I am working at SAMSI with Dr. Tom Witelski for my project! We are going to investigate the chaotic dynamics of a bouncing ball.  Dr. Witelski and I met at SAMSI and spent a great deal of time discussing all of the different pieces of the project that we could investigate.  We recognized pretty early on that we will have to narrow our focus, but there were quite a number of smaller activities and demos that I can already say for certain that I will incorporate into my classroom.  The best part of the project is that it can be done in pieces to connect each unit, which is a MAJOR part of teaching the AP Physics 1 course.  The math and computer work that will be involved will mimic the rigor and expectations of a college course.  I am very excited to bring more computer work into my classroom to help them see the benefits of coding (even if it is indirect).

The next day that Dr. Witelski and I worked together, we worked through the mathematics and physics that will be the core of the project.  As we continue working, the focus will narrow and we will write the excel code to do the multiple iterations beyond the original computation.