Last Meeting's Notes

TAPT-ers,

Just a quick re-cap of our meeting last week. Many thanks to Jim Housley for a great program and for bringing a lot of great stuff. Most equipment was snapped up. I have a few things if you would like them – a density set, and a dial indicator with an attached bracket and metal bar for set-up.

Among the demos Jim showed:

·      A float and chain engineering set – I hadn’t seen this before and they were all snapped up, so I’m not sure what all was included. It’s an engineering apparatus that asks students to develop different measuring devices – it’s super cool.

·      The dial indicators that we’ve seen before. Jim had a great idea for a lab – do a Hooke’s law experiment with the unit of mass being one student mass. The dial indicator can be on the floor, then one student at a time move to the indicator. As more students get close, the indicator shows more floor depression, and that can be turned into a displacement of the spring inside to graph an F vs x line whose slope is the spring constant.  We tried it on J.D.’s floor using teacher mass as the independent variable, but his floor is just too solid. Jim says it works well on any floor except the ground floor. The dial indicator can measure depressions or changes of 1/1000 of an inch.

·      A UV filter kit: one lens filters UV, one doesn’t. Everything looks the same until you have something that is fluorescing – best used outside. This has lots of potential in chemistry and physics. Jim had some UV beads that fluoresce in the sun.

·      Some beads that Jim bought at the bead show. These were beautiful. They look sky blue when the light source is off to the side, and reddish-yellow when you look through them at a light source. Just like the atmosphere. Jim surmised that there are small particles embedded in the plastic that scatter light.

Our next meeting is March 17^th. J.D. is working on a speaker. Also, in April (our tentative date is April 14^th) we are discussing the book Learn Better, by Ulrich Boser. I have several more copies of the book, thanks to Fritz Fisher. Let me know if you need one, I can send it through the mail. I will bring them to our March meeting too. I’ll also bring extra equipment from Jim.

Hope to see you all soon.

Best,

Karie

More on This Saturday

Hi Tucson Physics Teachers,

Here's our plan for Saturday, February 3rd. We are meeting at J.D. Garcia's house, [use Contact form for address], in the morning at 9:00 am - notice the slightly later time. We will have breakfast potluck and our guest is Jim Housley, teacher emeritus and physics lab equipment manufacturer. We will aim to end at 11:00.

I've invited everyone for dinner at my house in the evening at 5:00. I tried to send a google invite, but it didn't work as well as I'd hoped. If you are planning to come, or tentatively planning to come, it would be helpful if you would shoot me another email. I guess I have to figure out that calendar thing for next time. At any rate, you are welcome to bring a guest, we will eat and socialize with the Housleys. My address is [use Contact form for address and directions].

And please feel free to come even if you forget to RSVP. 

Hope to see you at either or both events!

Best, 

Karie