Meeting Tomorrow and LSST Talk Next Week

Hello all,

I wanted to bring this talk to your attention. We've had several talks and other events with the LSST community. This general public talk would be a great event to attend and to send your students to. The LSST is an amazing project, and there's going to be SO MUCH data.

Hope to see everyone at J.D.'s tomorrow at 9:00 am. If you've never been to a meeting, now's a great time to start.

Best,

Karie

As part of the annual Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) Project and Community Workshop taking place in Tucson next week, you are invited to join the LSST team for an evening of astronomy at this free, public talk: 

Exploring the Final Frontier with LSST

Thursday, August 16^th, 2018

7:00 pm, Turquoise Ballroom

El Conquistador Tucson, a Hilton Resort
10000 North Oracle Road, Tucson, AZ 85704 

Cosmologist Phil Marshall and Education Specialist Ardis Herrold along with Project Manager Victor Krabbendam will describe the construction status of the LSST, its mission of exploration, and how you can be involved in the discoveries of this amazing science engine.  Currently under construction in Chile, LSST really is a telescope for everyone.  We encourage you to learn more about Tucson’s leadership role in this exciting project and how you can participate in—and benefit from—LSST’s ten-year voyage of scientific discovery. www.lsst.org

More information is available at http://ls.st/o8b

Physics Opportunity with Stipend

Hi All, 

Hope your summer is going well. I'm forwarding this from Danel Hogan, our local Einstein Fellow and Science Education organizer. If you can get to Chicago, it's a great opportunity to work at Fermilab with the QuarkNet educational initiative.

Best,

Karie

Karie-

There are still a few spots left in this PD in Chicago. I know it is a long shot for our folks here but someone might have family there or just be really interested in this opportunity. Can you please pass it along to the TAPT group?

Grateful,

DaNel

Hope this blast E-mail finds you enjoying some well-deserved summertime! While this communication is directed mainly to Physics teachers, (or more loosely defined, "Teachers of Physics") the hope is that---if you cannot take advantage of this unique offer yourself---possibly you will pass on the information to your Science colleagues back at your respective schools.

Greetings, Science Teachers!

We are members of the Fermilab/University of Chicago QuarkNet Center and among the things we do is host a summer workshop for high school teachers of physics like you. Please consider this your personal invitation to our workshop this summer. This year we had about 100 applicants for 4 student research positions. We are excited by the amount of interest in the program and appreciate your continued support!

Workshop Description:
Title: QuarkNet Workshop: Teaching with Data
Description: Activities will focus on research data. Participants will work with scientists from Fermilab and University of Chicago to look at the research projects done by our QuarkNet students, and transform those ideas into student learning at their schools.

Dates: July 18th, July 19th, July 20th
Cost: $0
Stipend: $300 for full attendance
ISBE Recertification: 16.5 PDH's

Click here to register online: 
http://eddata.fnal.gov/lasso/program_search/workshop-db-form-select-pass.lasso?session_id=2221

Fermilab educator workshops provide K–12 teachers with proven classroom activities and strategies for teaching challenging topics in an engaging way.

For the calendar of workshops at Fermilab, you can use:
http://eddata.fnal.gov/lasso/program_search/calendar_workshops_new.lasso

George Dzuricsko
gdzurics@fnal.gov

cell 630.687.2929

---

George Dzuricsko

Faculty, Applied Science Division

De La Salle Institute

End of Year Party

TAPT will celebrate the end of the school year Saturday, May 26th, at J.D. Garcia's house, [use contact form to request address]. We'll meet at 5:30 pm for burgers and end-of-the-year conversation. Bring a demo you used this year if you have one, or anything else you'd like to share.

Please bring a dish to share, and maybe a drink if you like something special. We'll have burgers and all the fixins, plus some soft drinks. Families and guests are welcome!

Hope to see you all there. A quick note to me to let me know about how many burgers (beef, chicken or veggie) your group might consume would be appreciated.

Saturday!

Best,

Karie

Meeting this Saturday

TAPT-ers,

We meet this Saturday, April 14th, at J.D. Garcia's house at 9:00 am for potluck breakfast and a talk. Our original speaker had to cancel, but we have another great speaker: Professor Tom Bever from the departments of Linguistics, Psychology and Neurosciences, maybe more. He will be talking about his research, of which he says: 

 "I have some results on how the combination of natural law and the visual system leads to the preference for the golden mean, AND how they also lead to a prediction about depth perception, which we have confirmed.

It combines some discussion of Art as well as relation to language structure."

Please join us at J.D.'s for what will be a very enlightening talk with, I'm sure, much conversation.

See you there!

--Karie

Last Meeting's Notes and Upcoming AzAAPT

TAPT,

I haven't been too successful in selling AzAAPT meetings to the Tucson crowd, but they are always interesting. There are some great physics teachers in Phoenix and surrounding areas, and I always learn a lot. My husband and I are driving up Friday night, and could take a rider. I copied Jim Ward's email below, so take a look, I think it will be a good meeting, and you can see Lowell Observatory as a side trip. I spent many nights there in my youth.

TAPT meets the following Saturday, April 14th. We have a speaker, thanks to J.D. Her name is Dr. Elena Plante, and she will be talking about language and learning. I'll have more information soon. 

Our meeting last Saturday (March 24) was great - Fritz knows so much! We talked about the book Learn Better, and I did distribute Fritz's notes for your perusal. Some of the highlights:

• How people learn to do math on an abacus is different than on paper, and apparently better. Something about a physical connection association with the processes. One Irish philosopher thinks the hand is part of the mind.
• Fritz thinks there is something missing in the theory of cognition, something that has to do with energy - energy is part of learning and gestures are part of that.
• A positive attitude toward math makes people do better at math. Maybe that's what good parents provide.
• Steve Jobs trained himself not to give feedback - he didn't even blink!
• Good decisions take energy. Parole board clemency decreases right before lunch.
• If students get in the habit of working, they use less energy to make themselves do it and have more left over for cognition
• Poverty is noisy.

At our April meeting, I think we should have a discussion about Pam Tautz's "flashy thing", that piece of equipment that makes a motion map on students' phones. Pam, can you bring some cost estimates?

Thanks as usual to all who attended. 

Hope to see you one of the next two Saturdays!

Best,

Karie

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