Joseph's AP physics car January 2003

Christmas Break 2001 -
For New Years we went skiing in upstate NY with our friends the Kelly's. It was cold, and overcast, but fun being with our family and friends. Late in the day on New Year's eve we were driving back from the mountain to our friends house and Joseph casually mentioned that he had a project for his Physics AP class. The project was to design a vehicle that will move x feet when propelled by a weight dropping, and having a braking mechanism. Mind you, this was Tuesday and the project was due on Friday, we were in the middle of nowhere upstate NY and all tthe useful stores were closed.

We got up early the next morning, drove home and Ray, Hynek and Joseph started fooling around in the garage. Building and testing (and going to school and work) for two days and came up with the above "car". I don't think the brakes worked all that well, but it was an interesting design. The wheels were old lp's the body of the car was a basket, the weight was one of my hand weights.

Joseph had done this before. In his 8th grade year I got a call from the science teacher at work. The teacher had given the class a semester long science project, and the next day they were having a poster session. Joseph had not handed in any work, and she did not think he had a project. I called him up, and indeed, he did not have a project. I told him that by the time I got home at 6:30 he had better have a head start on his poster. I came home, and had almost finished all the measurements (with the help of his brothers) for a poster presentation (with data) on physics, momentum, speed, light, particle physics etc. It actually turned out to be one of the better posters in the gym the next day.

As he got older, he learned to prepare and do the work, not just think about it until the last minute and rush things. Ray and I were so impressed in Africa - our adolescent son had turned into a self possessed thinking young man. He had really grown up.