Week of January 23rd

My first block of office hours this week had high attendance, with around five people staying for most of the two hours.  Overall, students seemed to be struggling with the ExpertTA homework problems, specifically ones asking for symbolic expressions.  But, after reviewing several strategies, it seemed that most had a better handle on the problems.  Some of these students also came to my Friday office hour and had completed the remainder of the homework, indicating that they were getting a better handle on projectile motion concepts.  During the Friday office hour, I helped one student with fixing a misunderstanding on a homework question and discussed the set-up for some of the book problems with the other two students, both of whom seemed to improve with the initial problem set-ups as we progressed through the book questions.  There also seemed to be a general confusion about coordinate systems and how to use "g" in certain situations.