PTSOS3 registration is now open!

Registration for the PTSOS New Teacher Workshop 3, "Come See the Light: Electricity, Magnetism, and Light" is now open. The Sacramento workshop will be held Saturday, March 7 at Rio Americano High School. The Bay Area workshop will be held Saturday, March 14 at San Mateo High School.

California's high school physics students consistently underperform in the topics of electricity and magnetism, according to statewide Physics CST results. We'll be showing and discussing strategies for engaging students in robust lessons on electricity and magnetism.

We'll also have demos and lesson ideas on light and optics. Reflection, refraction, total internal reflection, mirages, color, polarization, interference, diffraction, and scattering will be covered. Learn to teach how rainbows come about and why the sky is blue. And never fear, useful tangents will be visited throughout the day.

Topics for discussion may also include the use of hand-held generators, "skinny fish aquaria" (laser viewing tanks), and green lasers. I'm just sayin'... you will be very happy at the end of the day!

I didn't want to say this before, but past participants have rated Workshop 3 as the best of the series. After you've completed our very full day of E&M and light, you'll see why.

Don't delay! Supplies are limited! (That really is true.) Stephanie is standing by! (That's mostly true, too.) Click to let her know you want to register.

The first step in not being fooled...

is to understand how easily you can be fooled. Those who think they can't be fooled are easy prey for charlatans of all stripes.



Those of us involved in science often pride ourselves on being impervious to trickery. Physicists are especially given to this conceit. And so it is physicist who fall for psychokinesis, etc. Sigh.

Electric Field Hockey

When Rio received its first year of the Digital High School (DHS) grant in 2001, I was ready to go. It seemed that the rest of the world had moved into the Computer Age and my classroom had been left behind.

One of the software titles I got through DHS was Electric Field Hockey 3. But even in 2001, EFH was long in the tooth and, it seemed, abandoned by its publisher. The program came on an old-style floppy disk. I worked around that and installed it on our new iBooks. EFH was a port from another computing platform, and it showed. Apple's interface guidelines were not adhered to. Still though, the program was so much fun that the idiosyncrasies could be overlooked.

In 2006, our long-obsolete iBooks were due for replacement. With the transition to Intel-based MacBooks came the loss of all so-called "Classic" applications, programs that were designed for Apple's Mac OS 9 and earlier. We actually kept the iBooks around so we could play Electric Field Hockey.

One of the many reasons we needed to replace our 2000-era iBooks with 2006-era MacBooks was that some very groovy apps were coming along that required Apple's modern OS X to run. Such was the case with the PhET simulations.

PhET includes a facsimile of the original Electric Field Hockey. And it's well done! But it lacks the competitive gameplay of the original.

I wrote a student activity to accompany PhET's EFH and restore the competition angle. Teams compete against the clock, not against one another. Students find the activity to be highly engaging, and they do learn a few things along the way.

Here's a link to PhET's Electric Field Hockey.

Here's a link to my corresponding Quest for the Coulomb Cup activity.

Let me know if you find any typos!

Bed of nails: gone wrong!

The classic bed of nails demonstration (with cinder block burst) can sometimes end badly. My friend and Skeptical Teacher, Matt, does the bed of nails often enough to experience bad consequences from time to time.

Here's one that went bad two ways. Can you identify the two unfortunate events and which one was more regrettable? (The "good stuff" hits at 5:20ish.)



I hasten to add that neither bad result was really Matt's fault. But I'm guessing each one represented a learning experience for him. And teachers appreciate nothing so much as learning.

2009: Year of Astronomy -- FAR video

If you were to blend Tom Lehrer, Frank Zappa, and "Weird Al" Yankovich--musically(!)--you might just get George Hrab. Hrab is a rockstar among skeptical music aficionados. His "Brainsbodyboth" can be found on nearly any iPod held in a hand whose wrist bears a blue "Critical Thinker" band.

His latest amusement is "FAR," 365 Days of Astronomy's theme song for The International Year of Astronomy. Enjoy:



The M*A*S*H reference is priceless! And true sci-fi geeks will pick up the subtle 2010: The Year We Make Contact reference.

It was Hrab who regaled those of us on The Amaz!ng Adventure 3 with his ballad of the elements. Each element got its own verse. He's an incredible talent and a great guy.

Happy 445th, Galileo!

With all the appropriate hoopla surrounding the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of The Origin of Species, I let Galileo's 445th birthday slip past.

Happy belated!

Sounds like a heat wave: PTSOS2 RA09 afterlinks 1

The Sacramento PTSOS New Teacher Workshop 2 was held January 24 at Rio Americano High School. Steve Keith and Dean Baird led an energetic group of teachers through demonstrations, discussions, and projects on the topics of heat and waves.

Though we try to work through the day slowly enough that all the information can be absorbed at a reasonable pace, it might be helpful to review some of the info links discussed.

Here's a brief list of some of the topics we planned to cover. (Sometimes the day gets away from us before we get to all of them.)

HEAT
Book of Phyz coverage of Heat and Temperature (Physics 1)
Book of Phyz coverage of Thermodynamics (AP Physics 2)

Although we didn't discuss it specifically, the good people at PhET have a nice Kinetic Theory / Gas Laws simulation.

My Web Video page gives access to video clips of the Leidenfrost Effect. And don't forget that nice video clip, "Putting Firewalkers to the Test." What an excellent example of Science shutting down the Woo! If you like that kind of thing, you might consider attending James Randi's The Amaz!ng Meeting in Las Vegas this summer.

Specific links to demo/lab ideas connected to goodies in the goodie bag. (The item name links to the vendor's product page.)
Colliding Spheres: Sheet
Ball & Ring: Sheet + Presentation
Compound Bar (Bimetallic Strip): Sheet + Presentation
Radiometer: Sheet + Presentation
(The Ove-Glove is a handy (!) aid whenever handling hot water, etc. It's an answer that you'll find questions for when working with hot objects.)

Sounds like a heat wave: PTSOS2 RA09 afterlinks 2

The second half of January's PTSOS2 New Teacher Workshop at Rio Americano was devoted to mechanical waves and sound.

WAVES
Book of Phyz coverage of Waves (Physics 1)
Book of Phyz coverage of Harmonic Motion and Resonance (AP Physics 2)

We looked at (and listened to) Pasco's WavePort software. Lots of potential there. Try it for free when you get to waves and run the activities I designed for use in conjunction with it.

We also ran PhET's Wave Interference simulator. I wrote an activity for that simulator focused on the basics, but our participants ran through it like kids in a candy store, finding the interference modes, and the sound-generator, and the light/color-generator.

I use the Physics: Cinema Classics clip on the Bell Jar to show that "In space, no one can hear you scream." (Reference: Waves (I)>Periodic Waves>Sound.)

As a flashy demo combining heat, sound, and waves, Steve brought his Ruben's Tube. The Mythbusters have a nice Ruben's Tube clip on YouTube.

They also have a nice clip of another demo that Steve showed: Fun with Gas! (And kids: even if you can get your hands on sulfur hexafluoride, don't try this at home!)

My Web Video page gives access to a few supersonic fighter jet video clips. Nice when talking about shock waves and sonic booms. Another sonic boom classic is the opening sequence from the Imax film, The Dream is Alive.

We finished the day with Steve's "String Machine" make-n-take. He brought the parts and tools; PTSOSers brought the energy and labor! The Exploratorium has a similar String Machine snack posted online. This project garnered rave reviews from power-tool-wielding participants.

Jeff Milner's Backmasking page has nicely produced examples of auditory pareidolia. Jeff has a follow-up post, too.

If you like the Mythbusters and/or are intrigued by the backmasking site (and our ability to fool ourselves), please look in to the James Randi Educational Foundation and The Amaz!ng Meeting. Science teachers play a critical role in teaching critical thinking and skepticism. The JREF and TAM are great resources in that regard.

Also in the day's binder pages was the latest set of Released Test Questions from the California Standards Test in Physics. An updated set with 15 more questions should be appearing soon. Check the "Physics RTQ" link to the right. The 2008 edition had 74 RTQs. The 2009 edition should have 89.

Thanks--as always--to The Northern California and Nevada Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers and The Karl Leslie Brown Memorial Scholarship Fund for making PTSOS possible. And thanks to our participants for making PTSOS awesome!

Caturday feline physics

more animals

Troubling trend in teacher training

Skeptical Teacher Matt sounds a warning about the upcoming population of prospective teachers. There's a disturbing imbalance emerging.

...the problem is a double whammy - not only are there too many people going into teaching the humanities, but there is a lack of qualified teachers for core scientific & technical subjects such as math, physics, and chemistry!

Make no mistake. English is the single most important subject taught in high school. Math comes in second place. Physics is down the list a bit. Nonetheless, I agree with Matt in the concerns that surround this impending oversupply/undersupply. The United States stands to lose its leadership role in science and technology. Meanwhile the US is a uniquely hospitable environment nurturing the growth of antiscience in all its forms: from creationism to homeopathy to all manner of psychic woo woo.

So who should we concede our leadership role to? China? India? In reality we won't need to choose. The lead will simply be taken from us. The silver lining? We'll be able to read and write about it, and chronicle and analyze the transition.