Meetings Before 2013

Hamline University has an opportunity as well. Hopefully an electronic description of the opportunity will be available soon..

The first part of the meeting will focus on project‐based learning. The Minnesota State Science Standards asks science teachers to incorporate aspects of engineering principles into their curriculum. Many physics teachers have naturally been doing something along these lines using project‐based learning at some point during their courses. As part of the September 10th session we will discuss ways and resources to accomplish this formally enhancing our physics curriculums rather than making all new lengthy add on units focusing on just engineering principles. Bring your ideas, experience, resources and handouts to share if you have been doing projects along these lines! We will also do a make and take session building small inexpensive catapults and participate in a contest as an activity to seed our discussion around doing engineering and physics in our classes.

The second part of the meeting will have Ken Heller (University of Minnesota) and perhaps others discuss the features of Context‐Rich problems and how to make them and adapt them to your situation including making them into laboratories. The website for Context‐Rich Problems is: <http://groups.physics.umn.edu/physed/Research/CRP/crintro.html> The U of MN physics Department believes content rich problems need to have certain characteristics. These characteristics are described on their website.

Several GO4ST8 participants attended a 90‐hour Modeling workshop this past summer and were very impressed with how modeling can improve student learning. Nancy Bynum has organized a session for those interested in modeling following the main meeting. This is for those who want to learn more about modeling and might want to incorporate modeling into their classrooms. This session will be a part of all GO4ST8 meetings this year. The time and length of the session will be determine by the participants.

For more complete information, read the pdf of the meeting outline here. GO4ST8 Physics 9-10-11.pdf View Download

GO4ST8 Physics Meting 3-12-11:

A copy of the meeting outline is available here. View Download

March 12, 2011

The March meeting of GO4ST8 Physics has traditionally been devoted to applications of physics to “real world” situations such as amusement parks, baseball games or NASCAR. The March 12^th meeting will use iPod Touch/iPhone/iPad technology to discuss and analyze real world situations using physics. Besides having a stopwatch and a camera, these devices contain an accelerometer, a gyroscope and a magnometer. Movies and videos can be downloaded (besides being filmed by the camera) and playback using AV cables and a projector to classes for instruction. There are apps that can be downloaded for little or no cost which can further the development of physics education in classes. 2011 is a great time to teach physics!

Notes from the meeting.

Bookmarking with Diigo:

Diigo is a social bookmarking site. You can bookmark things in Diigo and make annotations on a sticky note regarding what you like or how you use the site. You can then access the bookmarks (and your sticky note) from any internet accessible location. Good idea Sam. Diigo Physics group.

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 31^stright 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:

• 4” x 60” stove pipe.
• Holes are 1” apart. 1/8” holes (leave a couple of inches on each end un-drilled)
• Aluminum pipe End cap for one end.
• Rubber membrane for 2nd end.
• Use T- joint as stand. 1 T joint on each end. The pipe simply rests on the stand.
• ¼” i.d. Barbed Male Hose End for gas Input.
  • This is used to connect the rubber gas line to the tube.
  • It is placed in the middle of the pipe, not at the ends.
• Furnace Cement - used to seal both the end cap and the male hose end onto the stove pipe.
• A speaker is placed near the rubber membrane. No need to attach the speaker to the tube.

.

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.

At this meeting participants will investigate elements of electricity and magnetism as related to popular devices such as cell phones, digital music devices, and digital cameras. We'll talk about what is means to be digital and how it relates to the soon to be antiquated analog technologies. We'll investigate how digital information can be converted into that which we can see and hear. We'll make a working speaker your students will love doing for a lab.

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 10^th 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://quarknet.fnal.gov/

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

• A brief description of the Detector
• Instruction manual
• Using the Berkeley Detector
• Obtaining parts
• Setting up the 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).

gps trimble activity.doc 23k -

GPS Activity 1.doc 33k -

GPS Activity 2.doc 35k -

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).]

(Fictitious) research from the National Training Laboratories in Bethel Maine summarizes the impact different teaching strategies have on learning retention rates.

Anyone who has ever had to teach anything will tell you that teaching others leads to the deepest learning and greatest likelihood that the content being taught will be retained by the "teacher."

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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 3^rd 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:

1. Reflection, Refraction, Diffraction, Polarization, Color Addition and other topics are fair game.
2. Some participants have been asked to bring an optics demo. If you have a demo, please bring it (along w/ ~30 copies of any paperwork associated with the demo).
3. There will be a demonstration involving the new Vernier LabQuest. Scott Hovan presented a LabQuest. Pretty Slick. It seems to work flawlessly. We are still learning its ins and outs, but it appears to be an amazing tool. Thanks Scott.
4. Vernier Motion Detectors will be given away as a door prize.
5. There will be a make-and-take Optics Kit.
   1. The Optics Kit includes:
      1. pvc pipe (acting as portions of an optics bench, support, & lens holders)
      2. 1-strip of metric tape
      3. weather stripping to hold the lenses w/in their holders
      4. 2-double convex lenses (f=15cm & f=20cm)
      5. 1-object
      6. 1-image screen
   2. If you are interested in making a kit, please contact Steve Ethen BEFORE 10-27-07. sethen@umn.edu
   3. The cost of each kit is $12.00
   4. The lenses are 5cm diameter lenses from http://www.sciencekit.com/

Some Links:

• A neat site with some really cool pics of rainbows & other atmospheric optics. Under rainbows there is a neat deal on how rainbows form, the effect of drop size and so on….<http://www.atoptics.co.uk/>
• An 8 page pdf of Dr. Falco’s paper on optics in art dating back to the 1400’s http://www.optics.arizona.edu/SSD/OPN.pdf
• A couple of pages on how to make a mirror: http://www.optics.arizona.edu/SSD/concave.html
• A video of Dr. Falco’s presentation to Fermilab scientists. It is 1 hour 11 minutes long, streamed with real-media. http://vmsstreamer1.fnal.gov/VMS_Site_03/Lectures/Colloquium/060628Falco/index.htm

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:

1. Video Analysis: What it is. How to do it. We’ll do it. It’ll be great.
2. University of Texas Homework System. We ask that you create an account ahead of time so we can actually practice the use of this system. You will need to contact the University of Texas, to get an EID (I believe this is the correct acronym). Here is the site to which the University of Texas directs teachers to get an EID.
   1. https://hw.utexas.edu/bur/instrGuestEID.html
3. The University of Texas has a method they use to make sure they only give access to teachers. This does require some lead time for you to get your EID.
4. Getting Started with AP Physics. We will have a brief intro shot on AP Physics during the 9-12 session. After the 9-12 session there will be an optional session to discuss some of the methods used to get ready to introduce AP Physics at your school. We’ll order out for lunch. During the afternoon AP Physics session, we’ll discuss textbooks, syllabi, time-lines, content, labs, and the AP Physics list-serve. The afternoon session will run from 12 noon to 2pm. Jeff Funkhouser’s ppt titled “What is AP Physics” might be a useful starting point. Here is a pdf that includes some helpful websites, & snipits of conversations from the ap physics electronic discussion group. AP Physics go4st8 meeting 9-08-07