In their Season Premiere the Mythbusters will take on the infamous projectile problem of a dropped vs shot bullet. While teaching projectiles, many teachers use an example of shooting a bullet horizontally and dropping one next to it at the same time. While students agree that this may hold true for slow projectiles, they often don’t believe that that gravity would act on something moving really fast, like a bullet. On their season premiere tonight, 9pm PST, the Mythbusters will be testing this out in “Knock Your Socks Off.”
Apollo 13 The Longest Hour
Reflections on the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo Program
Thursday, October 8, 2009 • 7:30PM
Flight Controller Sy Liebergot
Sy Liebergot, a former NASA flight controller, was on the job for some of the most memorable moments in space exploration, including the Apollo 13 fuel cell explosion.
Mr. Liebergot will be available for book signings before and after the talk.
www.nasa.gov
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
San Mateo Performing Arts Center • San Mateo, CA
506 N. Delaware Street, San Mateo, CA 94401 • Phone (650) 400-9425 • email pablo@laserpablo.com
Sponsored by the Northern California and Nevada American Association of Physics Teachers, NASA Lunar Science Institute, and NASA Ames Research InstituteIn the Footsteps of Galileo: A Hands-on Workshop on Astronomy
Sat, Sep. 12 and Sun, Sep. 13, 2009
Westin SFO Hotel, Millbrae, California (near the San Francisco Airport)
Part of the 120th Anniversary Meeting of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
One unit of Academic Credit available through San Francisco State U.In this hands-on workshop, we will train educators to be “Galileo Ambassadors” for the International Year of Astronomy (2009). Teachers in grades 4 – 12 will learn how to do age-appropriate, inquiry-based activities in astronomy and physical science. After a brief introduction to Galileo’s life and work and the realms of astronomy, participants will explore:
- A Private Universe: Student Reasoning and How to Help Students to Act Like Scientists
- The Moons of Jupiter: Galileo’s Experiment Redone (and the Process of Science)
- Understanding the Phases and Motions of the Moon
- Making a Constellation Finder and Getting Oriented in the Night Sky
- Measuring the Dark: Activities to Understand the Environmental Effects of Light Pollution
- The Galileoscope: A Telescope for All Seasons and All Reasons
- The Universe at Your Fingertips: Where to Find the Best Astronomy Activities in Print and on the Web
Participants will receive a free GalileoScope (a small telescope especially developed for easy public viewing during the International Year of Astronomy) and package of hands-on activities, background information, and resource guides that can be put to immediate use in the classroom. No background in astronomy will be assumed; both new and veteran teachers should gain new information and effective teaching techniques from the workshop.
Facilitators include:
- Andrew Fraknoi (Chair, Astronomy Dept, Foothill College and the 2007 California Professor of the Year)
- Dennis Schatz (VP, Pacific Science Center, Seattle; and the 2009 NSTA Faraday Award winner for science communication)
- Constance Walker (Nat’l Optical Astronomy Observatories and Coordinator, Globe at Night)
- Robert Sparks (Nat’l Optical Astronomy Observatories and Senior Trainer, Hands-on Optics Project)
- Suzanne Gurton (Educational Projects Director, Astronomical Society of the Pacific)
(Sunday afternoon, participants will join with other meeting attendees to hear a series of non-technical talks on the search for extra-terrestrial life, with the father of SETI, Dr. Frank Drake, award-winning science popularizer Seth Shostak, planetary protection scientist Margaret Race, and one of the chief scientists for the Kepler Mission, looking for Earths around other stars.)
Cost
$39.95 per day ($78.90 for the weekend)
1 semester unit of academic credit: $100 (optional)
Registration
To register, go to the meeting web site:
http://www.astrosociety.org/events/2009mtg/workshops.html
When you register, click on weekend registration and the first workshop under each day.
New page: “Becoming a physics teacher””
We’re adding a new page to the NCNAAPT web site, “Becoming a physics teacher.” The goal of the site is to support people who are interested in becoming physics teachers, but have not yet enrolled in a credential program. We have a few links on it, but will be flushing it out over the next few weeks/months. If you have any suggestions of what should go on the page, please email them to web@ncnaapt.org and we’ll incorporate them
You can find the page here: https://ncnaapt.org/index.php/links/becoming-a-physics-teacher/, or find it in the menu in the right column (in the “Links” sub menu).
Jupiter pummeled, leaving bruise the size of the Pacific Ocean
By Robert Sanders, UCB Media Relations | 21 July 2009
Complete article here: http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/07/21_bruise.shtml
The scar from the probable impact appeared July 19 in Jupiter’s southern hemisphere, and has grown to a size greater than the extent of the Pacific Ocean. This infrared image taken with Keck II on July 20 shows the new feature observed on Jupiter and its relative size compared to Earth. (Paul Kalas ,UCB; Michael Fitzgerald, LLNL/UCLA; Franck Marchis, SETI Institute/UCB; James Graham, UCB)BERKELEY — Something slammed into Jupiter in the last few days, creating a dark bruise about the size of the Pacific Ocean.
The bruise was noticed by an amateur astronomer on Sunday, July 19. University of California, Berkeley, astronomer Paul Kalas took advantage of previously scheduled observing time on the Keck II telescope in Hawaii to image the blemish in the early morning hours of Monday, July 20. The near infrared image showed a bright spot in Jupiter’s southern hemisphere, where the impact had propelled reflective particles high into the relatively clear stratosphere.
In visible light, the bruise appears dark against the bright surface of Jupiter.
The observation made with the Keck II telescope marks only the second time astronomers have seen the results of an impact on the planet. The first collision occurred exactly 15 years ago, between July 16 and 22, 1994, when more than 20 fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collided with Jupiter.
Complete article here: http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/07/21_bruise.shtml
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/07/21_bruise.shtml