Project: "New Light with Old Ideas"
The aim is to make a collective international exhibition in which students from UNESCO-ASP schools from different countries present to the world a visual sequence to understand the theory of relativity and their implications for the light.
This activity is a proposal for the International Year of Light (IYL 2015).
Summary of participating schools:
Germany: Max-Planck Gymnasium, Berlin
Greece: 3o Gymnasio in Kavala
Italy: Liceo Scientifico D. Carlo La Mura, Angri
USA: Hudson High School, Massachussets
The Netherlands: Gymnasium Beekvliet (Sint-Michielgestel)
Switzerland: Städt. (Literar)gymnasium Bern- Kirchenfeld
Galice (Spain): IES Pedra da Auga and IES Luis Seoane
The particularity of this proposal is that it is possible to associate a country to each of the steps followed in the presentation, according to the following order (which would be coordinated by the Faculty of Education of the University of Vigo).
Program:
There would be an initial presentation of every participating school (lasting about 2 minutes, with accompanying slides): 15 minutes
The session would continue with a series of presentations with only three participants at each one: The school which presents the scientific background during 5 minutes, accompanied by slides), the school in Galice and the coordinator from the University.
At the end of every presentation, the students from Galice would make a sentence to summarize its content, and the coordinator would invite the next group.
0-Introduction to Hermann Minkowski and spacetime (which is the essential visual element for the presentation). The school in Germany
1- Movement and instant (ideas first introduced by Aristotle, and which in this proposal are displayed in a visual way): The school in Greece
2-Classic Relativity (a concept introduced by Galileo). The school in Italy.
3-New experimental evidence (as found by Michelson). It can be explained simply by going to the daily functioning of GPS systems). The school in the USA.
4-Lorentz transformation (that is a mathematical transformation of spacetime which can be geometrically visualized by a simple and elegant figure). The school in The Netherlands.
5-Light as speed limit. This concept is presented in a striking way as a metaphysical and geometrical impossibility, and it is checked daily at the CERN particle accelerator in Geneva. The school in Switzerland.
Every participating school could also highlight the contributions of the scientists they are presenting to the evolution of the concept of light and its properties:
Minkowski: the geometry of spacetime includes the speed of light
Aristotle: light rays as straight lines
Galileo: how to measure the speed of light
Michelson: he received the Nobel Prize for his accurate measurements of c
Lorentz: Light as electromagnetic radiation (Nobel Prize)
Einstein: the speed of light as an uttainable limit (as observed at CERN)
The total sequence would last about 45 minutes, making a total of 1 hour for the whole activity.
At the end of the whole sequence, students in Galicia will present the complete sequence of sentences, this time sung
Timing:
During the first quarter of 2015 (second of the academic year) contacts and preliminary work (including some online conference session among the participating teachers to unify criteria) would be made.
Second quarter of 2015: Preparing students (including some previous online conference session with students) and performing the final session (end of April). This session will be recorded and edited by parts to facilitate monitoring (as done with Peace Indaba).
Instructions for participants can be found HERE
During the first quarter of the course 2015-2016
Depending on the result achieved and the interest aroused, it would be possible to think of performing one or more complementary activities, in which the videographic and audiovisual materials generated during the session held in May would be used .
These additional sessions may be of regional type, depending on the language of communication being used (Spanish, French, English, Arabic, Russian or Chinese, to use at least all the official languages of UNESCO) and possibly also in Portuguese and German.