Exaggerating color changes at the pixel level reveals "microscopic" motion. It's all explained in the video! Hat tip to Laura Nickerson.
They say that some things once seen cannot be unseen. Now some things unseen can be seen.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Canvas to Keynote conversions: Year One
Among the cornucopia of benefits that flow from hosting a blog is the production of a post that is certain to mean nothing to anyone but you. You do it because the subject matter is so central to your life that you cannot fathom how devoid of meaning it is to everyone not currently wearing your underwear.
It is in that spirit that I offer an update on the progress I'm making in the process of converting my curriculum materials from Canvas documents to Keynote documents. The history of this issue was discussed in a previous post. In short, I'm converting the onerously voluminous collection of instructional pages from ACD Canvas to Apple Keynote. Each document requires considerable time and energy to convert. The work is painstaking and tedious. But it also keeps each document alive and editable.
I teach two courses: Physics and AP Physics. Each has 12 units. Each unit has three general components of instructional materials: Guides, Jobs, and Labs.
Two courses x 12 x 3 components = 72 folders of documents. Thirty-six for each course. Some folders hold more documents than others.
At the outset, I faced a sea of red. Red indicating a folder with more than three documents remaining to be converted.
After a year of converting documents whenever possible, I've made some headway. More in Physics than in AP Physics. But progress nonetheless.
In Physics 23 of 36 folders are converted: nearly 2/3rds. In AP, only eight of 36 (less than 1/4) folders are done. Completed folders are shown in green. (Orange is "close" and yellow is "really close".)
When it's nothing but green, my work here will be done. At this point, there are miles to go before I sleep.
UPDATE 6/22/13: Progress (Physics: 26/36 done)
UPDATE 7/4/13: The glacier advances (Physics 29/36 complete; first semester clear). Document count added for additional amusement.
It is in that spirit that I offer an update on the progress I'm making in the process of converting my curriculum materials from Canvas documents to Keynote documents. The history of this issue was discussed in a previous post. In short, I'm converting the onerously voluminous collection of instructional pages from ACD Canvas to Apple Keynote. Each document requires considerable time and energy to convert. The work is painstaking and tedious. But it also keeps each document alive and editable.
I teach two courses: Physics and AP Physics. Each has 12 units. Each unit has three general components of instructional materials: Guides, Jobs, and Labs.
Two courses x 12 x 3 components = 72 folders of documents. Thirty-six for each course. Some folders hold more documents than others.
At the outset, I faced a sea of red. Red indicating a folder with more than three documents remaining to be converted.
After a year of converting documents whenever possible, I've made some headway. More in Physics than in AP Physics. But progress nonetheless.
In Physics 23 of 36 folders are converted: nearly 2/3rds. In AP, only eight of 36 (less than 1/4) folders are done. Completed folders are shown in green. (Orange is "close" and yellow is "really close".)
When it's nothing but green, my work here will be done. At this point, there are miles to go before I sleep.
UPDATE 6/22/13: Progress (Physics: 26/36 done)
UPDATE 7/4/13: The glacier advances (Physics 29/36 complete; first semester clear). Document count added for additional amusement.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
This Saturday: SkeptiCal in Berkeley
But I can still get my "skepticon" on at SkeptiCal13. It's happening this Saturday, June 15, at the Berkeley Marina Doubletree.
Great speakers, including Eugenie Scott, D.J. Grothe, Julia Galef, and James Randi (via Skype).
A busy day is planned. Check this schedule.
I am registered and raring to go.
Friday, June 07, 2013
Motors cardboard balls motion noise light space ART
The Festival of the Arts opens in my home town of Grand Rapids today. With a hat tip to College of Curiosity's Jeff Wagg, I share this in the spirit of physics and art. The lens work is also praise-worthy. To me, it brings to mind Koyaanisqatsi and Baraka.
Thursday, June 06, 2013
Atmospheric CO2 data: The animated version
Representing the data on the history of global atmospheric carbon dioxide in an engaging manner poses a challenge. I submit that this animation, uhm, rises to that challenge. I'll be here all week!
Time history of atmospheric CO2
Hat tip: Paul Doherty
Time history of atmospheric CO2
Hat tip: Paul Doherty
Sunday, June 02, 2013
Stupid Human Tricks: The Digital Magnet
New York City writer Dann Berg decided to get a magnet implant about three years ago after reading about the trend online. The article described an implant gone wrong complete with graphic images of a magnet decomposing under flesh. Initially put off by the gory details, he decided to go for it anyway...
"I had a curiosity to explore the world in a completely different way," he explained.
As Jon Stewart would say at this point, "Go onnn...?"
Gradually his finger began to develop a "sixth sense" around any object that gave off electromagnetic waves.
"There is a half dome of vibration that surrounds the object almost like a tennis ball cut in half," he said. "The vibrations vary in strength depending on where I hold my finger and it's almost like the finger itself is vibrating against an invisible field of energy."
Well now the poor sod has my sympathy. A finger that jiggles when in proximity to objects that gives off electromagnetic waves? My my my. That's got to be rough since EVERYTHING GIVES OFF ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES. Everything with a temperature greater than absolute zero, that is. So... everything. There may be some ideomotor effect going on here, but I doubt anything real is going on.
Physics teachers who stick to mechanics all year (by choice) must shoulder some blame for this story being floated as plausible. Magnets remain objects of mystery and imagination to those who have absolutely no understanding of how they work. Let's cut that population down wherever we get the chance, lest there be a resurgence in the sales of magnetic bracelets.
Implanting a magnet is certainly up there with getting a tattoo in terms of unnecessary body mutilation. Experts will likely disagree on which one requires the lesser threshold of good judgment.
UPDATE: Interesting comments, including some rebuttal from Dann Berg. Without an implant, I cannot argue what an implantee feels or when s/he feels it. He mentions a strong sensation near an operating microwave. There is reason to believe such magnetic fields are strong. And that they oscillate, so as to produce a vibrational sensation.
But here's the thing.
If you want to experience such vibrations, you don't need a rare earth magnet. All you need is a ferromagnetic object. A steel washer would work just fine. Upside? Your finger won't stick to an iPad (or earbuds, I imagine). Downside? You can't dangle a paperclip from your pinky.
Here's a simple demonstration showing the magnetism generated by a microwave transformer.
The wrench and razor knife are steel. They are not magnets.
NGSS high school physical science breakdown: Take 1
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) have now been finalized. I would be surprised if California did anything other than to adopt them without modification.
With the long-standing California Standards Tests now behind us (the EOC tests, anyway), it's time to move on to NGSS. The move will take some time, and there will be some rough patches, kinks and quirks.
If you've seen the full NGSS document, you know it's... robust. It's information-dense, and can be somewhat off-putting at first glance. (Time will tell how it fares at second and third glances.) See for yourself:
NGSS Arranged by Disciplinary Core Ideas
NGSS Arranged by Topic
The high school physics and chemistry Performance Expectations (PEs) are combined into the Physical science set. So last week, my department chair (chemistry teacher) and I sat down to determine boundaries and acceptable overlaps.
Afterward, I produced a document for Chemistry and one for Physics, showing the Performance Expectations appropriate for each course.
I stripped out the red-type clarifying statements and assessment boundaries. I also stripped out the blue, orange, and green foundational pillar boxes. That is, the underlying Scientific and Engineering Practices (Blue), Disciplinary Core Ideas (Orange), and Cross-Cutting Concepts (Green) have all been left to be accessed via further research by interested parties. I probably stripped out other annotations, too.
Here's what we came up with. It may need modifications, especially if there is a need to incorporate Earth Science PEs into Chemistry and Physics. Anyway, it's a start. It will guide what I do next year.
Draft NGSS Chemistry [not my job]
Draft NGSS Physics [my job]
Next year is going to be an experiment. The 1999-2013 California Standards version of Rio Physics is no more. I feel no allegiance to maintain its scope or structure. As a veteran teacher, I have plenty of physics curriculum to draw from. The schedules I've honed carefully throughout the past decade are out the window. Right now, I'm not sure what the finished product will look like. We'll be making the year up as we go along. It's the pre-alpha stage of the NGSS version of Rio Physics development.
With the long-standing California Standards Tests now behind us (the EOC tests, anyway), it's time to move on to NGSS. The move will take some time, and there will be some rough patches, kinks and quirks.
If you've seen the full NGSS document, you know it's... robust. It's information-dense, and can be somewhat off-putting at first glance. (Time will tell how it fares at second and third glances.) See for yourself:
NGSS Arranged by Disciplinary Core Ideas
NGSS Arranged by Topic
The high school physics and chemistry Performance Expectations (PEs) are combined into the Physical science set. So last week, my department chair (chemistry teacher) and I sat down to determine boundaries and acceptable overlaps.
Afterward, I produced a document for Chemistry and one for Physics, showing the Performance Expectations appropriate for each course.
I stripped out the red-type clarifying statements and assessment boundaries. I also stripped out the blue, orange, and green foundational pillar boxes. That is, the underlying Scientific and Engineering Practices (Blue), Disciplinary Core Ideas (Orange), and Cross-Cutting Concepts (Green) have all been left to be accessed via further research by interested parties. I probably stripped out other annotations, too.
Here's what we came up with. It may need modifications, especially if there is a need to incorporate Earth Science PEs into Chemistry and Physics. Anyway, it's a start. It will guide what I do next year.
Draft NGSS Chemistry [not my job]
Draft NGSS Physics [my job]
Next year is going to be an experiment. The 1999-2013 California Standards version of Rio Physics is no more. I feel no allegiance to maintain its scope or structure. As a veteran teacher, I have plenty of physics curriculum to draw from. The schedules I've honed carefully throughout the past decade are out the window. Right now, I'm not sure what the finished product will look like. We'll be making the year up as we go along. It's the pre-alpha stage of the NGSS version of Rio Physics development.
Sunday, May 26, 2013
The Rio Phyz Pinhole Camera: As big as a classroom
Apologies for being so long away. Due to a pre-Prop 30 budget scare, we scheduled our graduation ceremony three weeks early. The dominos that cascaded from that decision landed squarely on my blog time. But now I'm back with a doozie!
With three weeks of time to kill in a post-AP Exam, post-graduation situation, what to do with the handful of non-seniors in AP Physics? Robust, rigorous academic instruction? No. It's ad lib time.
We enjoyed a bit of cinema with some of my personal faves, Atomic Café and For All Mankind. I'll keep my Koyaanisqatsi powder dry for the moment, but I make no promises.
Thursday and Friday, we turned the classroom into a camera obscura: a giant pinhole camera! Here's the crew blacking out the room with 6 mil black plastic sheeting. These are Rio's best and brightest, and they work fast!
Otherwise jaded high school students distracted by the approach of summer vacation are genuinely wowed by the resulting image creation. The giant camera obscura is best experienced live and in person. From the dark of the classroom, the wall opposite the pinhole is illuminated with moving ghostly images of whatever is going on in the courtyard outside our classroom, made even eerier by the imagery's reversal about the origin.
But just for fun, I shot a couple of stills.
1. The celebration of entropy that is my classroom. Careful observers will see the devastating earthquake damage visited upon the room from the previous night's temblor.
2. Lights Out: the pinhole is on the windows to the right. Our Dark Side of the Moon mural gets a full measure of sunshine in the afternoon. It's full-color image lands on my front boards.
3. Ectoplasmic filter. I've been teaching in room B-8 longer than my students have been alive. Although I'm not even dead yet, my spirit haunts the room. Spooky!
Thanks to Dr. Rick Michaels (Bella Vista High School, retired) for the idea. All images shot on my Lumix DMC-FZ200 digicam, processed with Apple's Aperture 3. A wired remote was employed to execute the intervalometer function; time lapse stills sequenced into a video file by Apple QuickTime Pro 7.
With three weeks of time to kill in a post-AP Exam, post-graduation situation, what to do with the handful of non-seniors in AP Physics? Robust, rigorous academic instruction? No. It's ad lib time.
We enjoyed a bit of cinema with some of my personal faves, Atomic Café and For All Mankind. I'll keep my Koyaanisqatsi powder dry for the moment, but I make no promises.
Thursday and Friday, we turned the classroom into a camera obscura: a giant pinhole camera! Here's the crew blacking out the room with 6 mil black plastic sheeting. These are Rio's best and brightest, and they work fast!
Otherwise jaded high school students distracted by the approach of summer vacation are genuinely wowed by the resulting image creation. The giant camera obscura is best experienced live and in person. From the dark of the classroom, the wall opposite the pinhole is illuminated with moving ghostly images of whatever is going on in the courtyard outside our classroom, made even eerier by the imagery's reversal about the origin.
But just for fun, I shot a couple of stills.
1. The celebration of entropy that is my classroom. Careful observers will see the devastating earthquake damage visited upon the room from the previous night's temblor.
2. Lights Out: the pinhole is on the windows to the right. Our Dark Side of the Moon mural gets a full measure of sunshine in the afternoon. It's full-color image lands on my front boards.
3. Ectoplasmic filter. I've been teaching in room B-8 longer than my students have been alive. Although I'm not even dead yet, my spirit haunts the room. Spooky!
Thanks to Dr. Rick Michaels (Bella Vista High School, retired) for the idea. All images shot on my Lumix DMC-FZ200 digicam, processed with Apple's Aperture 3. A wired remote was employed to execute the intervalometer function; time lapse stills sequenced into a video file by Apple QuickTime Pro 7.
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Magnet Boys
We'll go through this gem and plenty more of a similar nature.
A seven year old boy in Serbia is shown to possess magnetic characteristics. Not to be outdone, Croatians show off a magnet boy of their own. And he's only six! Half a world away, an 11 year old Brazilian boy mystifies a doctor with a similarly attractive body.
But on an amusing Korean television program, James "The Amazing" Randi puts real-life Magnetos to the test. You know how this will end.
Magnet Boys (Interactive QuickTime) [coming soon!]
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
California STAR Physics Reference disappointment
Despite high-level assurances that the California Department of Education (CDE) would update its published physics reference sheet. It has yet to happen, and much of California is deep into the 2013 STAR-testing administration season. We will quietly hope California's physics CST-takers won't find the changes too surprising, confusing, or off-putting.
The problem was detailed in a previous Blog of Phyz post.
The Physics Reference Sheet as used on the operational form of the STAR Physics CST is different from the Physics Reference Sheet included on the most recently published Released Test Questions document. And it's different from the Physics Reference Sheet offered as a stand-alone PDF on the CDE's STAR Program Resources: CST Science Reference Sheets page.
As of this posting, the reference sheet available at this link carries a 2005 copyright date. The sheet used on last year's operational form seems to have been changed in 2012. I must presume it's being used in 2013 as well. But to see it, you'll have to refer to the previous Blog of Phyz post. The state of California has not made this document public.
Disappointing. But not entirely surprising. I hope, at some point, to learn why CDE and ETS moved (with neither review by nor approval of its own Assessment Review Panel) to alter the document that had been used from 2004 through 2011.
They chose to then compound this error by updating neither the RTQ document nor the stand-alone reference sheet. It makes them appear completely out of touch and unconcerned. Or as if they're trying to keep the new reference sheet a secret. I can only hope this is not how they wish to be seen.
The problem was detailed in a previous Blog of Phyz post.
The Physics Reference Sheet as used on the operational form of the STAR Physics CST is different from the Physics Reference Sheet included on the most recently published Released Test Questions document. And it's different from the Physics Reference Sheet offered as a stand-alone PDF on the CDE's STAR Program Resources: CST Science Reference Sheets page.
As of this posting, the reference sheet available at this link carries a 2005 copyright date. The sheet used on last year's operational form seems to have been changed in 2012. I must presume it's being used in 2013 as well. But to see it, you'll have to refer to the previous Blog of Phyz post. The state of California has not made this document public.
Disappointing. But not entirely surprising. I hope, at some point, to learn why CDE and ETS moved (with neither review by nor approval of its own Assessment Review Panel) to alter the document that had been used from 2004 through 2011.
They chose to then compound this error by updating neither the RTQ document nor the stand-alone reference sheet. It makes them appear completely out of touch and unconcerned. Or as if they're trying to keep the new reference sheet a secret. I can only hope this is not how they wish to be seen.
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