Measurement and Conversions, Mechanics
(includes
Kinematics (speed, acceleration, graphing), Force
and Motion (Newton’s Laws), Work and Energy (simple machines), Momentum, Gravitation
and Circular Motion
Get ready for a great
year!!
