TAPT-ers,
There is a Star Party
this Saturday, Feb. 13, all day at Pima Community College East
Campus, sponsored by Astronomy Magazine and the Tucson Amateur Astronomy
Association. Look here for details
Some
notes from our last meeting: It was awesome! Jim Housley came to the meeting
and gave away a bunch of great stuff – he brought a suitcase just for us. (I’ll
plug Southwest Airlines here – two free bags.) Also, if there are things you
need that his company, Transparent Devices, manufactures, you can email him (jmhousley@aol.com) or me and he will send
them to you. He is happy to supply free stuff to us, as he has some amount of
overstock and scratch-and-dent, and has been able to absorb the shipping cost
so far. While he was here, Jim visited Mark Stockwell’s school, and Allison
Lemons’s school. He is always happy to see what people are doing and what
devices would be useful. Jim is hoping to give over some of his manufacturing
responsibilities to a couple of young engineers, so hopefully he will have more
travel time and fewer headaches.
Some
Physics Factory News: There is a new physics bus! It’s going to be great. Kip
Perkins and Bruce Bayly and Dolly Spalding were all at the meeting
representing. Kip is especially looking for demos that would interest middle
school students. Kip is driving the original physics bus back to Cornell via
the Little Shop of Physics at CSU in Fort Collins. You might have heard of
Brian Jones, who is a CSU physics professor and runs the Little Shop. Very
inspirational.
Some
quotes from the meeting: “Things should be beautiful as well as educational.”
That’s Jim’s philosophy for physics demonstration and lab equipment. “Human
nature is not factored into education.” Basically, the point was that having
attractive things makes students want to learn about them. From Fritz: “The
nice thing about Russian mathematics is that they think about physics and
mathematics as the same thing.”
Fritz’s
books: Lots of math: Vladimeer Arnold, Mathematical Understanding of Nature.
Aleksandrov
et al., Mathematics, Its Content, Methods and Meaning, apparently
three volumes in one. Everyone who had read them agreed that these two books
are great.
Bruce’s
mother was featured in an article in the Daily Star. She is a champion athlete.
Look for Helen Bayly.
Richard
also brought a book about nothing, called the Zero.
J.
D. had just returned from an advisory committee meeting at the APS. He filled
us in on the URM Bridge program, very successful. Also LIGO will have an
announcement February 11th, and CERN will have an announcement soon.
Lots to look forward to.
We
don’t have a next meeting planned. The AzAAPT meets April 16th
in Prescott at Embry Riddle University. I am trying for an early April AAPT
meeting, but the speaker is TBA. I will keep everyone informed.
There
will be a Modeling Workshop at PCC West Campus, in our new labs in June,
from June 13 – July 1. Here is a link with the latest information: http://www.phystec.org/pd/detail.cfm?ID=6432.
I hope you will all consider attending. It changed my teaching. I have a great
teacher from Phoenix lined up. I think a PCC grant will cover some of the costs
and it will be offered at a reduced rate to teachers. Right now, that rate
looks like it will be about $200, which will include an AMTA membership and
some other goodies, as well as about 90 or so hours of professional development
credit. It will also help teachers prepare to teach physics, so if you know
someone who has been wanting to teach physics, this is the way to start.
March
12, as part of the Festival of Books, all U of A physics labs will be
open for touring. This is a great opportunity for students to see what is
going on at the U.
See
you soon,
Karie
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