ISPP REMINDER
February 2010
OUR NEXT MEETING . . .
. . . is at Northeastern Illinois University
Thursday
February 4, 2010
6:30 - 9:00 p.m.
A map and directions are enclosed.
THE FREE GIVEAWAY . . .
. . . something you should find useful to excite student interest in physics - and who knows? - maybe even your own!
FUTURE MEETINGS. . .
February 4 (Thursday) Northeastern Illinois University – Paul Dolan
February 13-17 (Fri – Mon) AAPT /APS Winter Meeting - Washington D.C.
March 3 (Wednesday ) Loyola University – Gordon Ramsey
April (Tuesday) Lake Forest College Bailey Donnally/ Mike Kash
April 24 Saturday Chicago State University Mel Sabella
May 3 (Monday) Northwestern University Art Schmidt
June (Tuesday) Museum of Science and Industry Ruth Goehmann
AT OUR LAST MEETING . . .
Brian Wilhite and Earl Swallow welcomed us to Elmhurst College and asked for announcements from the groups. ISPP’s next meeting is scheduled for Thursday February 4 at Northeastern Illinois University. Physics Northwest’s next meeting will be Wednesday February 9 at Lake Zurich High School. They will host a Crossover Teachers Workshop along with CSAPPT at Lincoln Community College on February 27. Physics West is meeting at Glenbard East High School February 17. They will host a Physics Teacher Workshop April 10 at Deerfield High School
Earl asked for new attendees. We met Trey Fisk (Rockford Lutheran High School), Craig Randolph, Leah Rieger, Bob Clappe (Manley Career Academy), Andy Miner (Main West High School), Chris Wolke (Crystal Lake South High School). Seven teacher’s bags were handed out.
Paul Dolan (Northeastern Illinois University)
found a stuffed bird at Dominic’s ($6) that he thought would work well with
PIRA Demo #1D60.00 Projectile Motion. The caped and goggled bird had an elastic
band that allowed it to be launched. When it impacted on something solid it
gave out a rooster crow. PIRA lists hundreds of demos.
Andy Morrison (DePaul University) brought out a pair of hovercraft discs he got at American Science and Surplus for $9. He mentioned how they are commonly used to illustrate conservation of momentum in elastic collisions but not often inelastic collisions. He went to a fabric store and bought Velcro strips that he attached to the rim of each disc with elastic bands. This allowed the disks to stick together when they collided. Andy showed us that one could do two-dimensional collisions by having the disks come together with velocities at right angles. He cautioned us that we must be careful not to introduce rotation motion for a linear momentum demo. However one could also demonstrate that objects traveling linearly have an angular momentum with respect to an axis of rotation as well.
Art Schmidt (Northwestern University) showed us a ‘muscle wire’ Monarch butterfly that was made by Dynalloy. Its wings flexed due to the contraction of a dynamic wire as a result of heating the wire. A current which is passed through the wire generates the heat. The circuitry which is powered by an A.C.current must have some kind of thermal cut off switch that cycles on and off to animate the flapping wings. Art claimed to hesitate to demonstrate the wing flapping for fear of causing a hurricane somewhere else in the world. The company makes various types of muscle wire, Nitinol, and Flexinol. It had designed the butterfly to demonstrate its product and now has had to create a whole line of animated butterflies in response to the popularity of the item. Art got his from Educational Innovations for $26. (www.teachersource.com/Energy/MemoryMuscleWire/MuscleWireButterflies.aspx) The wire company, Dynalloy has its own web site (www.dynalloy.com/kits.html) where they sell sample kits of wires. The deluxe kit ($200) has many samples and also includes a kit to make a butterfly. Perhaps a teaching lab might be designed around the wire.
Art asked if anyone had ever heard of “Chalk Solvent” made by Blackboard Maintenance Company in Fulton Illinois When applied to a cloth this stuff would wipe a blackboard as clean as wiping the board with water except that there was no wait time for the board to dry. Art had learned of this item from his colleagues in Chemistry at Northwestern. He could no longer get the product from the company because they couldn’t ship the fluid due to HASMAT restrictions.
Tim Moran (Morton College) passed out copies of his paper on Teaching Radioisotope dating. He applied argon/potassium dating to follow the aging of the Hawaiian Islands. He put together a work sheet for class. He displayed a map of plate tectonic motion of earth. From it he found that the Hawaiian Islands moved 4 inches a year northwest. Argon dating agrees. He was amazed that GPS data taken over 10 year agrees with 30 million years of plate motion.
Jim Vetrone (Hinsdale Central High School) recently bought a high speed (1000 frames per second) Casio SA-20 Digital Camera ($275 on internet) and an industrial strength lamp array to provide enough light. He showed us some of his videos. He showed a drop of water falling into a bucket of water, a person jumping off a floor, a match lighting off a flint (it seems to ignite in layers where at times the match head appears to be out but reignites), collapse of a coke can under foot, happy sad balls bouncing, a tennis ball being hit by a racket, and an exploding party popper. If you have any suggestions for things to look at get in touch.
Jay Walgren (Vernon Hills High School) had his class build their own accelerometers to use when they went to Great America to take measurements as a way of having them take ownership of the data. It also gave them an understanding of how such instruments work. When they get back together in class he has them report their data using classroom clickers. In this way they get the experience of processing data and get an idea of the range of measured results. Lately they have moved indoors to measure the acceleration of an elevator. To do this accelerometers have to be more sensitive and must be capable of plus and minus readings. Anne Brandon reminds her students that if the plot of position vs. time is smiling it is positive acceleration and if it is frowning it is negative acceleration, and if it is straight it is zero acceleration.
Allen Etzback (Naperville Central High School (retired)) showed us an example of an application of vectors. He constructed a simple homopolar electric motor from a D cell, a screw, a neodymium magnet and a short length of wire. He suspended the screw with the magnet attached to the head from the lower terminal of the battery. When he held one end of the wire against the top terminal of the battery and brushed the other end of the wire against the screw, the flow of current through the screw in the presence of the magnetic field of the magnet caused the screw to spin on its long axis. Allen handed out a sheet describing the vector cross product that predicted the direction of rotation.
Then Allen played for us an automated phone-answering message from Maroochydore High School in Queensland Australia which was created in reaction to parents suing teachers to give their students passing grades despite their being absent too often to pass the courses. “…to lie about why your child absent press ‘one’…” It’s a very humorous massage.
John Lewis (Glenbrook South High School) recently attended an NSF workshop using video capture to import a sequence of frames showing the motion of a physical pendulum into Vernier’s Logger Pro for analysis. He wanted to share with us his very positive experience. With this software he could tag certain parts of the pendulum and log data plotting the motion of these points. From this data Logger Pro calculated the kinetic and potential energy at every point in the motion through several cycles. When he added the two energy plots the result was pretty flat indicating a conservation of total mechanical energy. John pointed out that if one looked close, the line did exhibit a slight residual oscillation. When he added the kinetic energy of the shaft he obtained an even better straight line and a much more satisfying result.
Porter Johnson (IIT retired) showed us a Christmas gift he received called a Stellanova which was a 10 cm diameter earth that can be floated in mid air using an electromagnet and circuitry. A microprocessor in the base sensed the strength of the magnetic field of a permanent magnet in the globe and then adjusted the strength of the electromagnet in the upper arm to automatically either to attract the globe up or let it fall by turning off when the globe got too high. The circuitry constantly sampled the field and made adjustments to levitate the globe. It is available on the Internet for $60.
http://www.vat19.com/dvds/stellanova-levitating-globe.cfm
Josh Norton (Cary Grove High School) developed
a study plan for fluid mechanics since the topic was added to the AP B Physics
curriculum several years ago. He passed out a packet describing a series of
activities. In one exercise students are directed to make boats out of small sheets
of tin foil and float them in a 10-gallon aquarium. The builder of the boat
that floats holding the most washers wins. To make it interesting Josh randomly
throws a ‘depth charge’ into the aquarium water. Josh explained how he made the
depth charges by wedging an Alka-Seltzer tablet into the top of a film canister
and adding water into the body of the canister and closing it up. It isn’t
armed until the canister is shaken to wet the tablet. In another exercise
students are given a set of density blocks from Flynn Scientific (12 blocks of
different materials for $50). Some float and some sink. For Bernoulli’s
Principle students levitate M&M’s by blowing them up a stream of air from
their mouth ala “Bernoulli M&M’s, from a Little Gems column in The Physics
Teacher by Chris Chiaverina (TPT Vol. 43 Sept 2005). Josh showed us the bigger version
where he floated different size balls using a leaf blower. Josh directed the
stream toward his mouth and got an interesting effect. Be careful with this.
Josh tried to accelerate himself with the blower while standing on a skateboard
with mixed results. He tried flying a large Styrofoam glider in the stream of
the leaf blower.
Scott Beutlich (Crystal Lake South High School)
used a FunFlyStick to charge up and levitate an aluminized Mylar shape. The
stick actually houses a miniature battery powered Van de Graff generator (Arbor
Scientific $26). Scott called our attention to the Physics Northwest web site www.edline.net/pages/Physics_Northwest
. Scott pointed out some valuable links like summer research opportunities for
teachers at Northwestern. He showed us a couple of physics videos that he has
on the site. In one we saw several views of collision between a 1959 Chevy Bell
Air and a 2009 Chevy Malibu. Which car suffered more damage? From the TV show
Time Warp, he showed a movie segment where a drop of water fell on the surface
of water at 2000 frames per second. A clip from Star Wars: The Return of the
Jedi showed an Ewok hitting himself with a bolo like weapon. In another clip a
woman set fire to a gas pump as a result of a static electric discharge. Scott
was selling CD’s of these clips for $2.
Scott heralded the virtues of The Physics Teacher as an invaluable resource and also showed us the you-tube video of the crowd at the Oprah Show where hundreds of people participated in a wave to the music of the group Black Eyed Peas ‘I Got A Feeling’. Scott had several amusing handouts for us.
Evan Richards (Lake Forest High School) pointed out some more resources on the Physics Northwest web site which Matt Lowry maintains. There are job opportunities in the area, monthly meetings of all the area alliances. He showed us how to sign up as a web member. He brought up a video clip of a “scientist” explaining the details of a fictitious transmission with humorously ridiculous jabberwocky terminology. Perhaps this is what we sound like to our students.
Matt Lowry (Lake Forest High School) showed the recent humorous Minute Maid Commercial where a teacher resuscitates a dead rabbit with two party balloons he charged by rubbing them in his hair. He passed out a packet of sheets titled “Playing With Electrostatics” describing several electrostatic experiments. He passed out a second handout that described how to construct a cheap electrometer using an LED and a 9-volt battery. Matt demonstrated how to use the device to identify the sign of an unknown charge.
Kim Fermoyle and Shannon Mandel (Barrington High School) described
how they make electricity real for their students. They have their students
design an efficient appliance package for a home to be built in the Chicago
area and then put together a manual for the purchaser of the home. The manual
includes such details as how to schedule the use of appliances so as not to
exceed a 2400-Watt limit while also meeting certain other requirements of
reasonable living conditions. Neat!
Ryan Fedewa and Andy Miner (Maine East High School) called our attention to a student Science Art competition that is part of a Chicago Science Teacher Program outreach supported by a NSF Research Experience for Teachers Grant through UIC. He deadline for entries is Feb. 26th. Andy showed us a simple apparatus to construct series and parallel circuits using small lights which he clipped between two vertical rods that were attached to the terminals of a six-volt lawn motor battery. Students can visibly see the current in different arrangement by noting the intensity of the light. As an extra challenge for his students he started with two lamps in series that glowed with equal intensities and added a third lamp in parallel with one of the lights. What do you think happened to the intensities?
Scott Welty (Columbia College) is also an avid sailor. He will be giving a demonstration at the up and coming Strictly Sail Exposition about storage batteries aboard ship. He showed a video of a heavy gauge wire connected directly across the terminals of a 12-volt marine battery. Nothing seemed to be happening at the start. But soon the insulation could be seen melting off the wire and it began to glow red from the heat. He called our attention to an unusual effect. The camera picture went out of focus as the wire began to glow. Apparently the camera focus uses infrared and the circuitry got confused when the wire got hot. The camera manual cautioned that it might be difficult to take good pictures of scenes involving open flames like birthday candles because of this.
Earl Swallow gave out three large Christmas ornaments that Ann Brandon (Joliet West High School (retired)) contributed. The flat round ornament was first shown to us by Eileen Wild at a previous meeting. It forms a nice convex mirror. Ann got them from Menard’s.
Anne Brandon (Joliet West High School (retired)) came up to make the Harald Jenson Award presentation. Anne explained that the award is made annually to an outstanding young physics teacher (under ten years). This year was Physics Northwest’s turn. Debbie Lojkutz (Joliet West High School) announced the winner Shannon Mandel (Barrington High School). Shannon will have to come to the ISPP meting at Lake Forest College in the spring to receive the Jensen Bar Award.
Submitted by Arthur Schmidt
For any information regarding ISPP contact Martha Lietz marlie@niles-hs.k12.il.us
BRING FRIENDS BRING IDEAS! ! SEE YOU THERE ! ! !
Paul Dolan Gerry Lietz John Milton
Ruth Goehmann Earl Swallow Tom Senior
Jim McConville Ann Brandon Roy Coleman
Van Bistrow Gordon Ramsey Tung Jeong
Art Schmidt Chris Chiaverina Kevin McCarron
Pete Insley Earl Zwicker Mike Kash
Scott Schappe Bailey Donnally Mel Sabella
Debbie Lojkutz Dennis Gordon Martha Lietz
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
During 2001 - 02
Coordinators: Paul Dolan
Gerry Lietz
Earl Zwicker
ISPP Authors: Gerry Lietz Data Base Managers: Roy Coleman
Art Schmidt Earl Zwicker
John Milton
Pete Insley
Martha Lietz
Photographers: Paul Dolan Treasurers: Ann Brandon
Art Schmidt Peter Insley
Gerry
Lietz
John Milton
Special Events Committee:
Physics Day - Ann Brandon, Roy Coleman, (Co-Chairs)
John Rush Award - Bill Conway(Chair), Bill Shanks, Nick Drozdoff, Bill Blunk (ex-officio)
Harald Jensen Award - Keith Bellof (chair), Martha Lietz, Ann Brandon
Annual Tri - Physics Meeting - Bruce Illingworth, Gerry Lietz
National Bridge Building Committee - Carlo Segre
New Member Committee – Kevin McCarron (coordinator), Ann Brandon, Pete Insley, John Milton
To get to Northeastern Illinois University
From the expressway:
coming from the northwest or from the south on the Kennedy, exit at either Kimball or Pulaski going north, and follow that to Bryn Mawr Avenue. From Kimble turn west. From Pulaski turn east.
Coming from the north on the Edens exit at Peterson & take
that to Pulaski, turn south on Pulaski to Bryn Mawr (just after the nature center).Turn east on to Bryn Maer.
Park in the Level 2 lots (including the garage) and come into the science building to get a permit (or park on the street NOT in the ‘zone 1’ parking area),
OR take the brown line to Kimball & come north on the #82 bus to Catalpa.
The meeting will be in Science S-209