It’s hard to believe that the second week of VAMPY is coming to a close. The Physics class has been flying through our curriculum; we are already more than halfway finished with a normal school year’s lesson plan.
On Monday, we finished up on momentum and impulse, and we covered torque as well. The students were assigned their third Physics Build: the Bridge. This is the most difficult build during the whole three weeks of camp.
Tuesday was focused on the Universal Law of Gravity and centripetal acceleration. Students spent the last part of the day building and finishing up their Egg Drop devices for the competition the next day.
First thing we did on Wednesday was the actual Egg Drop; students dropped their devices with a raw egg inside from the Fine Arts Center Bridge. Most of the eggs survived, with Taylor winning the competition with the lightest successful device weighing in at 48.5 grams. We covered electricity and magnetism. We had Dr. Keith Andrews come in and guest speak for us about Sub-Quark Cosmology Electrons.
On Thursday, the students studied both parallel and series circuits, ending the day with a collaborative lecture with the Math class. Dr. Bruce Kessler showed off his Mathinator and tied together Physics and Math in a fun demonstration about projectiles.
Friday was the beginning of our waves lecture; next Tuesday afternoon is the second part of our lesson- the Wave Show. The students learned the basics today and took their second diagnostic exam during the afternoon. We gave the students special prism glasses for the fireworks show at the Hot Rods game. The glasses break up light sources into several light spectrums, and they help make the fireworks seem even bigger. This is a preview for a lecture later next week about light.