Physicists Work on Physics' Uncool Image 362
WindowsTroll writes "Since it seems that science doesn't appeal to the youth of today, physicists are trying to make physics kid friendly. From the article, 'Bicycle stunts, rap music and modern dance -- all in the name of Einstein.' I am particularly interested in the modern dance, thinking that this is probably a better approach of studying oscillations than the springs that I used when I was in college."
What? (Score:2, Interesting)
Kids are too smart for this (Score:1, Interesting)
Physics and Geeks (Score:3, Interesting)
Good intentions but... (Score:5, Interesting)
As if
Bring back the cool experiments (Score:5, Interesting)
1) Play with radioactive stuff
2) Use transformers to run some 14kV distribution lines up and down the classroom to show the decrease in cable loss
3) Show that the high voltage back-emf spikes from a relay closing can jam your nerve signals and leave you unable to move (ala taser)
4) Look inside classmates with ultrasound
5) Find out how much voltage it takes to blow up a capacitor
Even then our teacher had a closet full of 'special equipment' that he'd smuggle home every time the inspectors came round to visit.
I loved physics and i can assure you that 90% of my high school classmates concurred that it was better than chemsitry or biology or social "science". The experiments make it fun.
Re:What? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Bring back the cool experiments (Score:3, Interesting)
....it's the teachers. Definitely. (Score:4, Interesting)
Three of my friends and I wanted to take pictures of exploding balloons. So, we built a circuit to trigger a flash (a strobe actually), and borrowed a camera. We got some amazing pictures out of it (http://www.benza.us/group4/ [benza.us]. See second- and third-to-last), while at the same time ended up with extra credit we never intended on. We even ended up doing a short lesson on it.
To make physics cool, all you need are teachers who make it fun. When it's fun, it's cool.
Prior to the balloons, we made a potato cannon. Our next project is a ballistic pendulum...If that's not bringing cool and physics together, I don't know what is.
Re:I disagree (Score:4, Interesting)
He did this while playing the song "Great Balls of Fire". He was a cool teacher.
Re:Kid friendly? (Score:2, Interesting)
It was far easier to grasp than rings of electrons and so on you got in chemistry, or the horribly obscure and seemingly pointless theory you had to absorb in maths.
Things that seem to work (Score:4, Interesting)
* Demos, demos, demos. The louder, brighter and more mysterious-seeming, the better.
* Some students are into technology, others are into cosmology and exotic topics. Draw connections between their lives and physics, esp. the possibilities stemming from new developments.
* Be very crisp in your own treatment, so the students see the beauty through complication.
You are not going to achieve social engineering through physics. The goal is to give bright students interested in science something to think about, and hopefully excite their imaginations if they are so inclined.
Re:Too Late! (Score:3, Interesting)
But for having someone split a stump with an axe on his chest while shouting "Faith in Physics!" he coudn't be beat. He was a popularist, a highly dramatic basic physics teacher. Brought in experts to discuss relativity in terms of meter sticks and clocks. A complete bastard, we loved him utterly.
Video games - why one kid studies physics. (Score:3, Interesting)
For the first time in his life, the kid sees a point to his schooling. School still isn't cool (not by a long shot), but now it provides the means allowing him to accomplish his goals.
Re:Bring back the cool experiments (Score:2, Interesting)
Chemistry is just all of the most interesting parts of quantum electrodynamics combined into one fascinating subject.
Re:Bring back the cool experiments (Score:3, Interesting)
Wiring up a 300 to 6 turn transformer to 240V mains, and melting a 2 inch nail with the current.
My dad (the maths physics teacher) would get his year 12 students to set up cool experiments for the primary school kids. Crush cans with air pressure by filling them with steam. Explode tins with airated flour. And some other stuff I can't remember ATM.
Start a fire drill after a very noisy explosion (acetelene and oxygen from tech studies in a plastic bag in the middle of the oval). I've never seen a quicker drill :).
Re:Kids are too smart for this (Score:2, Interesting)
Something just occurred to me: is mathematics more difficult because it is constantly building on things that came before it? Students who get behind during one year of math are still at a disadvantage the next year because they can't multiply, or add fractions, or the like. If you get behind in English or history, on the other hand, you can probably do OK in following years because the skills you develop there are more gradual.
The majority of people who have an interest in primary education are the sort of people who hated math at school. They then help instill this attitude in all the impressionable young kids. Attitude is infectious, especially to young minds, and someone who doesn't care about math will teach the kids not to care either.
Perhaps the converse is true, too: the majority of people who have an interest in math do not have any interest in general elementary education, which involves playing a major role in the lives of a classroom full of children. In my elementary school we had special art, music, and phys ed teachers. Why not have the school mathematician and the school scientist as well? (Ignoring the whole funding issue of course.)
Re:Rap? Modern dance?! Just show them the physics! (Score:2, Interesting)
This material is plasma (and the blob is called a plasmoid). The ionized particles in the plasma get trapped by the magnetic fields generated by the microwave and lifted to the top of the beaker. Some fussing is generally necessary to get this to work, and you can't let the microwave run for too long once the plasmoid forms or you'll probably damage it. But it's pretty cool. Extra cool if you take out the lightbulb so you can really see what's happening.
If you have trouble getting it to work, turn to google. I'm sure other people out there have done this.
Re:Physics and Geeks (Score:3, Interesting)
There was a girl in my class who took the most advanced class available every grade, and did well in them. We were watching a space shuttle launch and she asked why it didn't run into the ozone layer. She obviously wasn't smart. She was studious, driven, and popular, and graduated with a 3.8 GPA.
There was a guy who didn't take all the advanced classes, except in math and science. He didn't know why he would need AP history, and did well enough when his interests and the school subject coincided. He wasn't very popular and, frankly, couldn't care less. He graduated with (barely) a 3.0. Is he stupider than the girl who didn't understand what the ozone layer was?
There are geeks, there are smart, popular people, and there are people who aspire to geekiness but don't have the smarts to achieve it. People are very different, as are the cultures at various schools.
Physics of Football (Score:3, Interesting)
The result is very instructive, and covers a HUGE range of topics, including conservation of Warren Sapp's momentum when he hits Doug Flutie! He discusses the flight of a thrown or kicked "oblong spheroid," and even does some statistical analysis of how likely a fan is to participate in "the wave" as it moves through a stadium (or attempts to).
As one of the reviewers on Amazon.com states, "If Timothy Gay doesn't rewrite this book into a high school level physics text he's really missing a bet." I couldn't agree more.
Tim