The formula I included in my lovingly drawn concept map "cheat sheet" for the wave unit was wrong. n did not refer to the number of loops when it came to an air column with one end open, the plus was supposed to be a minus, and so... the practice problems were going slightly awry. I was really low on sleep and it was crazythursday- four periods in a row, alternating between math and physics.
I was very tired, got a bit muddled, almost tripped on the leg of a portable screen and later, as the students were leaving, knocked down the string from the standing wave demo and the clamp came tumbling down in beautiful synchronicity with my state of being.
One period earlier in math class, I announced to the students that we were now going to get out our pencils and notebooks and start *stretching* the graphs. I mean, sketching the stretches. Shifting the skretches, munching the functions and scrunching the compressions. One girl in the front smiled kindly as I fumbled.
Back in physics.... the students helped me through my confusion with great and exhausting energy. We changed n to represent the harmonic number so that it was consistent for all the standing wave formulae, the plus became a minus. It felt like for the first time they really *understood* what had been going on all this time as I was dancing up there in front of class excited about my presentations of concepts... not because I did anything to help them, but because I needed their help. One student seemed even more excited than usual through the confusion: This is what real science is about! he exclaimed as I follied and sorried... All of us working together to find a solution!
The bell rang and as the clamp came tumbling down onto the floor, I mumbled, Sorry... it's been a clumsy kind of day, and as Ricky passed me on the way to the door he said: Don't worry, Miss. It happens to all of us sometimes.
I was very tired, got a bit muddled, almost tripped on the leg of a portable screen and later, as the students were leaving, knocked down the string from the standing wave demo and the clamp came tumbling down in beautiful synchronicity with my state of being.
One period earlier in math class, I announced to the students that we were now going to get out our pencils and notebooks and start *stretching* the graphs. I mean, sketching the stretches. Shifting the skretches, munching the functions and scrunching the compressions. One girl in the front smiled kindly as I fumbled.
Back in physics.... the students helped me through my confusion with great and exhausting energy. We changed n to represent the harmonic number so that it was consistent for all the standing wave formulae, the plus became a minus. It felt like for the first time they really *understood* what had been going on all this time as I was dancing up there in front of class excited about my presentations of concepts... not because I did anything to help them, but because I needed their help. One student seemed even more excited than usual through the confusion: This is what real science is about! he exclaimed as I follied and sorried... All of us working together to find a solution!
The bell rang and as the clamp came tumbling down onto the floor, I mumbled, Sorry... it's been a clumsy kind of day, and as Ricky passed me on the way to the door he said: Don't worry, Miss. It happens to all of us sometimes.
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