Physics For Everyone

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Physics For Everyone

• Mats Selen, UIUCNov/4/04

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UIUC Physics Outreach Be Proud!

• Saturday Physics Honors
• 12th year !
• Very popular high attendance.
• Physics Van
• 11th year !
• Over 62,000 people have seen a show
• Big presence on web (van.hep.uiuc.edu)
• Top-ranked Google Outreach Entertainment page.

(Go there)
(Go there)
(Go there)
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Two Other Efforts (i.e. this talk)

• Physics 123 Physics Made Easy
• Physics for future elementary school teachers.
• Brand new - spring/05 will be 2nd offering.
• The Whys Guy
• Two live spots every Wednesday morning on
• In 3rd year (or 5th depends on how you count.)
• Seems to have a pretty good following
• Biggest ratings of any regular Morning Show
  segment (even though its rather stupid.)

(Go there)
(www.whysguy.net)
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Physics 123
Not your grandfathers physics class !
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Why ?

• Many (most) elementary school teachers are not
  confident in their knowledge of math science,
  in particular physics.
• This cant help but rub off on their students.
• This is particularly bad for girls since most
  elementary school teachers are women.

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So, what counts as a Physical Science ??
In addition to the obvious (Physics, Astronomy,
and Chemistry), these do
Elementary Ed students typically take Food
Science and Nutrition and Geography (or Geology)
to satisfy their PS requirement
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Contrast this with the K-4 National
Standardswww.nap.edu/readingroom/books/nses/html
/6c.html
Q Where will the teachers learn all this stuff ?
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Our Idea

• Create a class that will give students confidence
  in their ability to understand physics concepts.
• Should come out with a positive I can do this
  attitude.
• When their own students ask them a science
  question their response should be one of two
  things
• Great question. Let me explain the answer
• Great question. I dont know the answer, but I
  know we can find out what it is
• Considerations
• Students must be attracted to the class.
• Methods used in this class should be consistent
  with the way they will ultimately teach their own
  classes.
• No point making it if no-ones takes it.
• Must have appropriate scope.
• Cant cover all of the materials in the national
  standards.
• Must give students appreciation for concepts
  without math.

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Methods used are consistent with the way they
will ultimately teach their own classes.

• Hands on labs
• Have them use materials and do activities that
  they can replicate in their own classrooms.
• Students keep inexpensive equipment build
  teaching kit.
• Washers from Farm Fleet (1.09/lb),
• Cheap thermometers, stopwatches etc
• Mystery Tube, States of Matter, Oobleck

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Student projects
Appropriate Scope (?)

• There are 11 full 3 hour labs in a semester (14
  weeks 3 special).
• We can cover at most 11 topics.
• We need to choose the right ones
• 1. Uncertainty and the Nature of Science
• 2. Atoms and the States of Matter
• 3. Heat and Temperature
• 4. Mass, Weight and Balance
• 5. Volume, Density, Floating, Sinking
• 6. Measuring and Graphing Motion
• 7. Simple Forces Newton's Laws
• 8. Investigating Gravity
• 9. Simple Machines
• 10. Simple Circuits
• 11. Magnets Motors

Our picks for now
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Class Structure

• A different topic is covered each week.
• Each week has the following structure
• Students come into Monday lab cold.
• The web based homework and preflights probes
  conceptual understanding and feed me info for the
  lecture.
• Lecture ties up loose ends and has lots of
  demos.

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
Hands-on lab (3 hrs) Web-BasedHomework Preflights Lecture/Discussion(1 hr) - -
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Who are the students?

• Mostly women (all 24 last semester, in fact)
• Almost all had physics in high school.
• Most liked their high school physics class !
• They are all very smart but lack confidence.
• Especially true in math physics.
• They socialize extremely well and enjoy working
  in groups.
• Took me a while to really appreciate how nice
  this is.
• Not true for all physics and engineering majors
• They love getting their hands on stuff and
  playing.
• They love to learn.

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Appreciation for concepts without math.

• Examples
• F ma (well, a F/m actually)
• Torque
• Heat Capacity
• Temperature ( Mittens)
• Density, Floating Sinking
• Light the bulb
• Motor

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Got this idea about half way through the semester
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This question always gets very interesting
results
This is a great opportunity to show students how
to figure outthe answer to questions they will
get from their class some day.
Click here to see web page
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demo
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demo
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Outlook

• I am delighted with the way the course went.
• We covered quite a bit of physics !
• The students loved it and I know they are saying
  good things about it to their friends. This is
  really very important.
• Expect big enrollment in Spring/05 (100-200).

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Whys Guy

• OK I admit this is a bit stupid - but its a
  good excuse to do cool demos ?

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• Weight of air
• glass of water
• crush can
• video

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• Some R D

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• Favorites
• kinematics
• microwave
• kaboom

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In Conclusion

• Physics 123 may not have high-end content, but I
  think its a very important thing to do.
• Big impact (100-200 teachers per year)!
• Our department is supporting some pretty
  interesting outreach programs.
• Wide appeal
• Great PR
• Sorry if youre deaf