Chicago Section AAPT Fall Meeting

November 10, 2007

at Naperville Central High School

Morning Speakers: Room 66

8:30 - 9:00 am	Registration and Continental Breakfast
9:00 – 9:05am	Welcome
9:05 - 9:20 am	How much is that normal force from the table and where is its partner today? Paul J. Dolan, Jr., Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago. Students are quite often confused as to the existence of the contact force between two touching objects, what we usually call the “Normal Force”, they become stuck in their thinking that the Normal Force (always) equals the weight of the object, and often misunderstand where its ‘Third Law’ partner force is, and on which object IT acts. Several demonstrations will be presented and discussed, that can be used to verify the existence of the Normal Force, to show that it does have a ‘Third Law’ partner force, and that demonstrate that the magnitude is not (necessarily) equal to the weight of the object.
9:20 - 9:35 am	What Einstein Did Not See: Redefining Time to Understand Space Thomas W. Sills, Wright College, Chicago     Physics before the year 1850 bore the name “natural philosophy.”  What Einstein Did Not See will be published next year.  It examines the natural philosophy behind the two most complex concepts in science:  Einstein’s relativity and Minkowski’s four-dimensional space.  Both attempt to describe space and time.      New ideas for time,  Timespace and Universal Time, provide a careful walk away from three-dimensional space where readers are so comfortable.   Upon leaving three dimensions, readers enter a reasonable Euclidean view of four-dimensional space that exists around them.  A new understanding of space is possible with these new concepts.  With new insight into four-dimensional space, readers can proceed to understand higher dimensions of space.     Dr. Sills first presented his early ideas March 4 and 11, 2000, at Adler Planetarium in Chicago in a lecture series titled, “Thinking in Four Dimensions to Understand Einstein Relativity.”  A spring 2007 sabbatical provided the opportunity to develop this new book.
9:35-9:50	The Shape of a Pile of Sand (A friction experiment for Earth Science) Richard C. Calhoun, Concordia University If you ordered a million cubic meters of sand, would it fit on your back lot which is a square, 50 m on edge? This talk describes an experiment that seeks to answer this question.
9:50-10:20 am	Illinois Teacher Preparation and Certification Practices after NCLB Dr. Carl Wenning, Illinois State University Due to NCLB, the ISBE has changed the requirements for teacher certification. Dr. Wenning will speak on how this has affected teacher preparation and the new state exams. Dr. Wenning is the coordinator of the Physics Teacher Education program at ISU and he directs the Modeling Method of Physics Instruction workshop as ISU.
10:20-10:35 am	Break

10:35-10:50	Magnetospheric Physics: From Sputnik and Explorer I to New Horizons at Jupiter Rich DeCoster and Elizabeth Ramseyer, Niles West High School The study of circular motion and the electric force are important components of the physics curriculum. During the second half of the 20^th century the study of the magnetospheres of planets became an interesting new area of physics. We are developing a lesson plan that uses both of these topics in our introductory physics class. The basic physics involves a workhorse instrument of magnetospheric physics, the curved-plate electrostatic analyzer. We discuss the physics of this instrument [in 2-dimensions] and its use on research spacecraft. We solicit discussion of the appropriateness of including this material in an introductory physics course.
10:50- 11:05 am	nTIPERs-an Introduction Curtis Hieggelke, Joliet Junior College This paper will describe a new project to provide various tasks in a variety of formats designed to improve student learning and understanding of Newtonian mechanics. These tasks are based, in part, on efforts in Physics Education Research and thus are called nTIPERs (Newtonian Tasks Inspired by Physics Education Research). These tasks support active learning and provide an easy way of updating traditional lectures. This talk will describe the current status and future plans including the development of “iclicker” nTIPERs. This is a collaborative project between Joliet Junior College, New Mexico State University, and Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne that is supported in part by a CCLI grant from the Division of Undergraduate Education of the National Science Foundation (grant # 0632963).
11:05-11:20	Building High Performance Science Urban Institutes John Kugler, Hyde Park Academy The establishment of high level science curriculum in an under-performing inner city high school is a long-term endeavor. There are certain fundamental steps that need to be taken to gain the trust of both the school and local community. This presentation will discuss the implementation of a multi-year multi-level initiative to bring higher levels of science education into an urban high school. Issues including student competency, teacher attrition, inconsistent administration, fluctuating funding, just to name a few, are some of the variables that hamper the opportunity of high school science programs in inner city high schools.  One of the ideas that will come out is the need to institute an idea of an independent self-sustaining science program that works with various partners to prepare students to compete in an innovative global market place.
11:20-11:35	Galilean Transformation of Electromagnetic Fields Elizabeth Burns, Kyle Duckert, and Charles Cherqui Department of Physics, Loyola University Chicago Advisor: Asim Gangopadhyaya Students, during their first few weeks of their very first course in physics, learn about Galilean transformations that relate position, velocity, acceleration, and time as measured in two inertial frames. However, we rarely discuss the transformation of electromagnetic fields except in the context of special relativity which is often beyond introductory or even sophomore level physics. One exception is when sources are known and their transformation can be easily visualized.  For example, a static linear charge density in one frame can be viewed as a current in another and thus one has E in one frame and both E and B field in another. However, when it is not clear how to transform the source, as in the case of a permanent magnet, one does not know how to transform fields except through the application of the Lorentz transformation and then taking the non-relativistic limit. Through examples, we will show that it is possible to see how E and B should transform without resorting to Special relativity. This requires only a sophomore level understanding of physics and mathematics and is easily accessible to any undergraduate physics major.

11:35 – 11:50	Loyola Jesuit Seismic Observatory Service for the Advanced Physics Laboratory Education Mathew Bone, Asim Gangopadhyaya, Thomas Ruubel, Aleksandr Goltsiker - Loyola University, Physics. The Loyola Jesuit Seismic Observatory was designed and constructed along with the Cudahy Science Building at the LUC-Lake Shore Campus in the 1912.It was service part of American Jesuit Seismic Association network up to 1991. Our project involved updating and computerizing the existing equipment and instrumentation of this historic Observatory for the purpose of a new Advanced Physics Laboratory for physics major at LUC. This Intermediate Physics Laboratory conception involves the study of the principle elements of modern measurement systems using some Environmental/ Earth and Energy case-studies. First, students study different types of sensors and transducers –mechanical/electro magnetic( e.g., seismometers) and thermal/thermoelectric (e.g., thermoresistors, thermistors and thermocouples in heat radiation experiments for Solar/Earth physics) with the proper calibration to get the electrical signals from the measurement systems. Then some Seismic Observatory experiments were introduced and modernized (in colaboration with the St.-Louis University GeophysicsDepartment) like seismometer identification through the determination of the free frequency ( Lissajous figures method) and damping constant.Students are studying both analog and digital signals (A/D converter introduced) with such important signal acquisition and conditioning devices as filters, amplifiers, coordination etc. Now students can study the performance of the entire Seismic observatory with all 3 seismometers simultaneously. Time-dependant conditioned electronic signal records are displayed on the computer both in time and frequency domains with the proper programmed digital signal filtering. This project was carried out in 2004-2006 and the new students practicum as Intermediate Physics laboratory course PHYS238 was given twice-Spring 2006 and Spring 2007.
11:50 - 12:05	A Projectile Spring Launcher. Tom Senior, New Trier High School By modifying an old design, I have produced a device that can launch springs as projectiles. The cost to produce is quite low, and I will provide plans, building advice, and flight data. The launcher has the ability to be electrically connected to a timer (I use the Neel Beard timer), and possibly to the timers available with DataStudio and other programs that accept input through a photo-gate port.
12:05-12:15	Take-fives Tom Senior, Scott Beutlich, Ted Erickson

12:15 - 1:00 p.m. - Lunch and Business Meeting –Catered by "Ann and Debbie Catering" ($5.00)

1:00 – 3:00 p.m. - Modeling Cohort 3 Meeting

1:00 - 3:00 p.m. – Waves, Light, Color and Sound Workshop – Ann Brandon & Debby Lojkutz

This workshop will provide you with a variety of labs, activities and demos for teaching waves, light, color and sound. You will have the opportunity to make and take samples that you can use in your own class. And you will be provided a goodie bag of great stuff. The cost is only $5.00.