Conceptual Physics
Our physics class has been hard at work all year tackling some very difficult concepts. We started the year out talking about the scope of science as a whole and differentiating it from other fields such as art and religion. From there, we dove into the heart of Newtonian mechanics, spending a good deal of time wrestling with Newton’s first three laws and learning how to solve real-world problems concerning motion, friction, and pressure. From mechanics, we moved into talking and working with the different
concepts of energy and the field
of optics. We are currently learning about the inner workings of the atom and
the basics of quantum mechanics as well as the history of the development of
nuclear weapons and energy in the mid-20th century. All of the students have
made terrific progress both in their ability to solve challenging problems in
all the subjects we have covered and in their general understanding of
interactions in the physical world. During the last few weeks of the year, we
will be having a lot of fun with a host of group and individual projects on
electricity and magnetism in order to get a hands-on understanding of what can
otherwise be a rather enigmatic topic in high school physics.
Physical Science
The Anacapa physical science class is moving through some exhilarating material, and all of the students are exhibiting a solid capacity for understanding difficult concepts at a young age. We are having a great time learning the reasons behind the fun things we see both in the lab and in everyday life. The first part of this course focused on the chemistry side of the physical world, and for the last few months we have been mastering the basics of Newtonian physics. During the fourth quarter, this energetic group will be taking an in-depth look at the principles of flight as well as completing projects that will shed light on the nature of electromagnetic waves. Our last topic for the year will be special and general relativity, which has always been a favorite of Lower School physical science classes in the past, and I am looking forward to putting this group of students’ blossoming young minds to work on these very challenging subjects.
This year’s biology class is an extremely engaged group of students. The driving force behind much of the work we have done this year has been student curiosity and inquiry. The course is designed to move from the sub-microscopic world of atoms and molecules to the microscopic world of cells and microorganisms to the visible world of life around us, including a detailed section on genetics and the processes of natural selection and descent with modification. During the last few weeks of the year, we will be performing dissections on many different kinds of organisms and making connections between what we have learned over the first three quarters and what we see as we look into the organization of living things on the macroscopic level. Our first dissections will be on the relatively simple organisms in the phylum Annelida (worms), and we will move from there into amphibious forms, finally culminating with a look at mammalian structures.
~~ Ryan Biornstad