Dear Parents:
Welcome back to all returning families and all the new families joining the NCLS community! We hope you had a great summer and a nice long weekend. Our school starts on Sunday September 9, 2012.
We are very excited for the new school year. In addition to our existing 80+ courses, we are offering four new courses in the Fall semester. The course descriptions are below:
New course 1:
Physics Concepts and SAT II (3:40 – 5:00 second class)
任课教师：刘希纯博士 Xichun Liu, PH.D.
The primary goals of this course are to review the key concepts in Physics, and to help students in preparing for the SAT II Physics test. If you plan to pursue a math- or science-based program of study (such as science, technology, engineering or math), you probably should consider preparing and taking the Physics Subject Test. Since the SAT II Physics exam covers almost identical subjects as AP Physics B curriculum, students who are interested in learning the latter subject will also benefit from this course.
Students in 9th grade and above who are familiar with trigonometry and algebra 2 are encouraged to take this course.
The course will last for two semesters. The following topics will be included:
Mechanics
- Kinematics, such as velocity, acceleration, motion in one dimension, and motion of projectiles
- Dynamics, such as force, Newton’s laws, statics, and friction
- Energy and Momentum, such as potential and kinetic energy, work, power, impulse, and conservation laws
- Circular Motion, such as uniform circular motion and centripetal force
- Simple Harmonic Motion, such as mass on a spring and the pendulum
- Gravity, such as the law of gravitation, orbits, and Kepler’s laws
Electricity and magnetism
- Electric Fields, Forces, and Potentials, such as Coulomb’s law, induced charge, field and potential of groups of point charges, and charged particles in electric fields
- Capacitance, such as parallel-plate capacitors and time-varying behavior in charging/ discharging
- Circuit Elements and DC Circuits, such as resistors, light bulbs, series and parallel networks, Ohm’s law, and Joule’s law
- Magnetism, such as permanent magnets, fields caused by currents, particles in magnetic fields, Faraday’s law, and Lenz’s law
Waves and optics
- General Wave Properties, such as wave speed, frequency, wavelength, superposition, standing wave diffraction, and Doppler effect
- Reflection and Refraction, such as Snell’s law and changes in wavelength and speed
- Ray Optics, such as image formation using pinholes, mirrors, and lenses
- Physical Optics, such as single-slit diffraction, double-slit interference, polarization, and color
Heat and thermodynamics
- Thermal Properties, such as temperature, heat transfer, specific and latent heats, and thermal expansion
- Laws of Thermodynamics, such as first and second laws, internal energy, entropy, and heat engine efficiency
Modern physics
- Quantum Phenomena, such as photons and photoelectric effect
- Atomic, such as the Rutherford and Bohr models, atomic energy levels, and atomic spectra
- Nuclear and Particle Physics, such as radioactivity, nuclear reactions, and fundamental particles
- Relativity, such as time dilation, length contraction, and mass-energy equivalence
Miscellaneous
- General, such as history of physics and general questions that overlap several major topics
- Analytical Skills, such as graphical analysis, measurement, and math skills
Contemporary Physics, such as astrophysics, superconductivity, and chaos theory
New course 2:
Math Competition (3:40 – 5:00 second class)
任课教师：张剑老师 Jian Zhang, M.B.A.
In this class, the required qualified students should have interests in Mathematics, not the interests from the parents. If the students cannot make 2 hours homework time each week, it is better not choose this class. The basic requirement for the parents is to supervise the students to finish the homework.
Each class will include one specific topic or 2. At least 20 minutes in class practice, 5 minutes break; lecture time will be about twice 20 to 25 minutes before and after the break. Multimedia teaching might be used, but it is not necessarily being used every time. Group discussion will be encouraged. I would like to see our Matheletes can communicate clearly with each other and clearly with no-math-interest people.
Class contents:
1. Divisibility, prime factorization and its application in the competition
2. Looking into the patterns, arithmetic sequence, geometric sequence and mix
3. Algebra overview: including formula, equations and inequality, quadratic equations and functions, polynomial (multiply) and factorization
4. Geometry overview: parallel lines, triangle, polygon, congruent and similar
5. Competition practices (AMC, Math Olympiad, MathCount etc.)
Qualifications:
1. 5 to 8th grades, if 5th grade, you need to have a discussion with me before register this class. You need to have some basic knowledge about algebra one, and possibly in math club or math team at your regular school. You should make AMC 8 test over 15 correct.
2. No miss school/class, the mathematics study will be harder, if you miss one class, you will feel very difficult since we used last week’s knowledge. If you plan to miss two classes, you should not be registered in the class. Also, I am not babysitting your child.
3. Parent support: once a week, your child will be with me for 80 minutes. He/she will be with you the rest of the time. If you cannot answer the questions, you need to come to me or find outside helper. Each week’s 2 hour homework is the key for your child to be successful. If they cannot figure one question out, it is ok. I will not accept any excuse for not handing in your homework.
New course 3:
武术拳击健身 Martial Art (3:40 – 5:00 second class)
任课老师：李广辉教练 Guanghui Li, Athletic Coach
国家级教练李广辉老师自幼习武。练过摔跤，散打，后来改练拳击，88年入选中国拳击队。参加哈萨克斯坦举行国际比赛获得81公斤冠军，91年全国拳击冠军，92年全国拳击亚军 ，93年全国第7届运动会铜牌。93年担任天津拳击教练，94年取得国际拳联高级教练 证书，培养学生多次获得各级别冠军等好成绩。
培养学生，有强健的体魄，顽强的毅力，灵活的头脑，准确的判断力，通过武术与拳击训练，逐渐养成锻炼身体好习惯，有良好的自控能力。教学以训练各种拳法，步法，技战术为主，有条件对练，不进行身体接触对练，避免任何 伤害，让学生掌握自卫方法，提高身体素质。课程内容包括：准备活动，柔韧训练；武术套路，身体素质训练；拳击的站立姿 势及各种步法；组合拳法训练，击打假人训练； 每天课后有身体的训练。
New course 4:
快乐汉语 Happy Chinese For Beginners (3:40 – 5:00 second class)
任课老师：陈丽嘉老师 Lijia Chen, Chinese Language Teacher
陈丽嘉老师持有美国儿童教育学位，现任Brookline和波士顿公立学校中文教师，Head Start音乐、舞蹈教师，曾任Newton和Sharon公立学校中文教师，牛顿中文学校和麻州中文学校中文、音乐和舞蹈及表演艺术教师。陈丽嘉老师教学经验丰富，教学认真，教学内容丰富多彩，形式活泼多样，孩子们一定能够受益其中，乐在其中。
课程采用《快乐汉语》教材，适合英语为母语的中文初学者使用。
We look forward to seeing you on Sunday!
NCLS Admin.