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04 January 2024

Mail Time: In the day-by-day plan, what are "four minute drill" and "dang fool questions"?

In my workshop materials for both conceptual physics and AP physics 1, I provide a day-by-day plan for an entire year-long physics course.  It's not that I expect teachers to follow it word for word, of course!  See, the most common questions I get at workshops are "In what order do you teach these topics?"  "What problems and labs do you assign during the momentum unit?"  "How do you review for the exam?"  and, especially, "How do you pace your course?"  Seeing the detailed list of activities and assignments that I actually used over a full school year can help teachers plan for their own classes, usually by adapting the general framework they see to their actual situation on the ground.

But, Marah wants to know: On that plan, I mention the "four minute drill".  What's that?

Here's the post about the 4-minute drill.  In 2012, this was a technique for getting my AP Physics B class to recall equations.  Nowadays, I riff off of each fact on the fact sheet.  "How do you find speed from a position time graph?"  "How do you find displacement from a position-time graph?"  And so on.  Very, very effective and fun.  I use this in all courses I teach, both conceptual and all forms of AP.

Marah's next question: What is this "Dang Fool Questions" class?  

Dang Fool Questions in AP Physics are generally the last day before an exam, or before The Exam.  I go through all the topics on the AP exam (linked is the 2015 AP Physics 1 version, you can still use it for P1 but cut the waves and electricity stuff) as fast as I can, in about 10 minutes of riffing.  Then I ask for questions.  They're "Dang Fool" questions because I say no judgment, ask whatever is on your mind, even if it's the simplest or most obvious thing in the universe, I'll answer patiently and kindly, no worries. Usually the questions I get are things they've encountered in the past but are worried they won't remember how to approach.  

Like, "How would you approach a flying pig-style problem?"  "It looks to me like forces and circular motion... so that means we use the force approach:  free body, components, N2L... where acceleration is v^2/r to the center."  "What are the typical things where you can't use kinematics, again?"  "Anything without constant acceleration.  The canonical situations are, object moving on a spring, object swinging on a string, or cart on a curved track.  In those cases, the free body diagram changes throughout the motion; so you can't use kinematics.  Make an energy bar chart instead."


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