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 17th. J.D. is working on a speaker. Also, in April (our
tentative date is April 14th) 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
No comments:
Post a Comment