NJAAPT NEWSLETTER
September 2004
President’s Message
The
summer has drawn to a close and a new year beckons with a great deal of promise
and excitement. On behalf of the entire
executive board, I would like to take this opportunity to provide you with some
of the events that are planned for the upcoming year.
You may be aware of the fact that beginning this October and
continuing to February 2006 has been designed as the World Year of
Physics. This is to commemorate the
centennial of the publication of Albert Einstein’s three groundbreaking papers
published in 1905. Although this concept
had its origins in the European scientific community, the science associations
in the US have
embraced the goals of the international committee (refer to the brief article
in the newsletter). Our participation as
a section of the AAPT will be to hold events throughout the year with the WYP
2005 as our theme. What the section
needs is your participation in the activities and maybe organizing some for
your school or community. In an article
on the WYP 2005 there are some suggestions as to how anyone can become involved
in bringing physics to the general public and to our students.
The calendar of events begins with a workshop at Six Flags
Great Adventure in October and continues through the
year into May. Please
look at the schedule and make your presence known at some of the functions. The Holiday Treats is back and we would like
to have as many participants who have not had the opportunity of attending in
the past. Talk to those that have made a
time of it and you will hear of the great give away items that you can get for
your class and yourself.
Lastly, please take the time to become an ambassador for the
section. We need your assistance in recruiting new members to maintain the
vitality of the physics teaching in New Jersey. There are many physics teachers in the state
that are not members either because they do not know that we exist or that we
have not had success in contacting them.
We are all aware that a person may be teaching two or three sciences and
that belonging to all of the associations may be a financial burden. However, we have not raised our dues in
recent memory. If you know of any
physics teachers that are not members, try to convince
them that we are here to assist them in any way possible to make their teaching
more worthwhile.
Have a good year and I look forward to meeting you at some
of the events we sponsor.
Ray Polomski
Calendar of Events
Oct. 2 – Amusement Park Physics – Six Flags Great Adventure
Oct. 23 – Fall Make and Take – Monmouth Regional HS
Nov. 13 – Workshop at Anchor Scientific - Sound
Dec. 4 – Holiday
Treats – Rutgers
University
Jan. 15 – Physics Olympics – Monmouth Regional HS
Feb. 5 – Winter Make and Take – Monmouth Regional HS
Feb.81 – Dave’s Demo Night – Rutgers
University
Mar. 11 – 12 – NJ – SEPA Joint Section Meeting –
Princeton
University
Mar. 19 – Electrostatics Workshop – Chatham HS
Apr. 29 – Physics Day – Six Flags Great Adventure
May 6 – Physics Day – Six Flags Great Adventure
May – 100 Years of Science – Rutgers
University
The calendar of events is updated periodically and some events may be added
or dates may be changed. Please refer to
our website for additional information: www.njaapt.org.
Membership
As noted on the previous page, our membership is
dependent upon the activities we provide for our members. If you have not renewed your membership for
the upcoming year, please take the opportunity to visit the website for a
membership form and continue being a member of our section. If you teach with or if you
know of any other teacher whose responsibility is teaching physics, inform them
of our existence. Encourage any teachers of physics to join –
they will receive a FREE ONE- YEAR membership in NJAAPT. We rely on your assistance in this matter to
keep the section active and to meet the needs of its members. We are fortunate that we can support our
programs through the generous gift of the Frederick
and Florence Bauder Fund that is
administered by the AAPT.
Please also update the information on your membership – address, phone #, email
address, etc. to keep our list current.
If you are not a member of the AAPT, consider joining the
national organization. As a first year
member the membership fee is one half the actual dues. You can contact the AAPT: www.aapt.org
AAPT Summer Meeting
The 129th
Annual Summer AAPT Meeting was held in warm, sunny Sacramento, CA
from July 31 – Aug. 4. Workshops,
including the ever-popular physics demonstration workshop conducted by our own
Dave Maiullo of Rutgers
University, were held on Saturday and Sunday and there
was a trip and picnic at the San Francisco Giants home park, PacBell
Park that was attended by 125 people. San Francisco greeted the group with its
typical weather – clouds and wind, but all had a great time.
Monday through
Wednesday brought an exceptionally large number of delivered papers with the
morning session beginning before 8 AM and lasting until 6 PM. On Monday almost 600 attended
the annual picnic and were treated to a number of events. The sponsor this year was Pasco Scientific, which is celebrating its 40th
anniversary supplying education with physics equipment. Following the picnic and door prize give
away, a demonstration show on the use of sports in teaching physics was
performed. Our members, Eugenia Etkina
and Alan van Heuvlen were participants.
Upon returning to the California
State University Sacramento campus a star gazing party was held atop
one of its buildings. On Tuesday evening
a demonstration show was held for the general public and those attending the
meeting. Photos of the meeting can be
found on our website.
Attending from NJ
besides Alan, Eugenia, and Dave were Anthony Lapinski, Jim Ferrara, Peter
Lindenfeld, and Ray Polomski. If you can make the next summer meeting in
Salt Lake City, Utah
the experience you will have will be unforgettable.
Ray Polomski
Physics Olympics
The annual Physics Olympics will take place on
Saturday 15, 2005 at Monmouth
Regional
High
School. There are six events, which are described
below:
FERMI
QUESTION - To estimate the order of magnitude of a quantity that is
difficult
Or
impossible to measure.
GRAB BAG - Objective to be announced at the
competition. The team will be ask to perform a task
and/or build a device that will perform a task in a set amount of time.
TOWER OF CARDS - To build the tallest tower of playing cards
using the fewest number of cards.
EGG THROW- To build a device,
of minimal mass, that will protect an egg that is
thrown against a wall.
ZERO
IMPACT VEHICLE -To build an air-powered vehicle that will move as close
as possible to a wall without touching it.
STRAW LEVER ARM -To build a lever arm, of minimal mass, from
plastic drinking
straws that will hold a 1-kg mass.
To obtain information about the Physics Olympics contact
John Valente at
John_Valente@mast.mcvsd.ogr
or visit the NJAAPT web site at www. njaapt org.
John Valente
Amusement Park
Physics Workshop – Saturday, Oct. 2
The adventure begins in class. In
the class we will go over some of the important points for using amusement park
physics in our teaching. There will be
math and solving equations, the conceptual feelings of the rides, making and
using demonstrations, making and using measuring devices, and the important
points for those planning a trip. The
class part of the experience is important for those who may feel uncomfortable
with introducing amusement park physics into their course. It will also expand the base for those who
already do amusement park physics. This
will touch upon those all-important standards with which we deal. Amusement park physics is not an add-on that
requires more time – it is an integral part of what you do already.
Circular motion, speed, acceleration, and energy transformations take on a
new excitement. It is not the speed but
the acceleration that one feels. You
need to build a circular ride that has a radius that makes the ride thrilling
and safe. Students feel themselves stuck
to the wall of the Taz Twister. They are not struck but trying to move in a
straight line and the wall is getting in the way. If you get sick, which way do you turn your
head?
As you come to the Log Flume,
where do you want the heavy people to get the biggest splash? Does it matter? Which seat on the roller coaster gives the
most exciting ride? What does this mean – exciting? Is exciting feeling the speed and jerking of
the ride or is it seeing over the top of the hill as the roller coaster slowly
goes over the top? What materials do you
need to build roller coasters that twist and turn you upside down? Do you ever leave the seat or are you held to
the seat? Why the big shoulder
harness? What the heck is a g?
Does a light person swing out further on the swings than a heavier
person?
Ok, so you want to use amusement park physics. Can you use it without coming to the
park? If you come to the park, what do
you need to bring and what do you need to do before coming? What do you need to do while you are at the
park? Also, remember to count noses
before leaving.
So, who wants to go to Great Adventure to spend time with their
classes? Ok, we will turn you loose in
the park. After class and only if you
pass the grueling final exam (I think it is how to spell the last name of the
NJAAPT president) will you be allowed to have fun in the amusement park. We will give you ideas as to what rides might
be the best to look at, what measurement you can take, and what you can
calculate. We will answer your questions
about using this in the classroom. Remember, this can be used with
conceptual students as well as honors students.
How do you fashion appropriate activities if you have a wide range of
students going? How will you mark their
activities?
We are cruel since we will provide breakfast and lunch. It is up to you to keep it down.
Physics is truly a Great Adventure
J
.
REGISTRATION
FORM IS AVAILABLE ON OUR WEBSITE.
CHECKS MADE
PAYABLE TO NJAAPT
Harry Rheam
Notes on the Millikan Lecture Presented at the AAPT
Summer Meeting in Sacramento, CA
The following is a synopsis of the lecture given by Kenneth S. Crane of
Oregon
State University
entitled: ”The Challenges of Teaching Modern Physics”
One conclusion drawn by the IUPP (Introductory
University Physics Project) is that
introductory courses are overloaded with content, lack a coherent “storyline,”
and pay insufficient attention to contemporary topics. Krane added that introductory modern courses
give the impression that modern physics is descriptive, consisting of facts,
paying insufficient attention to student reasoning difficulties. They also do not connect with the
introductory classical physics courses and are largely not taught with modern
teaching methods. There is also
confusion about using “V” for the electric potential in classical physics and
potential energy in the Schrodinger equation, Krane noted. He also observed that electrical engineers
want to relate the photoelectric current to the stopping potential by Ohm’s
Law.
In addition, Krane stated, students attribute the greatest probability to a
peak in the wave function because the kinetic energy is the least at the peak
in a roller coaster, so the particle spends more time there. He also lamented that wave functions are
often superimposed on energy axes in graphs.
Ideally, he added, we should have time-dependent animations showing both
the real and imaginary parts of the wave function. Krane also advocated illustrating the wave
function by the intensity of a horizontal stripe.
Krane stated that he does not spend much time on the Bohr atom because he
doesn’t want to ingrain it into the students’ minds or for them to spend time
to parrot it on exams. He devotes more
time to the more important concepts of energy and momentum in special
relativity than the more tedious space and time. He cited Greenstein and Zajonc’s The
Quantum Challenge to make the case that the photoelectric effect does not
make the definitive case for the particle theory of light but rather that
delayed quantum effects do.
Yet he still includes the photoelectric effect in his course, also the
Compton effect, because it allows analysis of a
collision with relativistic expressions for energy and momentum. But Krane said that he restricts his wave
theory of matter to discussing two-slit interference. He then follows basic quantum mechanics with
applications to atomic and nuclear structure with an epilogue on the Big Bang.
Krane also stated that he would like to see modern physics incorporated
with classical physics in a unified course as he has seen done by Moore (Six
Ideas That Shaped Physics), Sherwood and Chabay (Matter and
Interactions), and Holbrow, Lloyd, and Amato (Modern Introductory
Physics).
Krane concluded that the introductory physics course could serve as a
service course to support specific majors or to impart to students how the
universe works. His personal wish is for
the latter.
John Roeder
WHAT CAN WE DO FOR YOU?
Here’s an opportunity to let us know what you think the section can do for
you. Give us some ideas about how we can
be more effective in assisting you in the teaching arena. You may have topics that could lead to the development
of workshops that can be very helpful to many.
You can go to our website and contact anyone of the officers. We
want to hear from you – it is your section.
World Year of Physics 2005
The WYP 2005 is meant to be a celebration to
bring to the general public the achievements of the great scientist past and
present. Since 2005 will mark the
centenary of Einstein’s three groundbreaking papers, we can participate in
various ways to make our students and the community more aware of the
contributions made by many to the advancement of understanding how our world
works. T he official website for the
committee, of which Dave Maiullo is a member, is a starting point for all those
interested in commerating this event. The website address is: www.physics2005.org
To help celebrate this
momentous year we are planning some competitions for student
participation. There will be further
information about this in future mailings and on our website.
AAPT’s
Team America Rocketry
Contest
AAPT will serve as the Team America Rocketry Challenge‚s
sole educational partner for the 2005 competition. As a supporting partner for
the 2004event, AAPT was prominent in providing contest information to the
physics education community. The challenge is the world‚s largest model rocket
contest for middle and high school students, with more than 16,000 students
participating in the 2003 and 2004 competition. To get more information on the
Team America Rocketry
Challenge go to: http://www.rocketcontest.org .
September
9 Abstract Deadline for 2005 Winter Meeting
The deadline for submission of all abstracts for the 2005
Winter Meeting
in Albuquerque,
NM, is Thursday,
September 9. For information on abstract
preparation and submission rules, please go to
http://www.aapt.org/Events/abstractguide.cfm . Read the current
Call for Papers at
http://www.aapt.org/Events/call4papers.cfm
Physics Day
Workbook Revision Project
Five members, Ray Polomski, Jessie Blair, Joe Spaccavento, Sue Hoy, Jay
Waldstein and Tony Brancato, met with Kat Williams of the Special Events
Department of Six Flags Great Adventure.
In an effort to revise the workbook used on Physics Day, discussions
were held about the best method of improving the book. This will be a joint project of NJAAPT and
Six Flags and the result will be a new format.
It is hoped that all of the qualitative and quantitative will be placed
on a CD. If this can be accomplished, it
would afford teachers to individualize the assignments for their students. It was also suggested that movies of the
rides be placed on the CD as an introduction to the use of the amusement park
as a teaching tool.
We are looking for input from our members concerning the nature of the work
– what do you think is good about the present book and what do you think should
be changed? Contact any of the officers with comments and suggestions regarding the
revision.
Anchor
Scientific Workshop on Sound –
Saturday, Nov.
13
Join Harry Rheam and a
host of others at Anchor Scientific for a tremendous workshop on sound.
This will provide you with the opportunity to pick the brains some of
the finest minds in the area on how to liven up the demonstrations and concepts
in your classroom.
Registration
form is available on our website.
NJSTA Convention Oct. 12-13
Are you planning on
attending the NJSTA Convention this year?
You can go to their website for details on the meeting. Stop by at our table and at the Physics Demo Den on both days. The Physics
Demo Den will present demonstrations two hours each day in the areas of
sound, electricity, and magnetism, A
cast of thousands, maybe slightly less, led by Borislaw Bilash and Harry Rheam
will stupefy the audience with their fantastic talents. Don’t miss this opportunity, it may not come
again.
NJAAPT Newsletter
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Drive
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