Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2006 73rd Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Section of the APS
Thursday–Saturday, November 9–11, 2006; Williamsburg, Virginia
Session NC: Physics Teaching |
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Chair: Kathy Whatley, University of North Carolina, Asheville Room: Williamsburg Hospitality House Empire C |
Saturday, November 11, 2006 10:45AM - 11:09AM |
NC.00001: Physics and Music I: Subharmonics on a violin String Phillip J. Stiles Of considerable interest to Physicists was the demonstration in the 1990's of subharmonic resonances on the G string of a violin. How can one explain these anomalous low frequencies. They are of the same quality as the normal resonances used to produce music on the violin. What is the interaction of human and the vibrating body? A survey of the understanding will be given [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, November 11, 2006 11:09AM - 11:21AM |
NC.00002: Classical Mechanics with Computational Physics in the Undergraduate Curriculum J.E. Hasbun Efforts to incorporate computational physics in the undergraduate curriculum have made use of Matlab, IDL, Maple, Mathematica, Fortran, and C$^{1}$ as well as Java.$^{2}$ The benefits of similar undertakings in our undergraduate curriculum are that students learn ways to go beyond what they learn in the classroom and use computational techniques to explore more realistic physics applications. Students become better prepared to perform research that will be useful throughout their scientific careers.$^{3}$ Undergraduate physics in general can benefit by building on such efforts. Recently, I have developed a draft of a textbook for the junior level mechanics physics course with computer applications.$^{4}$ The text uses the traditional analytical approach, yet it incorporates computational physics to build on it. The text does not intend to teach students how to program; instead, it makes use of students' abilities to use programming to go beyond the analytical approach and complement their understanding. An in-house computational environment, however, is strongly encouraged. Selected examples of representative lecture problems will be discussed. $^{1}$ ''Computation and Problem Solving in Undergraduate Physics,'' David M. Cook, Lawrence University (2003). $^{2}$ ''Simulations in Physics: Applications to Physical Systems,'' H. Gould, J. Tobochnik, and W Christian. $^{3}$ R. Landau, APS Bull. Vol 50, 1069 (2005) $^{4}$J. E. Hasbun, APS Bull. Vol. 51, 452 (2006) [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, November 11, 2006 11:21AM - 11:33AM |
NC.00003: Top-Down Physics Michael Schillaci Over the past 7 years I have worked to develop two, two- semester course sequences in Theoretical and Computational Physics. Covering material traditionally handled in Classical Mechanics and Electricity and Magnetism, the Theoretical Physics sequence stresses mathematical rigor, physical insight and a project-based paradigm, covering topics such as “Landing on the Moon,” “Realistic Tidal Models,” and “The Solar Sail.” A two-volume text (recently adopted by Mercer University) has been developed for the Computational Physics sequence and introduces students to the essentials of Maple, LaTeX and JAVA as well as web-page (HTML, JavaScript) publishing. While the bulk of the first semester is devoted to software use and algorithm development (i.e., numerical integration) wrote homework is supplemented by ``group’’ quiz and project activities. In the second semester laboratory experiments such as the “Toothpick Toss”, “The Not-So-Simple Harmonic Oscillator” and the “Chaotic Diode” are performed and then computational simulations are developed using various tools (i.e., JAVA, Visual Basic, Matlab). [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, November 11, 2006 11:33AM - 11:45AM |
NC.00004: Distance Learning Courses and Master of Arts in Physics Education Richard Lindgren, Stephen Thornton More than twenty distance learning courses in physics have been taken by hundreds of High School Physics Teachers over the past 7 years. The success of these courses helped initiate our 30 credit Master of Arts in Physics Education degree program. We have graduated 28 teachers over the last 6 years and expect 13 more to graduate in 2006. The candidates earn 14 credits in residence at the University of Virginia and 16 credits online. This allows teachers to matriculate, while earning more than half the credits at home. Presently, there are over 50 Master degree candidates. Three of the five online courses utilize CD-ROMS with edited lectures of live Physics courses taught at the University of Virginia by Physics Professors recognized for their teaching. Homework and examinations are submitted using WebAssign. Local high school teachers and administrators proctor the examinations. General communication and pedagogical feedback on homework assignments and exams are submitted through Blackboard as well as email. Screen captured video shots of physics demonstrations are widely used in the audio chat room to facilitate discussion and also used on examinations. We will discuss the changes of our distance-learning model based on what has worked (or not) and new technology. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, November 11, 2006 11:45AM - 11:57AM |
NC.00005: Conferences on K-12 Outreach from University Science Departments David G. Haase, Sharon K. Schulze Recent reports such as Rising Above the Gathering Storm have energized the science community to help increase student enrollment in science and technology studies. Since 2000, The Science House at NC State has hosted six Conferences on K-12 Outreach from University Science Departments. In each about 70 participants from NC and other states have gathered to discuss themes ranging from Equity in Science Education to Bringing the Science of the Laboratory into the K-12 Classroom. The Proceedings of the Conferences are available at www.science-house.org/conf The Proceedings report ways in which scientists can support K-12 education and models of how different universities have responded to the needs of schools, teachers and students. We will summarize outcomes of the Conferences and discuss how successful K-12 science outreach projects are created and sustained. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, November 11, 2006 11:57AM - 12:09PM |
NC.00006: Impact of Teacher and Student Involvement on Furthering Research Goals Deborah Roudebush, Kenneth McFarlane Hampton University's Center for Particle Physics (CPP) has a long history of successful utilization of the contributions of both high school classroom teachers and undergraduate students in furthering research goals. This talk will focus on the significant contributions that Roudebush made to the construction of the TRT for the ATLAS detector at CERN as a Lead Teacher for the Hampton University Center of the QuarkNet program. Roudebush most recently developed simulations for proof of concept with the LIPSS project under the auspices of the Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) program at Hampton University. Important contributions made by students will also be highlighted. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, November 11, 2006 12:09PM - 12:21PM |
NC.00007: Assessment of the benefits of a summer undergraduate research program for physics and chemistry majors Chris Hughes, Gina MacDonald Presently at James Madison University, there are slightly more than 100 physics majors and 150 chemistry majors. Each summer, a significant fraction of these students participate in either the chemistry or interdisciplinary materials science Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program on campus. This provides a large pool of students from which to draw data comparing the influence of undergraduate research on both classroom performance and attitudes toward science as a profession. By analyzing the grade point averages of chemistry and physics majors, we have shown slightly larger increases from spring semester to fall semester for students who participated in the REU than those who did not. We have also measured changes in attitudes using surveys of the students both at the beginning and at the end of the summer experience. An analysis of these surveys will be presented. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, November 11, 2006 12:21PM - 12:33PM |
NC.00008: Radioactivity of Consumer Products David Peterson, Derek Jokisch, Philip Fulmer A variety of consumer products and household items contain varying amounts of radioactivity. Examples of these items include: FiestaWare and similar glazed china, salt substitute, bananas, brazil nuts, lantern mantles, smoke detectors and depression glass. Many of these items contain natural sources of radioactivity such as Uranium, Thorium, Radium and Potassium. A few contain man-made sources like Americium. This presentation will detail the sources and relative radioactivity of these items (including demonstrations). Further, measurements of the isotopic ratios of Uranium-235 and Uranium-238 in several pieces of china will be compared to historical uses of natural and depleted Uranium. Finally, the presenters will discuss radiation safety as it pertains to the use of these items. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, November 11, 2006 12:33PM - 12:45PM |
NC.00009: A 1-dim Formulation of Modified Newtonian Dynamics Ronald Mickens In 1983, Mordehai Milgrom published three papers providing reasons why dark matter is not required to explain galactic rotation curves (Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 270, 365-389). His explanation was based on a modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND). We examine a specific MOND and solve the equations of motion for four 1-space dimension problems: the free particle, a particle acted on by a constant force, a particle under the influence of linear damping, and the simple harmonic oscillator. Our MOND allows the first three problems to be solved exactly. These calculations indicate that our formulation of MOND may give the correct proper extension of standard nonrelativistic Newtonian dynamics. [Preview Abstract] |
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