Saturday, April 19, 2008

NCNAAPT Spring Meeting afterlinks

The NCNAAPT Spring Meeting at Brentwood's new Heritage High (Go Patriots!) had more good talks than throngs of attendees. The new school is stunning--more of a community college than a high school!

We happy few physics teachers in attendance had a great time and saw the latest grooviness from Pasco and Vernier. But NorCal physics teachers need to think about what we want from these meetings lest they stop happening.

My wee talk concerned the contents of my Skepticism in the Classroom page and the motivations that led me to create it. The page features quick, ready-to-use lessons in critical thinking that can be dropped into your curriculum throughout the year.

If you're interested in skepticism/critical thinking, I strongly recommend attending The Amaz!ng Meeting (TAM) in Las Vegas. TAM is a four-day conference focusing on science, pseudoscience, psychics, magic, debunking, and related topics, and is sponsored by the James Randi Educational Foundation. This year's TAM6 will include Neil deGrasse Tyson, Mythbuster Adam Savage, "B.S." hosts Penn & Teller, Bad Astronomer Phil Plait, and many, many more.

I attended TAM2 in 2004 and haven't missed one since. It's hard to describe how good this conference is. But once you've been to one, you'll know. TAM6 is June 19-22 at The Flamingo. You get a special rate at The Flamingo if you book reservations by May 16.

I also showed a few clips from the new Casio EX-F1 digital camera. It's a still camera capable of recording high-speed video at 300, 600, and even 1200 frames per second.

Check out the complete water balloon execution video. It's a BIG QuickTime file; please be patient.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Howdy Dean,

Did you take that video?

Zeke Kossover