The following colloquium is free and open to all. Dr. Chris Fassnacht, UC Davis, will present his lecture, “Measuring the Universe with Gravitational Lenses” on Thursday, February 11, 2010, at 4pm in Mendocino Hall 1015, Sacramento State University. This lecture is free and open to the public. Chris Fassnacht received his AB degree from Harvard College and immediately afterward joined the Peace Corps, where he served as a secondary school math and science teacher in Ghana, West Africa. After returning, he received a PhD from Caltech. He held postdoctoral fellowships at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Socorro, NM and…
Category: University support
NCNAAPT member Dan Burns has collected a great set of clips from The Simpsons TV series. Each clip includes a brief description of the physics involved in the clip. You can see them here: www.lghs.net/teachers/science/burns/scienceonsimpsons/Clips.html
Join the Northern California Northern Nevada Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers at our Fall Meeting/Conference Friday, October 9 and Saturday, October 10, 2009 Friday Evening Social 6:00-8:30 PM at Paul Robinson’s Home (directions) Guest of Honor: Sy Liebergot, Flight Controller of Mission Control during Apollo Program Saturday Meeting/Conference Conference Center, NASA Ames, Moffett Field, CA From Highway 101: 1. Exit Moffett Blvd./NASA Parkway. 2. At the stop sign just short of the NASA Ames gate, turn right into the conference center parking lot. Friday Evening Social 6:00-8:30 PM Hot Dog Reception Complimentary Hot Dogs (beef or tofu)…
Mark your calendars The fall NCNAPT meeting/workshops will be held at NASA Ames Research Center on October 10th, 2009. Keynote speaker will be Sy Liebergot, EECOM from Apollo 13. More details will be posted soon, including registration links, call for presentations, etc.
Physics educators have used photos of natural and man-made breakwaters to show refraction for probably as long as we’ve had photography. But now online mapping web sites (Google, Yahoo. etc.) allow you to find locations near you to make the images more tangible to your students. Oceans and bays are full of images of refraction, but you may also find diffraction patterns in a large lake. Below is an example from a breakwater in Berkeley, CA, in the San Francisco Bay View Larger Map Check water bodies around your institution to find examples you can use with your students. Most…