On Oct. 3, the block 2 FOS4 class watched as Serena O’Brien and Allison Mayer dropped a pumpkin off the roof of CHS, a lab assignment Free Fall Unit. Jonathan Thomas-Palmer (JTP), FOS4 teacher, uses the pumpkin drop to help students understand the physics behind an object in free fall.
O’Brien lowered a measuring tape over the side of the building as JTP stood at the bottom to measure the distance that the pumpkin was being dropped.
“[Being on the roof] was a little embarrassing because I knew that everyone was looking at me and it was all a little weird,” O’Brien said. “It was hard to get up to the roof because you have to go up this chute and I had a pumpkin in a bag on my back and it kept hitting the chute. ”
From the roof, O’Brien’s FOS4 class looked small as she stood holding the pumpkin.
“I was worried when I was picking up the pumpkin and holding it off my body that I wasn’t going to be strong enough to get it over the ledge,” O’Brien said. “I was so relieved when it didn’t hit the window that was open and it just hit the tarp at the bottom– it was fun when everyone cheered.”
Anya Knoepp, a FOS4 student who dropped the pumpkin for the 4th block class, was excited about being chosen and getting to do it with Kevin Davis, considered to be the backbone of CHS.
“I was very excited to drop the pumpkin because I have never seen the roof,” Knoepp said. “We are honored to have this opportunity to climb up the roof with the one and only Kevin. It was a very liberating experience.”
Allison Mayer, a block 2 FOS4 student, stood with O’Brien as she dropped the pumpkin.
“It was scary to be on the roof,” Mayer said. “Watching Serena reach over the building with a heavy pumpkin was nerve-racking but exciting. I am looking forward to more experiments in FOS4 because they help prove the accuracy of the content we are learning.”
While the pumpkin was dropping, JTP recorded the fall for students to be able to watch back and solve a problem once they returned to class. FOS4 students ended class working with JTP to figure out the acceleration and displacement of the pumpkin.
