Meeting Notes and Upcoming Dates

TAPT-ers,

We had a bunch of delicious food at our start-of-the-year meeting. Scones, muffins, cinnamon rolls – apparently no one has started their New Year diet yet.

Bruce Bayly was only one of the Brits attending. (Helen Reynolds has recently joined the teaching staff of Greenfields.) Sorry for the digression, I meant to remind everyone that Bruce has arranged for Calculus, the Musical! to be presented here next Friday, January 27, 2017. I’ll attach the flyer, or go to www.eventbrite.com/e/calculus-the-musical-tickets-30503889956 for tickets.

We had a super interesting demo by Chris Ubing. He used his I/O lab device to measure the magnetic field of a current-carrying wire. He showed how to get the 1/r dependence using loggerPro or excel graphing of B vs r.

J.D. had three things to report – he has recently submitted questions for the physics GRE, he has been interviewing Flinn scholarship applicants – quite a task since there are many and they are all outstanding – and he gave a talk on The Role of Time in Science and Religion, which we want him to reprise for TAPT.

Fritz brought a lot of books, and they might have a theme that he is very interested in, which is AI, the new electricity according to Fritz, meaning AI is as revolutionary as electricity was:

Why Information Grows, by Cesar Hidalgo. Economic growth can be treated like natural systems

The Dreams that Stuff Is Made Of, by Steven Hawking, a collection of papers or readings about modern physics.

By Michael Lewis, The Undoing Project about Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tverskyan and how they collaborated on decision theory.

Zen Flesh Zen Bones, a “collection of primary Zen sources” according to Amazon.

Lenin’s Tomb, by David Remick (historical)

The Master Algorithm:How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our Worldby Pedro Domingos. I guess this is the fascinating AI book mentioned at the beginning.

Steve Hoell gave a nice demo about a battery in a spring – it zips through. He found it in the January 2016 AJP I think. I’m going to try to attach a video.

Future dates:

Our next meeting is February 4^th, and our friend Jim Housley will be here with some equipment. Maybe bring a bag – I know he won’t want to take it back with him.

On March 4^th we will have a meeting about preparing students for the AP exams. I’m a long-time AP grader and will talk about the new exams and give some hints.

Then April 8^th is the AzAAPT meeting, which will be held at the U of A in the Physics and Atmospherics building (PAS). We are working on a speaker.

We are planning our end-of-year party on May 13^th, and will be twisting J.D.’s arm to talk about time in science and religion.

If you are of a mind to drive, the second annual un-conference of STEMteachersPHX is January 28, from 10 am to 1 pm at Pinnacle High School in Phoenix. I know it's far, but this is a great group. Registration is free at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2nd-annual-unconference-tickets-30424058177

Recertification hours are available for all meetings – I try to remember to bring forms, but an advance email is helpful.

Hope to see everyone on February 4^th.

Karie

Karie Meyers, Ph.D.

Physics Instructor and Chair, Physics and Geosciences Department

Pima Community College West Campus

phone: 206-6695
office: E230
email: kameyers1@pima.edu