These past two weeks have been extremely satisfying tutoring my physics student. He has really taken to the framework I taught him and I think it is giving him confidence to tackle the problems. This past week he was given problems with blocks on a table attached by a rope. These types of problems add one more level in complexity in that each block is its own system, the two together are a system and they all have to be analyzed. In addition, there is a new concept called tension, and one problem had friction involved as well. I found that putting the equation for force due to friction (Ff = uk FN ) and force due to gravity (Ff =mag) on the board to refer to is a good exercise. He seemed to forget to use those two definitions and if they were just put on the board before getting started it stuck with him. I asked him to make it a habit to put them at the top of the paper before starting any problem set.
My other student is really doing well these days and isn't really in need of too much help. It seems like after going through "sum of the forces" type problems the classes touch on a bunch of different subjects and don't get very deep. It is a good way to expose the students to thermodynamics, vibrations, electricity and magnetism, etc. I am still forming an opinion on weather it is better than going a little deeper into some of the subjects. It really doesn't seem like it is a challenge for the student anymore, but I do feel like she is learning a lot.
My other student is really doing well these days and isn't really in need of too much help. It seems like after going through "sum of the forces" type problems the classes touch on a bunch of different subjects and don't get very deep. It is a good way to expose the students to thermodynamics, vibrations, electricity and magnetism, etc. I am still forming an opinion on weather it is better than going a little deeper into some of the subjects. It really doesn't seem like it is a challenge for the student anymore, but I do feel like she is learning a lot.
