Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

In my mechanics classes last Monday I just had a review session on forces in two dimensions, where we discussed four problems from the book, instead of having a new topic (which is uniform circular motion; and include it in the exam) which we would not have covered as extensively as projectile motion. In fact, no other topic was covered by far as extensively as projectile motion.

Hopefully the students now have a better understanding of free body diagrams and components for forces on an inclined plane, as well as when force and acceleration along the negative vertical axis is zero.

If the Young Educators’ Society is still planning a tutorial on Friday from 4-5pm, I’m not sure I’ll be able to make it because of our Innovative Teaching seminar, which is supposed to be from 8am to 5pm. Hopefully, the time was inflated, as is usually the case, and the seminar may end by around 4pm. I’ll have to ask today though if the Y.E.S. is still processing the activity proposal, or if they should just cancel it.

Of course, the students can still push through with the tutorial if they want to, but the best I can help them with in terms of solved problems they can disseminate to the students is the solutions manual that the distributor of the textbook gave me along with a complimentary copy of the book.

At first when it arrived last Tuesday, I was disappointed when the preface said that only 25% of the problems in the book were answered. That means I still have to solve 75% of them by myself. Worse, as far as I’ve seen from the first four chapters, only some odd-numbered problems were chosen, whose answers are already given at the back of the textbook (albeit with a different rounding than I’ve been used to). That means I still have no way of verifying if my solutions to the even-numbered problems are correct.

On the plus side, I can now lend the book to the Y.E. Society for their use during their tutorial session, if it is simultaneous with our faculty seminar. Of course, if they don’t understand some of the solutions, they will have to wait until our seminar is over before I can hopefully clarify things for them. It will all depend on the decision of the officers when I ask them later.

Because of the holiday yesterday, last Monday some students were already asking if they could submit their reports (for the experiment performed last Wednesday) today without any deductions. I told them to ask David last Tuesday, when he would be in (he had no scheduled classes on Monday). Just in case though, I told them they should be ready with their reports last Tuesday; at least they would receive bonuses if they submit it then. That’s something else I should have clarified during the first day of class, and should have given as a reminder as early as last week.

Also, today is the scheduled inspection and cleaning by the School Engineer and the Housekeeping staff of the path for the bike race and the tour on the Open Campus day. As head of the tour and registration committee for that day, I will have to join them, if ever they have any recommendations as to where exactly to bring and not to bring the visitors (either because of safety concerns or aesthetics).

As soon as I find out the start and duration of that inspection, I’ll know whether I will have to schedule make up sessions for my classes today that will be in conflict with that timetable. If my mechanics classes don’t meet later, then their review last Monday is their last review for the test next Monday. That’s their bad luck loss.