Notes from October 25th Meeting

TAPT,

We had a really great meeting, with lots of good discussion on Saturday. I am attaching some information from some of the presenters. Everyone was excited about all of the presentations, and we agreed that we should have this format (15-minute presentations) once per semester.

Fritz’s recommendations: Powers of Ten in Time, by d’Hooft

Arrival of the Fittest, Wagner

Category Theory for the Sciences

The talks were great and stimulating. Dawn Pelayo’s boat project included bunch of buoyancy activities, including a measurement of lung capacity. For more information, you can email Dawn: Dawn Pelayo dawnp@cityhighschool.org.

Demian Quiroz talked about group exams, very interesting. His powerpoint and an example are attached.

Lynne Gillette is very excited about Direct Measurement videos. A write-up and a few worksheets are attached.

Lisa got everyone talking about communication with your students and with parents. I can’t even summarize it, but our new blog will be a start. She keeps a blog for her class, then students can search on key words. It’s very helpful. [added by Lisa: my slideshow is here]

Fritz showed some Java applets, and some are translated now into html so they are more usable. Website is walter-fendt.de. It’s from Denmark. Fritz also showed the use thin dowel rods as graphing tools.

Rob Purington showed some egg drop results. He recommends car crash videos from Insurance Institute of Highway Safety.

I know everyone gets very busy around this time. I am too, so I will make this short.

Our next meeting is December 6^th, at J.D. Garcia’s house. DaNel Hogan will talk about STEMazing, the Pima County STEM initiative, of which she is the director.

Hope to see you then. Reminders will follow.

Karie

Upcoming Meeting: October 25th

I’m super excited about our meeting! We will meet at Pima Community College West Campus, in room F130. I’ve pasted a map of the campus below (also at https://pima.edu/maps-directions/index.html).

I think it’s best to park on the south side, off of Anklam. Anklam is a continuation to the west of 6^th Street and St. Mary’s. After you park, come in past the H building and go up one flight of stairs. The meeting will be in F130. The door is in between the two parts of the F-building that you can see on the map. I’ll bring coffee and plates; bring a dish to share if you can manage it.

If you are a speaker, there is a computer with internet that projects. You can set up between 8:30 and 9; I’ll try to be there by about 8:15.

The meeting will start at 8:30, and I’d like to start the talks at 9:00. Here is the schedule:

9:00-9:15              Dawn Pelayo      Boat Project: Density and Buoyancy 

9:15-9:30              Demian Quiroz  Group testing and Group Task Strategies

9:30-9:45              Lynne Gillette    Using Direct Measurement Videos

9:45-10:00           Fritz Fischer        Beyond Stacks of Kinematic Graphs

10:00-10:15         Lisa Volkening   Communicating with students and parents

10:15-10:30         Karie Meyers     Video analysis with LoggerPro – Conservation of momentum

Come and get some new ideas – it’s always rejuvenating to hear what other teachers are doing.

See you Saturday!

Karie

Upcoming PD Opportunities

Don’t’ forget TAPT meets October 25^th.

Here are some things that might be of interest:

From DaNel Hogan:

Still spots open for some exceptional professional development. In one case, educators walk away with equipment for their classroom and in the other they can get a $75 stipend. Both are FREE! Please share with your networks – let’s make sure these workshops are full!

The Optical Society Science Educators’ Day (EDAY)

Keynote speaker and hands-on demonstrations and equipment to take back with you.

Grade Level: Middle and High School Educators

Date: October 22, 2014 from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm

Location: JW Marriott Tucson Starr Pass Resort – Tucson Ballroom, Salon E

RSVP as soon as possible to eday@osa.org

Additional info below.

Wetlands and Wildlife Curriculum Development Workshops

2-day curriculum-consultation workshops to develop hands-on, experiential curriculum on wetland ecology, wildlife conservation, and wildlife corridors, $75 stipend

Grade Level: K-12

Option 1 Dates: October 29 (3-6pm) and November 1 (8 am – 2:30 pm)

Option 1 Location: Roger Road Ponds/Sweetwater Wetlands – 2600 W Sweetwater Drive

or

Option 2 Dates: November 12 (3-6 pm) and November 15 (8 am – 2:30 pm)

Option 2 Location: Agua Caliente Park – 12325 E Roger Road

For information and reservations contact 520-615-7855 or email eeducation@pima.gov

See attached flyer for additional information.

Science Educators’ Day (EDAY)

Wednesday, 22 October, 17:00 - 20:00
Tucson Ballroom, Salon E

*Free of Charge – RSVP Required. 

Our guest speaker for the 2014 Science Educators’ Day (EDAY) event is Dr. Michael Raymer. He is a physicist and Phillip H. Knight Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Oregon. He was on the faculty at the University of Rochester’s Institute of Optics before moving to Oregon, where he co-founded the University’s Oregon Center for Optics. His interest in teaching began as an undergraduate at the University of California at Santa Cruz, where he co-instructed a beginning course in chemistry. Many years later he parlayed that experience into the founding of the UO’s Science Literacy Program, which is funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and which reaches across the departments of physics, chemistry, biology, and geology. His interest in teaching science literacy led him to author a textbook, The Silicon Web: Physics for the Internet Age (Taylor & Francis, 2009), to accompany a course he teaches called The Physics Behind the Internet.

The registration process is EASY. To confirm your attendance simply email your name and contact information to eday@osa.org.

Ms. DaNel L. Hogan

Director of The STEMAZing Project

200 N. Stone Avenue

Tucson, AZ 85701

(520) 724-8395

September 27th Meeting Notes

We had a great talk by Dr. Charles Wolgemuth, a young biophysicist from the University of Arizona; he is also a University of Arizona alumnus.   He spoke on two different subjects: the first was the Lyme disease bacteria, especially how it moves within the body through various organs. The bacteria are flat wave spirochetes, and Charles talked about their motion (with video), how much torque they produce to move through liquids and organ walls. Overall, the question is, What role does physics play in Lyme disease? He showed how the “spring constant” of the spring that is the bacterium can be measured. Then looking at their motility through liquids of various viscosities can lead to a calculation of the torques generated. A torque of 3000 pN-nm was measured. So that was kind of cool. I will attach his slides to a later email, I’m sure I’m not conveying the important points completely well – biology is a bit foreign to me.  In addition, Charles went into a second research interest of his group, which is wound healing. He showed that cells on the edges of a wound grow to close the wound, but it isn’t just the cells closest to the wound that act. There is some amount of communication between at least three layers of cells.  Inactivating a single layer of cells still lets wounds heal, but if three layers are inactivated, the would does not heal. Also, on short timescales, cells stick together, but on long timescales, they may slip relative to each other. Kind of like silly putty.

Next meeting
We will meet October 25^th at Pima Community College West Campus. We will have 10-minute presentations from members. If you have a favorite lesson, lab or activity, talk about it for 10 minutes. Bring a handout if you can. Let me know in advance if you would like to present, and I’ll make up a schedule. My colleague Lynne Gillette will make a presentation on Direct Measurement videos and how to use them. I will talk about using smartPhysics and the flipped classroom. Have you done something innovative? Come and let your peers know the details!
Here are some other things you might be interested in:
Speckle Interferometry Opportunity for students:

I went to the AzAAPT meeting two weeks ago at Chandler-Gilbert Community College. There was a good speaker, Richard Harshaw, who talked about his speckle interferometry project. The observations are being made at the McMath Solar Observatory at Kitt Peak. By using speckle interferometry, Harshaw and his group are able to measure the orbits of double stars very accurately. Double stars are important as part of the base of the distance scale.  Mr. Harshaw is willing to visit astronomy clubs to lecture. He’s an engaging speaker, and has some opportunities available for high school and undergraduate students to help with the double star research.  He would be very happy to answer anyone who contacts him.
His contact information:
Richard Harshaw
Brilliant Sky Observatory
4625 E. Brilliant Sky Drive
Cave Creek, AZ 85331
Cell: 480.227.7231
Email: rharshaw2@cox.net

Biosphere 2 is open for teachers some evenings in October:
Several Saturday evenings in October Biosphere 2 will remain open until 8pm (as opposed to the usual closing time 4pm), with visitors allowed to explore B2 at their own pace, scavenger hunts for kids, telescopes for astronomical observing, pizza for sale, and a whole slew of live animals and hands-on STEM activities.
I think these events would be of interest to teachers around Tucson (and beyond) - especially the Oct 25th Discovery Night, in which teachers (with their school ID) get in for half price and are entered into a raffle for a free field trip to B2. 
More details are at www.b2science.org, and I am attaching a PDF flyer.
Questions can be directed to Pacifica Sommers. Please use the link in her signature below to contact her and do not reply to this message.
Pacifica Sommers
Ph.D. Candidate, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University of Arizona
psommers@email.arizona.edu
801-647-4124
www.biodiversitytheblog.wordpress.com

The STEMAZing Project
DaNel Hogan is director of the STEMAZing project
You can receive the STEMazing newsletter. Sign up at http://www.pimaregionalsupport.org/STEMAZing and see all of their outreach opportunities, including STEMAZing Tuesdays, which happen once a month.
DaNel will be our TAPT speaker on January 10^th.

This came from Dawn Pelayo:

EDAY! - Science Educator's Day; Tucson, AZ

Great upcoming opportunity for educators!

Free for educators and dinner provided! See below and attached for details.

The Science Educator’s Day (EDAY) is an event intended to expose secondary-school science teachers to the intriguing and educational world of optics, and to suggest ways it can be introduced in secondary school. This year EDAY will take place on Wednesday, 22 October in Tucson, Arizona, USA.

 The EDAY 2014 program will include:

•                     Special Guest Speaker: Michael Raymer

•                     Approximately 10-20 stations with OSA Student Chapters demonstrating and discussing hands-on activities for teaching optics to secondary school students

•                     International Year of Light gift bags containing demonstration aids and lesson plans

•                     Additional optics materials available as door prizes

•                     A buffet dinner allowing you to mingle with fellow teachers and conference attendees

The registration process is EASY. To confirm your attendance simply email your name and contact information to eday@osa.org. For questions, contact:

Ameé J. Hennig
CIAN-ERC Education & Outreach Manager
University of Arizona
1630 East University Blvd., #501B
Tucson, AZ  85721
520.621.8253
amee@optics.arizona.edu 

Follow CIAN on Facebook,Twitter, & LinkedIN

Books recommended by Fritz:

Classical Mechanics with Calculus of Variations, Levi.
Naturalism and Pragmatism, Shulkin
The Signal and the Noise, Silver
Morality for Humans: Ethics from the Perspective of Cognitive Science, Johnson

See you October 25^th!
Karie