Designed to go beyond the AP Physics C Mechanics and AP Physics C Electricity and Magnetism courses, Physics at Mass Academy aspires to increase our understanding of the world. Mrs. Chase, the physics teacher at Mass Academy, works toward meeting each student and addressing their knowledge gaps from the ground up. Regardless of whether a mistake may be a simple mathematical error or not understanding a concept, Mrs. Chase integrates time in and outside of the school day to ensure that her students have a solid understanding of the topics discussed. Moreover, we participate in a multitude of activities, such as demonstrations to individualized problems, to apply our knowledge in different settings.
While traditional physics classes focus on taking notes, tests, and reviewing AP concepts, our class encourages learning about concepts from different perspectives. For example, the Kinematics Lab, as pictured on the right, includes the analysis of re-assuring a physics concept that we had already understood: the relationship between inclined planes and acceleration. However, by performing this experiment in class with my peers, I was able to increase my depth of knowledge because I understood the reasoning and logic behind the equations. There certainly is a necessity to understand and memorize equations to maintain efficiency, but I believe it is arguably more pivotal to understand the reasoning and explanation for a certain phenomenon, as exemplified in this lab report.
Similar to the lab completed in Unit 1 Kinematics, we completed our own authentic lab report for the Dynamics Unit. To clarify, instead of performing a certain experiment as a class, we split up into smaller groups to perform our own authentic experiments to research a certain part of unit that we wanted to know more about. That said, there was one thing that I realized more than anything else in physics: communication. Throughout a range of science classes, the factor that matters most toward success is the proper communication of ideas. In this assignment, we were challenged to deduce our thoughts and analysis into 1 singular page, resulting in the concise, yet vital, conclusions signified within the lab report.