Accelerometers and Great America: Here’s your ‘permission slip’

Last year, after more than a decade of bringing students (and their accelerometers) to Great America, Phillip Becker of Saint Helena High School was shocked to be informed by park staff that students would not be allowed to bring their accelerometers on the rides. Disappointment ruled the day, but his students made the best of it. Upon returning to school, Mr. Becker typed out a to-the-point letter to Cedar Fair Entertainment Company (the parent company for Great America), expressing his outrage at this change in policy. Shortly thereafter, Cedar Fair Entertainment replied, with a letter notifying him that there had been no change in policy, and apologizing for the mistake by the local park staff/management.

If you are planning on attending a Physics/Math day at Great America, you may want to print out a copy of the letter from Cedar Fair and carry it with you to the park, just in case this year’s staff/management makes a similar mistake.

• GA_Complaint_Response_2012_pdf
• GA_Complaint_2012_pdf

Spring 2013 Morning Invited Talks

Invited Talk: “Changes in the Teaching of Introductory Physics at Stanford” Chaya Nanavati or Stanford University

Chaya discussed the existing structure that has an instructor that leads lectures and has Head TAs, Discussion TAs and Lab TAs that assist the smaller groups.  Often we encounter several barriers to change: Administration or Colleagues are often resistant to change and need convincing, materials and time are necessary for change. She suggests using the already developed resources from Maryland University, Harvard, CU Boulder, etc. on group work and student-centered learning. Eric Mazur has lots of resources and evidence that interactive engagement increases the post-test gain on the Force Concept Inventory test. Read more »

Spring 2013 Share n’ Tell

Further updates and links to come… If you have any corrections please let the secretary know.

Tom Woosnam , Crystal Springs Uplands School

Tom discussed the Perimeter Institute; more information is available here: Perimeter Institute Catalogue (1)

Don Rathjen, Exploratorium

Don passed out materials for two activities on work, power and efficiency. He demonstrated using wind up toys to determine the work needed to lift a paperclip or for them to rise on a pre-made ramp. He also demonstrated a miniature winch that can raise washers and be used to calculate the efficiency of the machine.

Don’s Handout is available here: Electromechanical Efficiency NCNAAPT 4-26-13

Tucker Hiatt, Wonderfest

Tucker discussed an experiment that will be featured at the Skeptical 2014 Northern California Skepticism Conference in Berkeley and Bay Area Science Festival this year. For more information on the experiment of hot water freezing faster than cold water, check out www.wonderfest.org/ice. Email tucker@wonderfest.org

Richard Piccioui, Bay School High School

Richard discussed the Physics First program at his school. He believes the most important topic to be taught in Physics First (prior to Chemistry) is Energy. He uses the equation:

ΔKE+ΔPE+ΔTE=W+Q for a closed and isolated system.

The materials that are used in Richard’s school for 9th grade Physics are available here.

Bree Barnett Dreyfuss, Amador Valley High School

Bree discussed neodymium magnets and safety. She recently created ¼” plastic containers for them from materials at TAP plastics to insure they were stored safely. Two neodymium magnets of this size can come together with a lot of force and can cause injuries. She also shared an acrylic marble as a concave lens. Bree asked for anyone who would be interested in filling her position from late October to June of next year.

Neodymium Magnets Video of her containers and additional video about magnet safety here.

James Lincoln, President of SCAAPT

James shared two sound experiments to share with students:

1. Plug your ears and you’ll hear a low frequency hum. James proposes that it is the sound of your muscle fibers. If you flex your arms while plugging your ears you can hear the frequency change.
2. The opening note of “Happy Birthday” is approximately 60 Hz.

Check out his website www.physicsvideos.net and the Southern California version of PTSOS called New Physics Teacher Workshops (www.nptw.org).

Alex Warten, Piedmont High School

Alex built a plexiglass base and drilled holes in it to hold 12 two prong 4W fluorescent bulbs. He suggests only using a low power setting on the microwave and having the apparatus in there for only a few seconds. The lightbulbs flash on because of the electromagnetic waves but he hopes to use it with a high speed camera to find the frequency of the microwave.  Questions were raised about getting a 3D layout or using neon bulbs or LEDs.

Brogan Miller, Stanford student

Brogan is studying how to create cheaper and more accurate classroom demonstrations. He asked for input on his Two-Masses and A Pulley Module prototype to be emailed to him BroganM@stanford.edu.

A website for the system will soon be available. The teacher handout for his apparatus is available here: Fisix Teacher Handout

Dan Burns, Lost Gatos High School

Dan discussed the classic thought problem of the change of the gravitational field around Earth if there was a hole into the center of the Earth that something fell through. He discussed his lab regarding the math, calculations, etc. Dan has a full write-up on Pretty Good Physics under “Gravity” including a video. Dan does a lot with showmanship and has a large cylinder with a shiny red light that he drops a golf ball into. Students learn through their calculations that the ball will take 84 minutes to return due to its simple harmonic motion. He tells students that he has a colleague in China that will let them know when the ball reaches him (42 minutes) and even goes so far as having a phone call at that time in the period. Dan worked through some of the equations on a white board, and I attempted to copy them down here:  Notes from Dean Baird’s Show ‘n Tell.

Dean Baird, Rio Americano High School, Phyz.org

Dean demoes his refraction tank with Karo Syrup and a green laser. Dean shared a few videos of “magnetic boys” that claim that children are magnetic and metal things stick to them. Magically even ceramic plates will stick to him. Students are given prompt questions to discuss potential causes and problems with these videos. The lesson ends with a video of powder being applied to the bare chests of the “magnetic” people to reveal that it is in fact perspiration that causes these materials to stick to them. Follow Dean at www.phyz.org and www.phyzblog.blogspot.com.

Bernard Cleyet, retired, Cleyet.org

Bernard asked if anyone was interested in passive element delay lines. Bernard discussed his trials on delay lines using capacitors and inductors. He will share his results next time.

Leanna Felardo, Oroville High School

Leanna discussed a shift from traditional lab set ups to more open ended labs. This will hopefully become easier with the shift to the Next Generation Science Standards. She allows students to create their own lab hypothesis and complete their own procedure. She does allow students to test hypothesis that will fail but does catch students that have an untestable hypothesis. Her AP Lab Write-up is available here: AP Physics Lab Notebook

Spring Section Conference at Foothill College: April 26-27, 2013

Join us at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, CA (just 16 miles NW of San Jose, 40 miles south of San Francisco) for the spring conference of the Northern California/Nevada Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers. Starting with a social and physics show, and observatory tour Friday evening, followed by a full day of physics education speakers and workshops on Saturday.

Read more »

Physics of Baseball

David Kagan, CSU Chico

All of David’s material related to the Physics of Baseball are available on his website: Phys.csuchico.edu/baseball

David demonstrated the Physics of the Baseball bat including the progression of the baseball bat. He explained how to find the center of percussion of the baseball bat as well as the center of vibration.  The “sweet spot” of a bat is where the center of percussion and the center of vibration meet which means that the player will minimize the jarring force of the bat. David showed us many high speed videos from the playoffs that show the compression of a baseball bat being hit and the reaction of the bat after the impact. David demonstrated his rubber bat that has no internal support so that it can create a standing wave. By putting together that information, your students can choose the correction direction that the bat will swing and even guess where the baseball will break if it is outside or inside of the sweet spot.

Paul (Pablo) Robinson, San Mateo High School, retired

Pablo shared the physics of the splash hits in the San Francisco Giants Stadium. The ballpark has been designed for maximum home runs and the majority are hit to right field, where the ballpark meets the bay. He discussed the geometry of the park and where a home run is most likely hit.

He has more materials on the change in velocity of a ball hit on different planets, the Physics of a home run, etc. Visit his website for additional materials and videos.

Story Telling in Physics

Bree Barnett Dreyfuss, Amador Valley High School

Bree shared examples of story telling in her class room including:

• Using comics & pictures
• Using video clips
• Interpreting graphs & drawings
• Anecdotes and stories of scientists and discoveries

Bree worked with a colleague to develop curriculum surrounding the book The Pluto Files by Neil deGrasse Tyson. She shared curriculum materials from her unit that are available on her website here.

Fall 2012 Conference Share ‘n Tell

Tom Woosnam, Crystal Springs

Tom showed us a conducting experiment (picture to come) with two cans and a two copper wires that do not touch and attach to a coup of water. After the cup of water is filled a small neon bulb that that is connected to one of the two copper wires can discharge repeatedly. Tom’s best guess as to why it flashes is that one of the metal cans becomes randomly charged, say negatively, and that negative charge travels up the conducting materials to the water and repels electrons through the other wire to the other side that builds up potential.

Dan Burns, Los Gatos High School

Read more »

Spring Section Conference at Sierra College: November 2-3, 2012

Join us at Sierra College in Rocklin, CA (just 20 miles NE of Sacramento) for the fall conference of the Northern California/Nevada Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers. Starting with a social and planetarium and museum tour, followed by a full day of physics education speakers and workshops on Saturday.

Logistics

• Registration
• Parking, directions, and other logistics.

Read more »

Save the date: Next NCN AAPT conference at Sierra College, November 2 and 3, 2012

Mark your calendars: Our next section conference will be on Friday and Saturday, November 2 and 3, 2012. The Physics Department at Sierra College, in Rocklin (east of Sacramento on I-80) will be hosting. As usual, Friday evening will a mix of education and socializing, followed on Saturday with workshops, show and tell, and speakers, roughly 8:00-4:00. More details will be posted in the fall.

Spring 2012 Share & Tell Notes

Lee Trampleasure, Carondelet High School  – deriving the kinematics equation experimentally

Handout available here.

Students use TI calculators to derive the kinematics equations. Students graph a linear position-time graph for different constant velocity cars. Student graph the data by hand and then uses linear regression to calculate the slope which will vary from student to student as their best fit lines differ. Students then plot a constant acceleration car and graph that data in their calculators. By taking various tangent lines students create a separate graph of the velocity-time for the car. Using the equation supplied by the calculator they begin to see the relationship between their y-intercept on the y=ax+b equation from the velocity-time graph matches the b in their equation for the position to time graph (x=at^2+bt+c).

David Talcott, Carlmont High School (c/o Bree) – Planck’s constant apparatus Read more »