Lodging in South Tahoe

Call for presentations at our spring meeting

Our spring conference is set for Saturday, April 21, 2012. The location will be Lake Tahoe Community College, in South Lake Tahoe, CA. We’re now looking for proposals for talks/papers (10-15 minutes) and programs/workshops (30 minutes to two hours).

We accept proposals in all areas of physics education and/or research, and we usually can fit them all in. Deadline for submissions is March 5, 2012. This year we’re taking all proposals online, you can submit yours at http://ncnaapt.org/submit.

First timers are particularly encouraged to submit a proposal–remember that AAPT and its sections exist largely through the contributions of its members (we usually have an invited keynote speaker, but the rest of the program is “just us”). If you’re doing something in your classroom/lecture hall/lab that you’re proud of, please take this opportunity to share it with others (and remember, there’s almost nothing that’s truly new in education, so don’t worry if you think someone has presented it before).

Keep your eyes peeled on out site for registration information (we’ll post this in early March), and be sure to Friend us if you’re on Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Northern-CaliforniaNevada-Section-American-Association-of-Physics-Teachers/127898515559

Spring Conference/Meeting, save the date: Saturday, April 21, 2012

Our spring conference is set for Saturday, April 21, 2012. The location will be Lake Tahoe Community College, in South Lake Tahoe, CA. More information, and a call for presentations/papers, will be coming in early 2012, but keep the date on your calendar.

We will likely have a social event, but we haven’t yet decided on Friday evening or Saturday evening. There’s also been talk of a group ski event on Sunday (hope for late snow)!

Keep your eyes peeled on out site, and be sure to Friend us if you’re on Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Northern-CaliforniaNevada-Section-American-Association-of-Physics-Teachers/127898515559

Please take a moment to help us plan the best weekend:

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High School Roundtable

As part of our support for high school Physics teachers we held a High School round table in the afternoon at our Fall meeting. The topics of (1) discipline, (2) level of curriculum, (3) grading/ paperwork and (4) making policy changes were discussed. Some material is available on each topic under Roundtable Resources. You can also download the High School Roundtable Notes from our discussion; if I left anything out please let me know by emailing BreeBarnett@hotmail.com.

Fall 2011 Pictures posted!

Pictures from the NCNAAPT Fall Meeting and Conference are available on Flickr or on our Facebook fan page. Some pictures and relevant diagrams are available within the notes for the day. Be sure to email Secretary Bree Barnett Dreyfuss with additional information, corrections, etc.

Group photo Fall 2011

Group photo with title

Fall Business Meeting

Dennis Buckley gave the Treasurer’s report, including $1,300 over budget last fiscal year. Using color postcards to advertise meetings and to send programs. We currently have $4,700 in the checking account.

Don’t forget about the Spring Meeting, April 20th & 21st in Lake Tahoe hosted by the Tahoe Community College. More information to come.

Keynote Speaker: Richard Muller

Richard Muller is a UC Berkeley professor of the popular “Physics for Future Presidents” class at UC Berkeley and author of a popular book of the same name. Muller discussed his development of his “Physics for Future Presidents” non-Physics major Physics course at University of California, Berkeley. The class has become a course that does not include as many calculations as a Physics course for Physics majors but rather fewer calculations that demonstrate more content. Throughout his development of the course Muller has discovered much about how students, both Physics majors and non-Physics majors, think and comprehend knowledge. His goal for every course is to teach students so that they can randomly recall relevant Physics knowledge when challenged. Muller shared many anecdotes about his students over the years demonstrating Physics knowledge they gained from his class. He also advocates using units and examples that are relevant and measurable for students. Muller uses the food calorie for energy and often has students compare large amount of energy, including the amount of energy released during the September 11^th attacks, to the amount of energy in calories in a chocolate cookie.

Richard Muller, keynote speaker

Several publications by Muller were previewed including his college level textbook “Physics and Technology for Future Presidents:
An Introduction to the Essential Physics Every World Leader Needs to Know” and a smaller non-textbook book called “The Instant Physicist.” Educators should write to the Princeton University Press to request a copy of the book, free of charge.

Muller did briefly discussed his work with climate change by showing a brief animation of the changes in surface changes over time. More information is available on the Berkeley Earth website and the video is available on YouTube.

Fall Meeting: Show & Tell Notes

[pictures taken today will be posted soon]

David with rubber bat

A detail shot using Fox's Infared camera

David Kagan, CSU Chico

David shared a rubber bat that he can use to find the “sweet spot.” Contact David for the information of the company that made it for him for $50. It was a movie prop but you have to tell them that you don’t want a dowel in it.

David shared video of a baseball hit at the batter’s footer with a regular video and then with the Fox News Infared camera. The

transfer of energy to the ball from the bat makes the ball hot enough to be bright white. The place where the baseball hit his foot also glows white; amazingly the ball is now only half white. More information is available on his website: www.phys.csuchico.edu/baseball

Frank Cascarano, Foothill College

Joulies coffee accessory

Frank with a Joulie

Frank shared a small object called a “Joulie” that has a material in it that melts at 140 degrees. When dropped in hot coffee it absorbed energy to cool your coffee but when your coffee cools below that same temperature it releases energy to the cup of coffee.

Bernard Cleyet, retired

Bernard Cleyet shares video

Bernard showed a video of a different glass materials heated and used as a conductor in a simple electrical circuit with a light bulb. The experiment used Sodium glass, pure silica, and Pyrex and plugged into an outlet. Bernard also offered lots of capacitors for anyone who needed some.

Don demos his micrometer

Don Rathjen, Exploratorium Teacher Institute

Don demonstrated a home-made micrometer that will measure one millimeter per rotation.  With 24 threads per inch, one turn is ~1mm, but it will measure within 10% error. Can use to measure the width of a hair, different wire gauges, etc. Don will be posting the instructions with photos on his website soon.

Shel Randall, Sierra College

POV Ray is a scripting tool that lets you make images with simple commands. Shel shared a short animation about thin film interference that he has made in the last year. He encouraged everyone to experiment with the animation program for use in their classroom.

A diagram of the iFly tunnel

John Boyce, iFly

John is the educational director for iFly in Union City, CA. John gave us a brief introduction of the facility and the science behind it. Field Trips with the program can be organized via John and previewed on the education portionof their website. If you book a field trip by Thanksgiving, you might win a free visit! Be sure to email John directly for more information: johnb@iflysfbay.com

Michael Walks

Michael Boykin, GVHS

Michael demonstrated a way of showing a real simple action explained in terms of Physics. He demonstrated how even walking is a complex set of procedural steps. He leads students to the idea that muscles are on the back of the body and the secret is pushing back against the floor in order to be propelled forward which can be related to Newton’s Third Law. Michael reminded us that getting up on the table or doing something silly is always going to get and keep your students’ attention.

Dean Baird, Rio Americano High School

Dean shared his “Scientists Valentines and “Back Masking” which involves playing a song backwards and hearing “secret messages.” Upon first listening, no one can discern any words but when the “secret message” lyrics are shown suddenly everyone can hear it. For more information can be found at www.JeffMilner.com/backmasking.

Bree Barnett Dreyfuss, Amador Valley High School

Bree suggested reading “The Pluto Files” by Neil de Grasse Tyson and using it with an astronomy unit to discuss the scientific process and classification of objects in the solar system. There was a NOVA Special and supporting material online as well.

Bree also previewed her work with Jon Brix on using laboratory notebooks from bound composition books in their Conceptual Physics course. If the experiment is successful this year she plans on offering a workshop at the Spring meeting, April 20 & 21, at Lake Tahoe.

Be sure to like NCNAAPT on Facebook as well!

Gunjan (aka Dr. G)

Dr. G demonstrated her programs that teach Physics to younger students using a volunteer child.

Leanna Felardo, Oroville High School

Leanna asked everyone to bring mystery equipment to the Spring meeting in Tahoe. She will be leading a workshop meant to  help identify unknown material and its use. You can also email Leanne with a photo of your mystery equipment at LFelardo@ouhsd.org.

Brian demos Torque

Brian Bellis, Hoover High School

Brian shared how he uses with a large wood spool to demonstrate torque. Brian also demonstrated an optical illusion of a little Red Dragon that he found online and folded up. The eyes of the little red dragon follow you as it moves.

Joel Rosenberg, Lawrence Hall of Science

Joel explained the process behind the CELL (Clean Energy Learning and Leadership) program. There is a visual representation of Power as the area of a box with the voltage representing the width and the current representing the height of a rectangle.

Peng Yav, Sebrante, IISME

Peng shared the details of the IISME summer program. Teachers have the opportunity to work in the industry during the summer to gain experience and money. The applications for the summer program are due this month! To learn more about Industry Initiatives for Science and Math Education (IISME) contact:

Shari Liss, Education Director at sliss@iisme.org  and (408)553-3179

Christina O’Guinn, Education Manager at coguinn@iisme.org and (408)553-2266

Fall 2011 Conference at UC Berkeley

Join us the first weekend in November at UC Berkeley for a day and a half of physics education.

Friday evening, November 4th

Social and Lecture Demo Show

• 5:30 No-Host Dinner at Chianlai Thai Cuisine, 2505 Hearst St.
• 6:30 Welcome Gathering and Social
• 7:30 Lecture Demo Sho

Saturday, November 5

Program

• 8:00 Registration, coffee, donuts
• 9:00 Welcome
• 9:15 Show and Tell
• 10:15 Break
• 10:30 “Physics for Future Presidents — A new approach for the non-science student.” Invited speaker: Richard Muller, Professor of Physics, U.C. Berkeley, Faculty Senior Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
• 11:30 Group photo
• 11:45 Lunch
• 12:45 Business meeting (in just 15 minutes!)
• 1:00 Two options:
• Tour of Physics Research Labs. Guided tours of physics faculty labs in Astrophysics, Condensed Matter & Materials Science, and Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics, led by graduate students and researchers.
• Roundtable Discussion for high school teachers to discuss common problems and solution.
• 2:15 Break
• 2:30 Two options:
• Three concurrent workshops featuring labs and lecture demonstrations from Berkeley and other schools (contributions welcome). Spend the full period in one or circulate among the labs to see them all.
• Modeling Instruction introduction workshop
• 4:00 End

Map

View NCN AAPT Conference at UCB November 2011 in a larger map and/or get directions

Complete program

Download our complete program in PDF format here.

Registration

$20 for NCN AAPT members (includes one lunch ticket). First timers are always free (lunch tickets for first timers are $10). Lunch will be beef, turkey, or veggie sandwiches.

Pre-registration is not required, but will help us know how many people to expect:

(The registration below says it’s free, but that’s just because we’re not collecting payment online. The usual registration fees apply, including free admission for first time attendees.)

[EVENT_REGIS_CATEGORY event_category_id="section"]

Fall Conference 2011 Invited Speaker

We are pleased to announce that the invited speaker for our Fall 2011 Conference will be UC Berkeley’s own Richard Muller. Muller is a professor of the popular “Physics for Future Presidents” class at UC Berkeley and author of a popular book of the same name. Muller is also a Faculty Senior Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and associated with the Institute for Nuclear and Particle Astrophysics. Read more about Muller’s career, interests and most recent book, “The Instant Physicist,” on his website.

Save the Date for the UC Berkeley Physics Department Demo Show Friday Nov. 4th and the section Conference on Nov. 5th!