Inspired by Rhett Allain's physics explanations at Dot Physics, Dan Meyer's blog series "What Can You Do With This?", and Dan's TEDx plea for a math curriculum makeover, I have been collecting video clips that are prime for my physics students to analyze.
Videos are categorized by topic to help teachers locate videos for the concepts at hand. Several videos are listed under multiple topics. The videos are presented without any further questions other than "Physics win or physics fail?" (real or fake?)
College Ready Physics Standards: A Look to the Future
written by Patricia Heller and Gay Stewart
This document contains a set of K-12 educational standards for physics. This work is an extension of Advanced Placement standards to a full K-12 progression of physics concepts. There are five main standards each with a set of objectives, foundation knowledge statements, conceptual learning targets, and learning outcomes. The document also includes instructional guides for each of the standards and objectives to help teachers interpret and address the learning outcomes. These guides include common student difficulties and the content boundaries for each grade band, as well as example activities, questions, and problems.
Robert Karplus' Introductory Physics: A Model Approach is an innovative textbook, written by a brilliant, inspiring teacher and pioneer in physics teaching reform. The book originated the key ideas of the modeling approach for teaching physics. This approach has been further evolved, developed and implemented by David Hestenes and many others, including Gregg Swackhamer, Malcolm Wells and Jane Jackson. In cooperation with Karplus' widow, Elizabeth Karplus, Dr. Brunschwig edited and published the Second Edition of Introductory Physics in 2003. This site includes a variety of additional materials that Brunschwig has developed related to the Karplus textbook.Fernand Brunschwig is a member of the faculty at Empire State College. He is on sabbatical for 2007-08 at Columbia Teachers College in NY City. Current Contact Information:brunschwig@tc.eduColumbia Teachers CollegeScience Education, Box 210525 West 120th StreetNew York, NY 10027
Sample materials for Learning the Game of Science. Students have to read board game moves to determine the rules of the game. Like scientists collect data to determine the rules of the universe.
Hydrogen fuel cell cars, whose only tailpipe emission is water, are often hailed as one solution to our energy woes. But many hurdles remain, including lowering the cells' cost, building filling stations, and finding green ways to produce hydrogen. Meantime, our NOVA scienceNOW host test-drives a prototype fuel cell car, with "Car Talk" hosts Tom and Ray Magliozzi along for an amusing ride.
"The activity will help give students a kinesthetic feel for the inertia concept. This lab is a great way to provide students with an experience that can be very thoroughly discussed and analyzed."
Electric power is an aspect of modern life that most of us take for granted. And while the general public associates Thomas Edison with its invention and the development of transmission processes, the methods used today are largely due to the efforts of Nikola Tesla.
Segment from the helicopter documentary "Straight Up!", showing power line maintenance being performed on live wires by a man outside a helicopter, using a type of Faraday cage.
Great for shielding and faraday cages.
Wild.
J-Track 3D Satellite Tracking
We hope you enjoy J-Track 3-D. It should appear in its own window and begin loading a database of hundreds of satellites. What you will see is a plot in 3-dimensions showing the position of these satellites. If you are unable to view then a JAVA updagrade could be necessary. Be sure to try the "Satellite" pull-down menu to choose which satellite you wish to view.
How to interact with JTrack-3D; it has its own menu items for View, Satellite, and Options:
GPS is handy for finding a route, but it might be able to solve fundamental questions in physics too. An analysis of GPS satellite orbits hints that Earth is heavier than thought, perhaps due to a halo of dark matter.