Lee Trampleasure – Page 15

Physics Equipment Donation at Sacramento State

From Hossein Partovi at Sacramento State:

We have put aside a large collection of lab equipment (scopes, meters, supplies, light sources, PAACO interfacing devices, …) to give away to schools and colleges on Saturday, October 16, 2010 (in Room 138, Sequoia Building, i.e., first floor of the science building), 9-12 AM. You can preview them on Friday, October 8, 2010, 1-3 PM.

If interested, please

Print the attached acceptance letter (a “WORD” document) on your official letterhead, have it signed by your school or college official, and bring it with you on October 16th, and
RSVP both October 8th and 16th events to let us know that you are coming by responding to physicschair@csus.edu.

Section Meeting/Mini Conference: November 5th and 6th

Save the dates!

Our Fall 2010 meeting will be held on November 5th and 6th.

The Saturday events will be at Carondelet High School in Concord, CA (close to I-680 and Pleasant Hill BART). We’re still working out the details for our Friday afternoon event, but we’ll have our usual social event somewhere local in the evening.

Tentative Saturday schedule:

8:00 — Registration, coffee and goodies, socializing

9:00 — Welcome and Announcements

9:15 — Show and Tell (members have five minutes to present their favorite demonstration or teaching tip).

10:15 Break

10:30 — Invited speakers and other presentations.

Noonish — Lunch (included with registration fee)

1:30 — Business meeting and raffle

2:00 — More presentations.

What’s going on here: Poly Density Kit

A new feature on our web site will be a “What’s going on here?” post. Each month we’ll post an interesting question or device, and ask our members to make comments. The first person with the right answer gets bragging rights (or the voice of our web weaver, Lee Trampleasure, on your home answering machine if you’re a fan of “Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me”).

July 2010: Poly Density Kit

Educational Innovations sells a “Poly Density Kit” shown in the video below:

First the bottle is shaken, and all the beads mix uniformly. After the shaking stops, the blue beads start sinking and the white beads start floating. Within about 15 seconds, all the blue beads are on the bottom and the white beads are on the top. In the next minute or so, the cluster of blue beads slowly rises, and the white beads slowly sink. In the end, all the beads are in the middle, layered by color.

How does this happen? Leave your explanations and questions in the comments section below, (click “Comments” if the section is not visible). if you know how this works, wait and let a few people provide their explanations first.

Future contest ideas?

If you have suggestions for future “What’s going on here?” posts, please mail them to lee@trampleasure.net.

Afternoon Sessions Schedule: Spring Meeting

Saturday, April 17th, 2010

(See complete Friday/Saturday agenda here)

Contributed Papers, Video Clips & computer Bits – room 307

2:00 iFly Indoor Skydiving –Field Trips – Cailin Creighton

A discussion of physics topics relating to skydiving, indoor skydiving, and the operation of vertical wind tunnels. Also, information on how to bring your students on a field trip to a vertical wind tunnel for an educational program that includes experiments, a lecture, a tour, and flying!

2:20 Wind Energy: A Sustainable Future? – Scott Perry

Other than hydro-electric and nuclear power wind energy has been by far the most robust of what many are calling green-energy. What are our prospects for moving to a more sustainable balance between human needs and the Earth’s resources?

2:40 Lunar Lander Project – Byron Philhour

Students in AP Physics learn Excel and simulate the Apollo missions to the moon over the course of a semester.

3:00 Not the Usual Coupled Oscillators – Bernard Cleyet

The Keynote shows pics of the app. and motion pics. (Video?) of the normal modes, etc.

3:20 Bree Barnett Dreyfuss

Using Class Facebook Fan Pages

Our students are often on the cutting edge of new communication technology while teachers may take a little longer to catch up. Don’t be left behind! Try using Facebook to communicate with students and share information away from school. Although class websites offer a breadth of information and resources not easily shared elsewhere, they are not interactive for students. Come learn how my Facebook Fan Page is used and how to set up your own!

Quick & Dirty (& Fun) Physics Demoes – room 306

2:00 Physics Magic – Chuck Hunt

Magic tricks to use in class.

2:20 Constant Velocity Cars – Lee Trampleasure

An intro lab from the Modeling curriculum, in this activity students measure the position of electric toy cars every couple seconds, then graph position vs time to discover velocity is change in position / change in time.

2:40 Modulated LED and Modulated Coil – Don Rathjen

The original versions are in the Square Wheels book co-authored by myself and Paul Doherty, published by the Exploratorium in 2002. I’ll show “updated” versions using an iPod to replace a transistor radio in both demos, and an LED flashlight to replace an LED plus resistor in the Modulated LED

3:00 The Visible Speaker, Coupled Coils, Lamps & More – Stuart Loucks

Some surprising E&M demoes

3:20 – 4:00 As Many Demoes As We can Do In 40 Minutes – ARC Staff

Something for everyone!!!

Nuclear Energy Conference for Educators

NEED, Washington and Lee University, and the Lenfest Foundation are happy to announce the 2nd Nuclear Energy Conference for Educators, July 25- 29 2010. Up to 50 educators from across the country will be accepted to participate in this exciting training program in Charlottesville, Virginia. For more information or to apply, visit www.need.org/nuclear.

The conference includes speakers and presentations from noted experts in the field, including Dr. Frank Settle of Washington and Lee University and Dr. Charles Ferguson of the Federation of American Scientists as well as NEED’s nuclear education team. The conference is a mix of presentations and hands-on activities designed to expand knowledge of energy and nuclear energy while providing teachers with resources to take back to their classrooms and use easily. Plans for the conference include a tour of the North Anna Nuclear Information Center and AREVA’s nuclear operations and training facility in Lynchburg. (AREVA is the world leader in the design and construction of nuclear power plants and research reactors, engineering, instrumentation, and related services to the nuclear industry.)

Educators teaching grades 6-12 are encouraged to apply. All expenses will be covered by the conference sponsors.