GO4ST8 Physics Meeting 11-14-09: Using blood splatter for a vector analysis lab. Presented by Stephanie Aumann Smart Board best practices. Presented by Scot Hovan (SMART Notebook file of presentation) Use of PER in the classroom. Presented by Kim Hoehne NSTA Meeting 10-30-09: Make Take & Do Sessions From the NSTA sessions on Friday, 10-30-09 The files are available as pdfs immediately below. Further down, the files are viewable as google documents. This requires a google account, but google accounts are painless and yield no email. Files as pdfs: AAPT Make Take & Do: general instructions. : GO4ST8 Physics September 12, 2009 The meeting was held at Minnetonka S.H. Park at door 13E. Enter, go right, then left to room # 1309.
There was a discussion about the possibility of a booth, poster, or stand at NSTA, & MNSTA to advertise the GO4ST8 Group. Augsburg MAAPT meeting Oct 31stright after the NSTA meeting. MAAPT encourages MN high school Physics teachers to attend MAAPT meetings. Sound and standing waves: Materials: Toy keyboard, Canister for film screening, Empty fluorescent light cover. General procedure: Tuning forks are replaced with small electronic toy keyboards Fill canister for film screening with water. Use empty fluorescent light cover as tube open at one end closed at other. Adjust length of tube by raising/lowering tube. Find constructive interference. Wavelength = ¼(L+0.4d) Wavelength = (L2-L1) x 2 Reuben’s Tube Instructions: Materials:
. Byron Anderson
Hoot Tubes. · Fischer Burner (Bunsen with screen on top to make wide flame) · Tubes used include Stove pipe, cardboard tube from carpet roll, 6” diameter pvc pipe with metal stove pipe on bottom. · Discussed possibility of using pvc pipe with stove pipe that would allow the length of the tube to be changed so the pitch could change. 2 pt source laser interference : · Use notecard – punch hole in it. String a hair across the hole. Find width of hair from interference pattern. Rebecca M. · Use record, 45 record, cd as reflective source. Shine laser on cd, light bounces off and interfenece pattern. To witness diffraction patterns: The following methods were discussed as possible ways to see the laser pattern (not just the dots on a screen): · Spray a water mist in the air · Use a fog machine · Place a glass or plastic rod over the laser after the slits. The beam’s spread is visible in the glass rod. Science Friday: Sam Terfa, physics teacher at Minnehaha Academy, had a choir student match the pitch of a wine glass. The resulting standing wave within the wine glass was strong enough to break the glass. The video is on the NPR Science Friday website: http://www.sciencefriday.com/videos/watch/10220 Sam encourages everyone to submit their video to Science Friday. It is an easy and positive experience for the students. Singing Rod Demo: Find the rods midpoint and hold it there (node). Use rosin or toughskin and stroke the rod. Hear the rods fundamental frequency. Hitting the rods end with a hammer also works. Hold the rod at the ¼ length and adjust the fundamental frequency of the newly structured rod. PVC Clarinets – · Materials: o pvc pipe cut to varying lengths (or to specific lengths to match musical notes). o A film canister with 3 holes drilled: 1 on cap, 1 on bottom, one hole on curved side of canister. o Small section of plastic garbage bag. · Construction: o Put plastic bag over open end of canister and use cap to seal bag in place. o Slide pvc tube into bottom of canister so the tube touches plastic bag. o Blow through the hole on the side of the canister.
Area Groups & Workshops Scot Hovan asks about area groups & workshops that have a history of producing positive results and improvements for teachers.: o 3M TWIST o Medtronic version of TWIST? o Modeling o UMN RET o AVS o Hamline PHASE o PTRA o MSP grants? o PLTW Future Topics of discussion: Lab Component of APPB. Likely topic to be added to November meeting. January/February 2009 Cell Phone Technology, Digital Music … January 10 8:30 AM refreshments 9:00 AM meeting starts Minnetonka High School Join
colleagues for the third GO4ST8 Physics meeting of the school year. As
always, there will be time to exchange physics and teaching ideas with
others and enjoy some refreshments. Part
of the meeting will be devoted to a Smart Board discussion (use and
possibilities). There will also be an update of cosmic detectors and a
report on the Seattle schools & U Wash Walta Project Pizza will be served to participants to celebrate the New Year. The
basic premise of GO4ST8 Physics is for teachers to help teachers
improve the teaching and learning of physics in Minnesota. All are
welcomed and encouraged to attend; bring a friend and/or an item to
share. Pass this newsletter on to another colleague.
The Cosmic Connection Teachers
interested in being part of an experimental cosmic detection site
involving their students should contact Steve Ethen at sethen@umn.edu. This topic will be discussed at the January 10th GO4ST8 Physics meeting. Some D.C. Misconceptions 1. See no connection between static and current electricity. 2. Do not think that electric fields have anything to do with current electricity. 3. Do not understand the concept of complete circuit. Think that only one wire is needed for bulbs, etc. 4. Think that charge is stored in battery or in power plant. 5. Think that charge gets "used up". 6. Think that an ammeter will measure differently depending whether it is "before" or "after" a resistor, motor, bulb, etc. 7. Think that voltage is an intrinsic characteristic of an object. 8. Think that voltage and current are the same idea. 9. Think that adding resistors always increases the total resistance. 10. Do not understand the difference in size of batteries of same voltage. 11. Do not understand that a wire across an element causes all the current to go through the wire (short). 12. Think that only electrons move, or conversely, that both positive and negative charges move in wires. 13. Think that resistance is constant in all objects. 14. Think that a capacitor and battery work the same. 15. Think that only high voltage is dangerous, that the current doesn't matter. 16. Think that LEDs are just regular bulbs or that they are lasers. See Arnold Arons, A Guide to Introductory Physics Teaching and Mel Steinberg's work for CASTLE project GO4ST8 PHYSICS Volume 17 No. 2 November/December 2008 Modern Physics, Dark Matter and … November 8 8:30 AM refreshments 9:00 AM meeting starts Minnetonka High School
Join colleagues for the second GO4ST8 Physics of the school year. As always, there will be time to exchange physics and teaching ideas with others and enjoy some refreshments. Nancy Bynum (Elk River High School) spent time in Canada at the Perimeter Institute this past summer. She will share/provide resources (dark matter video and worksheets, quantum physics links, etc). Nancy will describe the opportunities available through QUARKNET and the Perimeter Institute. Participants will find out what is happening at CERN and how to schedule and plan a field trip to MINOS. Part of the meeting will be devoted to discussing cosmic ray experiments participants can do with their students (see article on page 3). Lab materials will be provided to participants which could be used with students to explore modern physics concepts. An assortment of resources will be made available to participants (page 2 describes one of the resources). Some of the links from Nancy's presentation are included below:
Quarknet – Links for CERN, FERMILAB, classroom activities, http://www.interactions.org/cms/?pid=1001046
Minos – Tower Soudan: website: http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/soudan_underground_mine/index.html Laurentian center website: http://www.laurentiancenter.org/ Handouts for this field trip will be posted on the website. Links – Phet: Tunneling, Wave function, probability density http://phet.colorado.edu/simulations/sims.php?sim=Quantum_Tunneling_and_Wave_Packets Perimeter Institute – http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/ prisa http://pirsa.org/index.php?p=speaker&name=Sundance_Bilson-Thompson
Door Prize Contest Complete the grid below so that every row, column, and 3 X 3 box contains every digit from 1 to 9 inclusively. Bring correctly completed puzzle to November meeting for participation in a drawing for a Vernier motion detector plus other door prizes.
November Sudoku Prize Contest Congratulations to Chris Ann Johnson, Joe Morin, and Chris Kaus who had the complete solution to the November Sudoku; they received Vernier motion detectors.
GO4ST8 Physics 17.2 answers
The September GO4ST8 Physics make, take, and do involved the construction and discussion of acceleration due to gravity devices that participants took home for use with their students.
The Cosmic Connection The Berkeley Lab Cosmic Ray Telescope Project We have produced a simple cosmic ray detector that can be built by high school teachers. This detector can be used to measure the rate, energy and direction of cosmic rays. It can also measure how cosmic rays vary with elevation. In addition, it is a valuable tool to teach elementary measurement statistics. This unit is part of Berkeley Lab's ABC of Nuclear Science online science unit. How to Build a Detector
How might GO4ST8 Physics or an individual teacher or school get involved in the construction and operation of the detector described above? The above topic will be discussed at the November 8, 2008 GO4ST8 Physics meeting.
Uniform circular motion, universal gravitation, two dimensional collisions are some of the topics related to the understanding of dark matter and its theories. How might one measure the mass of the sun? What are two methods for measuring the mass of a galaxy? How might classical mechanics and modern physics be intergrated? Attend the GO4ST8 Physics November meeting to receive a DVD and worksheets that will help your students explore dark matter and these topics. GO4ST8 PHYSICS Volume 17 No. 1 September/October 2008 Kinematics, GPS September 13 8:30 AM refreshments 9:00 AM meeting starts Minnetonka High School Join your colleagues for the first meeting of the school year. There will be light refreshments served from 8:30 – 9:00 AM. This is to give participants an opportunity to relax and meet/talk/discuss with others interested in physics and physics education. Refreshments are made available through the generosity of Caleb Lauritsen and Valleyfair Amusement Park. Thanks to the generosity of Kim Hoehne and Tom Tomashek GO4ST8 Physics meetings will be held at Minnetonka High School on the second Saturday of the odd months (September, November, January and March). How might a GPS help develop concepts of displacement, distance, speed, and velocity? The September meeting will emphasize kinematics and the use of a GPS to develop kinematic concepts. Participants will also make, take and use devices that help students understand some kinematic relationships (acceleration and free fall). The basic premise of GO4ST8 Physics is for teachers to help teachers improve the teaching and learning of physics in Minnesota. All are welcomed and encouraged to attend; bring a friend. Pass this newsletter on to another colleague. How to make the simplest electric motor
 Figure 1. You have one drywall screw, one 1.5 V alkaline cell, six inches of plain copper wire, one small neodymium disk magnet, and no other tools or supplies. You have 30 seconds to make an electric motor running in excess of ten thousand RPM. Can you do it? Surprisingly enough, you can. Try this yourself or come to the MnSTA Fall Conference for a demonstration. The completed device is called a homopolar motor.
Figure 2: The Learning Pyramid [Ed. Note: This image, "The Learning Pyramid," is NOT based on any verifiable research; perhaps, no research at all (see this and that). This pyramid is widely cited yet it is, as Christopher Harris shared in an email, a hoax. Nonetheless, I stand by the idea that the marriage of teaching and content creation is a powerful pedagogical practice (see this).] ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The 2007 GO4ST8 PHYSICS Schedule:
GO4ST8 PHYSICS Volume 16 No. 3 January/February 2008 Get a Charge - Static & Current Electricity January 12 8:30 AM refreshments 9:00 AM meeting starts Burnsville High School Room D-106 Join your colleagues for the January meeting. There will be light refreshments served from 8:30 - 9:00 AM. This is to give participants an opportunity to relax and meet/talk/discuss with others interested in physics and physics education. Refreshments are made available through the generosity of Caleb Lauritsen and Valleyfair Amusement Park. The emphasis of the meeting is on current/static electricity. Some simple, never fail static electricity activities will be explored. Various uses of a Van de Graff generator will be presented. A playdoh resistance lab will be shown. A capacitor in a one-use camera will be explored. Participants are encouraged to bring their own activities, demonstrations, or worksheets for distribution. Participants will receive a CD “Franklin and Electrostatics-Ben Franklin as my Lab Partner.” As always, there will be a make-take-and do for participants to bring back to their school. Mark Brown will present an AAPT problem that was in “The Physics Teacher” recently. There will also be time for participants to discuss AP Physics activities, assignments, etc. related to current/static electricity. A baseball Physics Day on April 3rd will be presented (see article elsewhere in this newsletter). The basic premise of GO4ST8 Physics is for teachers to help teachers improve the teaching and learning of physics in Minnesota. All are welcomed and encouraged to attend; bring a friend. Pass this newsletter on to another colleague. The entire flier (including a map and more details) is available as a pdf here: GO4ST8 Physics Flier 1-12-08 Mark Brown’s AAPT Rock and Paper Solution: Mark Brown’s AAPT RockVsPaper Camera Disection pdf Camera Disection Ben Franklin CD Materials. The Wright Center for Science Education Link Topics for the Saturday, 11-10-07 Meeting:GO4ST8 Physics 11-10-07 @ Burnsville High School Topics 9am - 12noon (not necessarily in this order): Optics:
Some Links:
The make-and-take optics kits were a hit. The afternoon topics session was cancelled so we could finish more optics kits. We made 38 optics kit set-ups for folks that ‘ordered’ kits ahead of time. We will send out an email question in December to gather thoughts for topics to discuss in future afternoon sessions. Topics for the Saturday, September 8th meeting:
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