Meeting this Saturday

TAPT,

Happy New Year! 

We meet Saturday, January 23, at 8:30 am at J.D. Garcia’s house for potluck breakfast. We usually use our January meeting to plan the next semester, so bring all of your ideas. Also, if you happened to get any physics toys, or other cool toys, for Christmas or other holidays, this is a great time to show them off. Bring all of your show and tell. 

Bring a dish to share if you have time, if not, come anyway, we always have plenty of food. We start at 8:30 and aim to end around 10:30.

I’ve attached directions to J.D.’s. Hope to see everyone there. 

[Use the contact form on the this blog for directions.]

Karie

Particle Fever on PBS + Updates

TAPT,

Happy New Year! TAPT meets January 23rd. I’ll send reminders, but you can put in on your calendar: 8:30 am at J.D. Garcia’s house.

Here are a few reminders that I’m passing along from Jane Jackson:

PARTICLE FEVER
   Wednesday, January 6, at 9pm on KAET channel 8.
  http://www.azpbs.org
Follow six brilliant scientists for the launch of the Large Hadron Collider, built to recreate the conditions of the Big Bang and search for the Higgs boson.

(Also Fri. 1/8 at 3 a.m.; Sun. 1/10 at 2 p.m.)

Jane's note: On the PBS website, you can view a new 8-minute video, produced in summer 2015:   Particle Fever: Extra Dimensions.
Physicists Daniel Whitestone and Jonathan Feng update us after finding the Higgs Boson.
      http://www.pbs.org/video/2365551825/

The official website for Particle Fever is http://www.pbs.org/wnet/particle-fever/ . The director and producer are both PhDs in particle physics.

Also from Jane, details about the Physics Bowl, which is a fun exercise for your students:

2016 AAPT  PHYSICS BOWL

Each year, approximately 10,000 students take a 40-question, 45-minute timed, multiple-choice test under their school's supervision. The 2016 exam will be given between March 30 and April 15, 2016.

To enhance the distribution of awards, Division I is for first-year physics students and Division II is for second-year physics students. Each Division has 14 regions. Regions are listed at
    http://www.aapt.org/Programs/PhysicsBowl/codes.cfm  (Specialized math and science schools compete in a separate region, just for them.)

The deadline to register is FEBRUARY 29, 2016.

You, the teacher, can register a team of your students. Register at http://www.aapt.org/Programs/PhysicsBowl/howto.cfm (online or mail or FAX)

Your team of students take a 40-question, 45-minute timed, multiple-choice test under your school's supervision.

Exam questions are based on topics and concepts covered in a typical high school physics course.

School Team scores are determined by the sum of the scores of the top five students.

Info at http://www.aapt.org/Programs/Physicsbowl/

JOIN AAPT
One more thing: If your New Year’s Resolution is to join AAPT, here’s some information:

WHY?
*  AAPT advances the greater good -- through physics education.
*  AAPT promotes best practices for physics education -- through teachers.
*  AAPT membership CONNECTS you with physics teachers worldwide.

Watch physics teachers tell why they value AAPT (a 2-minute video) at  http://www.aapt.org/Membership/Connections_Matter.cfm

AAPT BENEFITS:
* eNNOUNCER each month: many opportunities
* online journals:
       American Journal of Physics (my favorite, for PER!) and
       THE PHYSICS TEACHER (great short articles -- useful in the classroom)
* PHYSICS TODAY magazine: keep up with physics

*eMentoring, for high school teachers

* Summer meetings, often at universities with affordable dorm housing.
      Focus on high school and college.
      Insightful talks
      Fun to make new friends and share ideas

* Winter meetings, that focus on college physics

* AAPT staff are friendly and helpful.

*  Much more!  Watch this 4-minute video by AAPT President Steve Iona:
       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXlYWy84OtI

It is easy to join AAPT, at http://www.aapt.org .

Hope to see you January 23rd!

Karie

Notes From December 12th Meeting

To TAPT,

Once again, I know I’m late with meeting notes from our meeting of December 12th, now over a week ago. The last week of school is always a bit busy for me.

We had lots of interesting visitors at the last meeting. We had a surprise visit from Erik Herman, who was driving the original Physics Bus. It was fantastic! We all got to have a quick tour before they headed off to the street fair. Erik, who graduated from the U of A teacher prep program, is now working in physics education outreach at Cornell University. The bus was amazing. 

Many thanks to our two guests from the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association, Jim Heasley and Mike Magras, who gave a wonderful presentation. They have a dark site about two hours from Tucson. They will host school groups there. To see pictures of their site, google Chiricahua Astronomy Complex. They have a 14” Celestron with a rolling roof. We are hoping for a TAPTouting to the site! It will be awesome. DaNel Hogan and I are going to work on it in for next spring. With professional development credit.

Meanwhile, if you would like to work with the TAAA for your class or your school, you can contact Jim Heasley at jnheasley@gmail.com. They will be happy to come visit your club or class, and brainstorm some activities that the group might like. They can do a star party, and then move on from there if you have a group that becomes interested in astronomy and would like to camp out at the TAAA dark site. This is a great group with lots of resources that they would love to share in order to get people interested in science. 

In addition, Jim Heasley, who is a former University of Hawaii astronomer, suggested a project that he thinks would make a good science fair project. People mentioned dry labs from Project CLEA and MatLab, which has a dry lab on measuring the speed of light. Jim Heasley suggested a photographic project: take a digital photo of Jupiter every night for some period of time. Using the photos of the moons of Jupiter, deduce Kepler’s law of period vs. orbital radius. The site Ugly Hedgehog was mentioned - it’s a photography site, so I think Jim was referring to it as having some hints for taking pictures of Jupiter.

Some other news: DaNel Hogan of the STEMAZing project (you should be on her mailing list) has macro lenses for 10 cents each. Also, she showed us a cool hologram viewer that you can use to see holograms from the YouTube pictures that people post. It’s amazing. Instructions, and much more, are on her site stemazing.org. Go there for some great demonstrations, sign up for the STEMAZing newsletter, sign up for workshops, lots of other great stuff. Also, DaNel visited Chernobyl. Stay tuned, she will be talking to the group about it next semester.

I am planning a Modeling Workshop for June 13th through July 1st. I’m working on getting some outside funding, so can’t tell right now how much it will cost. If you are interested, please let me know.

Our January planning meeting will be January 23rd at J.D.’s house. We are also planning a meeting in February during the Gem Show, hoping Jim Housely, our friend from Alaska can join us.

Hope everyone has a Happy Holiday! See you next year!

Karie

One More Reminder - Meeting on Saturday

Fellow physics teachers,

Just a quick reminder that we will be hosting the Tucson Amateur Astronomical Association Saturday (Dec 12)  at 8:30 am at J.D. Garcia’s house. (Directions attached.) Bring a dish to share if you can, holiday-themed or not. If you don’t have time to cook or pick something up, don’t worry about it, we always have enough. We will get to hear about the TAAA’s education outreach program, and how they have worked with BASIS schools. They are ready and willing to work with teachers, and hope to spread the word about their programs. I know they have some great educators and some great equipment, so I hope to see everyone there.

Take a break from grading and come chat with your fellow end-of-the-semester sufferers. Hope to see you there!

—Karie

Meeting This Saturday

Hi TAPT-ers,

A quick reminder that we meet Saturday as the last meeting of the semester. It's going to be a good one with a group of Tucson astronomers who have an education program and would like to come into more classrooms. 

Representatives of the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association (TAAA) will talk about what they have done with BASIS in the last three years, and what they can offer for your school. They have some great educators and fantastic equipment, and they are hoping to increase their outreach. Attending will be Dr. Jim Heasley, who is a retired University of Hawaii Astronomy professor, and Mike Magras, who has been working with the BASIS schools. It will be super interesting and useful.

We meet at 8:30 am for potluck breakfast and meeting at J.D. Garcia's house (directions attached). If you can't manage to bring a breakfast dish, don't worry about it, we always have plenty. I know it's a busy time of year, but it would be great if we could have a good number of people to see what the TAAA can offer.

Hope to see you all there!

Karie Meyers, Ph.D.

Next Meeting and Last Meeting's Notes

TAP-Teachers,

This is a reminder that our last meeting will be on December 12^th at J.D. Garcia’s home. We will have the usual 8:30 a.m. start time, with potluck breakfast. I’ll send out directions closer to the meeting date.

We have as a speaker for that date the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association, which I’m sure many of you know is very active in Tucson. I was contacted by Dr. Jim Heasley, who is retired from the University of Hawaii Astronomy Department. Jim was very involved in educational outreach at U of Hawaii, and the TAAA has helped lots of high schools in the area with astronomy clubs and observing nights.

Jim and two of his colleagues will give a presentation on what TAAA can offer to teachers, and I think it will be super useful for teachers looking for an outside speaker for a lecture or observing night, or for a series of events or class activities. The group has an incredible array of expertise and willingness to work with schools, and the astronomers in the group have some ridiculously amazing equipment.

And they really want to work with teachers and schools.

Some notes from our last meeting, which was already over a week ago:

We had some good discussions about flipped or partially flipped classrooms. I showed the smartPhysics/flippit set of prelectures that have worked well for us at Pima. Website is smartphysics.com or flipitphysics.com, for calc-based or algebra-based respectively. The cost is a concern for high schools. I played around on the site, but they don’t have a lot of information, and you really have to call them for high school adoption. Try this page for the number and information about getting a sample. You can register as an instructor easily at the flipit site, then you can view the prelectures.

Chris Ubing showed the I/O lab cart that he has been working with, which is also supported by Macmillan/smartphysics. You can go to the smartphsyics site to see the I/O labs. They are designed to be done at home or at a distance, but the cart itself is an inexpensive way to do a lot of labs – it has all the sensors built in, and couples with a labtop or ipad easily. Look here for details.

Lisa Volkening gave a quick overview of a system that she uses, and I didn’t write down the name, I’m sorry. She makes Kahn Academy-style videos that explain parts of her class. Her cat appears occasionally. I’m sorry I don’t have more information, but the videos are available on youtube, and you could search on Lisa Volkening. Or email her: lisa.volkening@tusd1.org.

Lynne Gillette showed a nice lab activity that doesn’t take much equipment. By measuring the Brewster angle using a polarizer and a reflection from a whiteboard or anything really, students can calculate the index of refraction of that material. I should have that handout, but don’t; Lynne will be happy to email it to you: lmgillette@pima.edu.

Dave Katz recommended some gem show sites – the physical kind of sites. He said to look around St. Mary’s Road and Oracle for vendors that sell meteorites and fossils and will usually give a discount to teachers.

Fritz was absent, so you get a break in your reading assignment.

Thanks to all who attended, and I hope to see everyone at our next meeting, December 12^th.

Karie

Meeting This Saturday

Tucson teachers,

We meet Saturday to talk about the flipped (or partly flipped) classroom. We will meet at J.D. Garcia's house (directions attached) at 8:30 am. J.D. will have coffee; you can bring a breakfast dish to share if you can, but if you don't have time, don't worry about it, we always have plenty of food.

We have three talks scheduled, and we could have more  - you can still let me know if you have something you'd like to present. It will be pretty informal, so don't be shy. Everyone likes to see what other teachers are doing.

Hope to see you Saturday. We start at 8:30 am, and aim to end by 10:30.

Karie Meyers, Ph.D.