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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Day 169 - 175 Physics: this class was mostly seniors and they finished school two weeks early. Left with just three students we focused on renewable energy sources. Developed wind and solar energy sources and determined what made sense for our locality #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Day 164-168 Physics: Students worked on and then presented their thermodynamic projects and models. Great to see students explain processes that seemed like a black box. This was the final for seniors and their last assignment ever so very bittersweet! #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Day 171 Physical Sci - talked about albedo effect and positive feedback back loops. Used #vernier light sensor to measure reflectivity of different color surfaces #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Day 166 Physical Sci - warm up on Owen’s Beach park in Tacoma that had to be shifted uphill due to sea level rise. Talked about properties of warming water and what causes sea levels to rise. Lots of demos and observations and modeling interactions bw water and heat #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Day 165 Physical Sci - Today we modeled the greenhouse effect and collected some data using #vernier sensors by heating up an atmospheric air bottle vs a CO2 bottle. #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Day 162 Physical Sci - last day for one pagers, lots of students will need to take theirs home to finish or come in after school for extra time #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Day 160/161 Physical Sci - continued working on our plate boundary one pager. Favorite question is asking students to analyze why these regions (PNW, Japan, Pacific Islands, Iceland) have such unique cultures due to their geologic processes #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Also discussed how water won’t surpass 100 C and students explained where the heat energy was going

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Day 160/161 Physics - notes on 2nd and 3rd thermodynamic laws and Carnot Cycle. Today did find the specific heat capacity of mystery block by transferring from ice water and transferring from boiling water #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Day 157/158 Physics - Notes on 1st law of thermodynamics. Many demos with syringes beginning with students using them to boil water by rapidly decreasing pressure. Stuck a vernier temp probe in one to observe significant temp rise. Sub day for day 2 to do practice probs #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Day 156 Physical Sci - Finished our plate tectonic diagrams. Interest starting to click! Lot more google map viewing to see mountain ranges and trenches. I went to Uni in Los Angeles and talked about how often we’d feel earthquakes which blew my Ss minds #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Day 156 Physics - Charles Law today and discussed compressed air cans and hot air balloons. #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Day 155 Physical Sci - Revisited the plate tectonic notes since I was out last week. Combining having students annotate their diagrams and find the real world examples of these plate boundaries in Google Maps #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Day 155 Physics - Did a lab on Boyles law and Gay-Lusaac Law using vernier probes to investigate relationships between pressure temperature and volume #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

Day 153/154 Physics - Stomach Bug finally caught up to me and all 5 family members. Just a punt on the week. Had students do notes and an interactive activity about Ideal Gas Laws #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

Day 152 Physics - Introduced 3 thermodynamic laws using @phetsims.bsky.social Sims phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/en... phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/st... And did some live demos #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Day 150/151 Physics - Began our HVAC and thermodynamics unit today. Began with a simple warmup of does a ceiling fan cause a rooms temp to increase, decrease, neither. Then went over some notes and introduced heat energy formula and 0th law. Practice problems on day 2 #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Day 150 Physical Sci - Ss asked “why is this iron so much heavier than the rocks even though it’s way smaller?” Finally density is starting to click. Lab with granite, basalt, epidote, and iron for earth layers density #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Day 148/149 - took sick days with my kids being sick. Physics took their fluid unit test, physical Sci did a Phet density lab. But made it to school for our multicultural assembly which is the best! Love getting to advise and coach my Asian club with the lion and dragon dance. #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Day 145 Physical Sci - introduced earths layers with a “scale” model in the notebook. Want 100% compliance? Have students copy a drawing/model. A little bit mindless in the moment but becomes a great resource #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Day 146 Physics - had students create the own mini toilets and experiment #iteachphysics #teach180 drive.google.com/file/d/1NYSo...

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

Day 144 Physical Sci - these 10th graders wrapped up two days of state testing so kept today light. Started with a penny boat activity which led into some basic notes on density. #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

Day 144 Physics - successful tests! Ss made these on our short day so the walls were lower than I hoped leading to some water intrusion. But as far as density goes we were able to demonstrate buoyancy and density principles #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Day 143 - didn’t see my physics or physical Sci classes due to state testing. Messed around with the vernier temp probe and remote logging #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Day 142 Physics - Trial 2 for boat construction. state testing week so funky schedule allows us to have some extra time. making them do the math this time to achieve a density of less than 1000 kg/m^3 giving them a mold to speed process up and more direct instruction #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Day 141 Physics - big Fail! As predicted many teams made theirs way tooo thick essentially creating bricks. Teams that used expanded glass chose to use barely any cement???? Good first attempt was a learning experience! #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Day 140 Physics - measured and weighed boats to calculate mass and volume. Predicted % submersion. Will test boats tomorrow! #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

More pros for PNW living. 15 minute drive to the Puget sound and heading to see the Tide Pools at low tide on a beautiful day can be spontaneous #PNW

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Day 139 Physics - students casted their concrete boys today! We’ll see how they turn out after The Weeknd #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Day 138 Physics - students finished their molds and had to decide if they wanted to go with the quikcrete mix or make their own aggregate. I have a sample of expanded glass from PoRaver that works well but figuring out the ratios of sand-cement-water is tricky with it #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Day 138 Physical Sci - getting ready to wrap up astronomy. Working on building a model that connects big bang to life cycle of stars to solar system formation to age of earth evidence. Big task! having students connect the ideas by modeling how heavy elements came to earth #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

Day 137 Physical Sci - focused on radioactive decay and half life to explain how we know the age of earth. Did dice rolling activity and had students graph the the half life to notice the trend #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

Day 137 Physics - concrete boat design day and creating the molds. Using cardboard then duct taping the insides. Goal is to create a floating concrete boat that can support the most weight. #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Day 136 Physics - followed up the phet lab with a real one where we measured the density of water, saltwater, and oil by having Pennie’s float in a film canister and measure the mass and volume #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

Day 134 Physical Sci - did the crater lab with fine dirt, marble, steel ball, and bocce ball. Great weather today so able to do it outside! Graphed data in @desmos.com #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

Day 134 Physics - classic buoyancy archimedes lab feat #vernier sensors #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

Day 133 Physics - Started an Archimedes Buoyancy lab which will continue tmrw. Today was a lot of problem solving with setting equipment up & reviewing how overflow beakers work. Began with an intro of what weighs more, @rhettallain.bsky.social did a great video on IG #iteachphysics #teachphysics

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Students had to problem solve best way of determining soda can volume. Asked what weighed more, regular can or compressed can? Students brainstormed then checked. Many then used hammers to make their cans fit into smaller graduated cylinders whereas some used geometry to determine volume.

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Day 132 Physics - continued density with focus on finding density of irregular objects. Started with rock identification based on density. Then asked if soda cans are made from pure aluminum, and challenge of determining their volume #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Day 132 Physical Sci - Gave a reading on the formation of the solar system and broke down the steps paragraph by paragraph. Students cut out steps and arranged them in notebooks as we went through the process. Watched a clip from history channel #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Day 131 Physics - Review of density. Had Ss measure and put density cubes in order of density and which would float in water. Did density problems before we jump to archimedes and buoyancy Goal of this topic is to create a concrete mini boat that floats +carry weight #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Day 128 Physics - Bernoulli and Venturi effect lab measuring pipe diameter vs pressure. Love DIYing lab materials and then plugging #vernier sensors into them to make it quantitative. #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

I use this image as a template and ask what is it missing? Where does it become a “cycle?” What elements are formed and at what stages?

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

Trains, mountains, parks, bridges, beaches, islands, puget sound/Salish Sea all in one photo #Tacoma

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Day 123 Physical Sci - Used @cossettej.bsky.social HR diagram activity today which is a great physical way to get students to make connections b/w color, temp, mass, luminosity, stage, etc. drew on desks using chalk markers and had Ss identify patterns. #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Day 123 Physics - back2back speakers, #TacomaPower talking about their apprenticeship programs. Wild that what we cover in our electricity unit mostly covers what an applicant needs. Ohms law, series and parallel, and DC/AC theory. So many great career opportunities! #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Day 122 Physical Sci - Finished up steps of Life Cycle of Stars. Lots of good Q&A Also, March is when direct instruction is a struggle. Also the time to receive Ss who had trouble with other teachers, up to 36 kids now in one class 💀 #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Day 122 Physics - as a follow up to our Road Safety project we had #PierceCounty Public Works send 3 engineers to share their work, career paths, and give feedback on our project and gave us next steps. It’s so awesome when ppl in STEM fields do outreach, makes a difference #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Day 119 Physical Sci - from big bang went over periodic table and atomic properties. Started with color coding stellar origins of elements. Tried to oversimplify then revisit when we hit things like cosmic rays and radioactive decay. Will eventually lead into star life cycle #iteachphysics #teach180

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Nick Watkins @pnwphysics.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Day 119 Physics - Pascals law lab with water bottle and holes. Connecting to water tower model and extending to why dam walls are designed the way they are. Measure flow rate, horizontal distance #iteachphysics #teach180

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