Modern Physics

I love this comic!! I included this section, because I do enjoy teaching modern physics, but I am not sure that there are too many inquiry experiments that you could do in a high school classroom. Most of the equipment that you would need is very expensive and, in some cases, dangerous for your students to use. Of course, for me there are a lot of inquiry experiments that you can do, but that would mean you would need to teach particle physics. To find those experiments, you need to go to the particle physics portion of this site.

Planck's Constant Experiment Another one of my favorite "not really" inquiry experiments...I like color and I love hearing my students exclaim how cool something is... Using LED's and LoggerPro this modern version of the experiment is much easier for your students to complete and they will obtain reasonably good approximations for Planck's Constant.

Rydberg's Constant Experiment Do you have gas spectrum tubes and high voltage power supplies? You may have to take them from your chemistry department. But, if you have them I would highly recommend that you have your students complete an experiment like this one. Again, lots of excited exclamations from your students and a solid experiment for them to learn about line spectra. This experiment is another "not really" inquiry experiment.