The
Chicago
Section
of the
American
Association
of Physics
Teachers
Spring 2010 Meeting, April 24th
at Chicago State University
New Academic Library 4th
Floor, 8:30 AM to 3:45 PM
featuring Eric
Mazur and Nadya Mason
Eric Mazur, Harvard University
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Eric Mazur is the Balkanski Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Harvard University. An internationally recognized scientist and researcher, he leads a vigorous research program in optical physics and supervises one of the largest research groups in the Physics Department at Harvard University. In addition to his work in optical physics, Dr. Mazur is interested in education, science policy, outreach, and the public perception of science. He believes that better science education for all -- not just science majors -- is vital for continued scientific progress. To this end, Dr. Mazur devotes part of his research group's effort to education research and finding verifiable ways to improve science education. In 1990 he began developing Peer Instruction a method for teaching large lecture classes interactively. Dr. Mazur's teaching method has developed a large following, both nationally and internationally, and has been adopted across many science disciplines. Dr. Mazur is author or co-author of 225 scientific publications and 12 patents. He has also written on education and is the author of Peer Instruction: A User's Manual (Prentice Hall, 1997), a book that explains how to teach large lecture classes interactively. In 2006 he helped produce the award-winning DVD Interactive Teaching. |
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Nadya Mason, University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign
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Professor Nadya Mason received her bachelor's degree in physics from Harvard University in 1995 and received her doctorate in physics in 2001 from Stanford University, working in the group of Aharon Kapitulnik. Her thesis research was on phase transitions in two-dimensional superconductors. Prior to joining the physics faculty at Illinois, Professor Mason was a Junior Fellow in the Society of Fellows at Harvard University, where she collaborated with Professors Charles Marcus and Michael Tinkham on projects related to both carbon nanotubes and nanostructured superconductors. Professor Mason's research at Illinois focuses on how electrons behave in low-dimensional, correlated materials, where enhanced interactions are expected to give novel results. She is particularly interested in the effect of reduced dimensionality and correlations on electron coherence. In addition to her research, Dr. Mason is a spokesperson for increasing diversity in physics and for creating a climate in academia that embraces and supports minorities and women. Professor Mason has received numerous awards and honors. She is a Woodrow Wilson Career Enhancement Fellow, was given the honor of “Emerging Scholar” from Diverse Magazine, has received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, and was a Junior Fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows. Recently, Dr. Mason was awarded the Denise Denton Emerging Leader Award. This award, given by the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI), is given each year to a non-tenured faculty member under the age of 40 at an academic or research institution pursuing high-quality research in any field of engineering or physical sciences while contributing significantly to promoting diversity in his/her environment. |
Click here for a Google Map | Click here for a campus map and driving directions
Registration for the conference is $10, Lunch is an additional $10
All registrations are taken at the door on the 24th.
Parking on the CSU campus is $4 | Avoid parking in reserved areas
Please check back for updates.
If you have missed the deadline
for submitting an abstract for a talk or poster and would still like to present
a POSTER please email Mel Sabella (msabella@csu.edu). Late submissions will be included on the
website but not in the printed program.
Program (click on PDF for a
printable version)
New Academic Library 4th
Floor Conference Area (take elevators to the 4th floor and head to
the right)
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8:15 to 8:45 |
Café Area |
Welcome and
Registration ($10), Lunch is
an addition $10 |
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8:45 to 10:09 |
Auditorium |
Contributed
Talks (12 minutes each, 10 minutes + 2
minutes for questions) Presiding: John Lewis |
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10:09 to 10:20 |
Café Area |
Break and get to
know one another |
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10:20 to 10:30 |
Auditorium |
Welcome Dr. David
Kanis, Chair, Department of Chemistry and Physics |
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10:30 to 11:20 |
Auditorium |
Eric Mazur, Plenary Talk That
physics describes the real world is a given for physicists. In spite of
tireless efforts by instructors to connect physics to the real world,
students walk away from physics courses believing physicists live in a world
of their own. Are students clueless about the real world? Or are we perhaps
deluding ourselves and misleading our students about the real world? |
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11:20 to 11:30 |
Café Area |
Break and get to
know one another |
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11:30 to 12:20 |
Auditorium |
Nadya Mason, Plenary Talk Tiny
cylinders of carbon, termed carbon nanotubes, have become a highlight of
nanotechnology research. With diameters as small as a billionth of a meter,
and lengths up to a millimeter, these unique structures can be stronger than
steel, as flexible as drinking straws, and more conductive than copper. Their
amazing electrical and mechanical properties give nanotubes enormous
potential for both fundamental physics and applications. Current research
ranges from studies of quantum interference in individual tubes to the
creation of a nanotube-based space elevator. In this talk, I will discuss the
synthesis, properties, and applications of carbon nanotubes, and show their
potential to revolutionize science and technology. |
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12:20 to 12:35 |
Auditorium |
Take Fives |
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12:35 to 1:35 |
Sunroom &
Café Area |
Lunch ($10), Poster Session (maximum size 4
X 4), Business Mtg |
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1:35 to 1:45 |
Sunroom |
Dean’s Welcome
and Introduction to Workshops Rachel W.
Lindsey, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences |
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1:45 to 3:45 |
Auditorium and Room 454 |
Afternoon
Workshops (parallel)
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Contributed Presentations (Talks: 8:45 to 10:09,
Posters: 12:35 – 1:35)
Talks
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8:45 AM |
Experience using keypads/clickers at
Faculty meetings Ray
Burnstein, Andy Howard, and Chris White (burnsteinr@iit.edu) Illinois
Institute of Technology Changes to University academic programs as well as certain faculty governance issues require faculty voting. In the past there have been problems in getting timely action on such issues. We describe how using keypads at Faculty meetings are useful for several significant reasons in addition to resolving voting problems. |
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8:57 AM |
Physics First: Assessing Its
Effectiveness Carl
Martikean (c.martikean@mchsi.com) Thornton
Township High School The established biology-chemistry-physics (B-C-P) high school sequence pushed physics into the background (Robbins and Sheppard, 2002, p. 427). Prior to 1900, virtually all high school students took physics. By the 1970s, only 20% of all high school students studied physics. This diffused into 1% of all high school students taking more advanced physics courses as AP Physics. If the Physics First movement is a revolution, school districts will need data to convince local stakeholders considering Physics First that this is the right choice. Some Reseachers strongly suggest physics at the freshman high school level (Haber-Schaim, 1983; Lederman, 2001). According to Hickman (2007), approximately 260 public schools and 290 private schools offer physics to all incoming freshmen students. Physics First represents more than a simple curricular change; Physics First represents a change in educational mindset (Pattanayak, 2003). In this talk, I will discuss some of the history of Physics First and highlight some of the overarching questions: 1. Can high school freshmen learn physics as well as juniors or seniors? 2. How effective is the Physics First curriculum when compared to the traditional curricular B-C-P sequence? 3. What has been the experience of those districts, which have adopted the Physics First Curriculum? 4. Do Physics First students enroll in advanced level science classes? 5. Do Physics First students demonstrate improved (state) test scores? 6. What role does curricular design play in the success of Physics First? |
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9:09 AM |
The Change in Temperature of the
Universe Ilia
Gulkarov and Paul Dolan (I-Gulkarov@neiu.edu) Northeastern
Illinois University The Big Bang Theory explains several aspects of the universe with high accuracy, in particular the cosmic microwave background, i.e., the radiation left over after the Big Bang. The maximum of this radiation corresponds to a temperature of 2.73 K. The earliest time that can reasonably be considered is the Planck time, 5.4 x 10-44 seconds; at this time, the Planck temperature can be calculated from fundamental constants to have been 1.42 x 1032 K. The change in temperature from the Planck time to the present is large, so that Newton’s Law of Cooling is not a reasonable tool for calculating either the temperature or the rate of change of temperature of the universe, at various times. We present a simple (linear) equation that can be used to calculate the temperature of the universe, which agrees well with observations, and will discuss some of its consequences and predictions. |
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9:21 AM |
Energy Conservation: Science or
Ideology? Porter
Johnson (IIT Chicago) and David Atkinson (RUG, NL) (Porter.Johnson@iit.edu) Illinois
Institute of Technology Within the domain of classical mechanics,
conservation of mechanical energy does not follow directly from Newton's
Laws, but involves rather artificial assumptions as to the nature of the
forces between. Furthermore, there are additional difficulties in this
matter. Namely, does energy conservation follow for a system consisting of an
infinite number of elastically colliding point masses -- provided that the
total mass of the system is finite? Or, do we have a problem, Houston? Reference: "Nonconservation of Energy and Loss of Determinism: I. Infinitely Many Balls ; II. Colliding with an Open Set'', Foundations of Physics 39, 937 (2009); 40, 179 (2010), P. W. Johnson (with D. Atkinson). |
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9:33 AM |
Galactic Arms Originated From External
Orbits in Space Stewart
E.Brekke (stewabruk@aol.com) Chicago
Public Schools (retired) Galactic arms came from sets of pre-galactic arms each member arm of the set orbiting other arms. As the orbits of the arms decayed due to gravitational attraction, the arms tangentially collided in their fore-sections and joined together to form rotating spiral galaxies. One can observe any number of galaxies in which the galactic arms obviously originated from external orbit. Examples of such galaxies are M51, M100, NGC2336, and NGC4939 to name a very few of the many galaxies in which the arms came from external orbit. This obvious source of galactic arms as coming from external orbit is in contrast to the current prevailing theory that the galactic arms came from density waves or instabilities in a pre-galactic disk. |
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9:45 AM |
nTIPERs Curtis
Hieggelke, David P. Maloney (IPFW), & Steve Kanim(NMSU) (curth@comcast.net) Joliet
Junior College We will describe various alternative task
formats that can be used to improve student learning and understanding of
physics concepts in mechanics. The exercises we have developed in these
formats are based, in part, on efforts in Physics Education Research and thus
are called TIPERs (Tasks Inspired by Physics Education Research). Such tasks
support active learning approaches and can be easily incorporated into
instruction in small pieces. TIPERs focus on making connections between the
mathematical formalism of introductory physics and the underlying physics
concepts, and are intended to help students to make sense of the equations
they are using rather than just using these equations algorithmically. They
help students to think about fundamental concepts in alternative and multiple
ways in order to promote robust learning. We will feature new TIPERs that are
being developed in the area of mechanics. *This work is supported in part by grants #0632963 and 0633010 from the Division of Undergraduate Education of the National Science Foundation. |
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9:57 AM |
Probing Student Understanding of the
Structure and Evolution of the Universe K. Coble
[1], J. Bailey [2], G. Cochran [1], V. Hayes [1], D. Larrieu [1], R. Sanchez
[2], K. McLin [3], L. Cominsky [3] (kcoble@csu.edu) [1] Chicago
State University, [2] UNLV, [3] Sonoma State University Recently, powerful new observations and advances in computation and visualization have led to a revolution in our understanding of the origin, evolution and structure of the universe. These gains have been vast, but their impact on education has been limited. We are bringing these tools and advances to the teaching of cosmology through research on undergraduate learning in cosmology as well as the development of a series of web-based cosmology learning modules. In order to investigate student ideas about the structure, composition, and evolution of the universe, our group has developed an open-ended cosmology survey. We administered the survey prior to instruction and conducted follow-up student interviews using the survey. Preliminary results regarding student misconceptions in cosmology, student attitudes toward inquiry, and directions for instruction in cosmology will be presented. |
Posters
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12:35 PM |
Physics of Harmonicas Chris
Kabat, Nick Macholl, Katie Sage, Joe Wiseman and faculty advisor Gordon
Ramsey (ckabat1@luc.edu) Loyola
University - Chicago Our group studied the physical properties of
the harmonica. We correlated the reed, the comb and the enclosure with the
fundamental frequency and the timbre of four different harmonicas. We also
found correlations with these acoustical elements and the geometric
properties of length, area, and volume. The area of the reed has the primary
affect on the fundamental frequency heard. The comb length affects the
fundamental frequency and the timbre of the harmonica. The enclosure shape
primarily affects the timbre. To further study the property of the reeds, we
took pressure and optical measurements. The pressure determined the nature of
the reed vibration. Video analysis indicated the parts of the reed that oscillated,
while optical diffraction showed a relation between the pressure and
intensity of the oscillation. Our geometrical, acoustical and optical
techniques revealed interesting properties of the harmonica. |
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12:35 PM |
Using diverse experiences to emphasize
the professional nature of teaching: The CSU Noyce Program Natalie
Robinson, Andrea Van Duzor and Mel Sabella (natalierr@sbcglobal.net) Chicago
State University As Noyce Scholars at Chicago State University and
future science teachers, we are engaged in a diverse set of experiences
including seminars on education and education research, conference
attendance, journal clubs and science education internships that serve
professional development functions. These experiences in contexts beyond the
classroom, highlight the professional nature of science teaching, and
introduce us to the diverse resources available for science teachers in
Chicago. By partnering with institutions such as the Museum of Science and Industry,
the Adler Planetarium, and the Southeast Environmental Task Force we are able
to ground ourselves in the intellectual and cultural resources of Chicago.
Through these experiences we are building a network of support that will aid
us in continuing to improve our craft as teachers in high needs areas. This
poster will highlight how the professional nature of science teaching
permeates through the CSU Noyce Program as well as present examples of the
specific internships that we have been involved with as a result of the
program. *Funded by the National Science Foundation
Noyce Program (0833251) |
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12:35 PM |
Clicker Question Exchange for
Introductory Physics Classes Tom Carter,
Albert H. Lee, Lin Ding, Neville W. Reay, Lei Bao and Mel Sabella (carter@fnal.gov) College of
DuPage I would like this poster to form a central
point for people to swap question sets, discuss what makes a good question
and show off their own favorites. I will specifically make available the electricity
and magnetism questions in serial format written by the Ohio State PER group [1].
Additional clicker question I have accumulated over the past seven years
using Peer Instruction in my introductory physics class will also be
available for swapping and discussion. *Production of this material supported in part
by NSF grant DUE-0618128 |
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12:35 PM |
Use of group work to facilitate
individual understanding in physical science: A case study of one student Tasia C.
Bryson and Andrea Van Duzor (cheneeb18@yahoo.com) Chicago
State University With the intent of making science meaningful
and accessible to non-majors, the curriculum Physical Science and Everyday
Thinking (PSET) incorporates extensive group work. This study focuses on one
student in a course using the curricula to understand how group work may help
enhance the learning process of physical science, as well as, may hinder the
learning process in a physical science course. Using a qualitative, case
study methodology, we conduct interviews, review the student’s assignments,
and observe the student as he works alone and in groups. Tentative results
support the PSET curricular intent that group work facilitates student
learning in hands-on experiments. Continuing research will examine in what
ways group work is impacting the student’s learning and how he studies
individually. In addition, the study may reveal implications for other
physical science students and professors teaching the PSET curricula. |
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12:35 PM |
A Course in Physics Pedagogical
Content Knowledge for Urban Chicago In-Service Teachers Virginia
Hayes, Joel Hofslund, Stephanie A. Barr, Mel S. Sabella (virginialenisehayes@yahoo.com) Chicago
State University The science programs at Chicago State
University are involved in developing a series of courses on Pedagogical
Content Knowledge (PCK) through funding from the Illinois Board of Higher
Education. This past summer we offered a PCK course in physics geared towards
urban in-service science teachers from the Chicago area. During the course,
teachers engaged in Physics Education Research (PER)-based instructional
materials (adapted from materials in our National Science Foundation-Course,
Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement Project), read journal articles on
science education, developed inquiry-based activities for their students,
discussed student learning, and developed assessment questions designed to
diagnose their students’ level of understanding. . Examples of participant
work and classroom discussion will be presented to show how participants in
the program engaged in integrating content understanding with their
pedagogical knowledge. In addition, we provide evidence that these two types
of knowledge build upon and reinforce each other. *Supported by the Illinois Board of Higher
Education and the National Science Foundation CCLI Program (#0632563 ) |
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12:35 PM |
An Unconventional Way to Learn: The
Physics behind Rolling. Erica
Watkins (ericapwatkins87@yahoo.com) Society of
Physics Students and Chicago State University Despite its scarcity in traditional physics
texts, the science of rolling has a long history that dates back to 1602 when
Galileo Galilei studied in Pisa, Tuscany [1]. Galileo rolled a sphere down an
inclined plane to determine an object’s acceleration due to gravity. The
Society of Physics Students (SPS) has begun a major data collection
experiment to see if the theories of rolling objects actually match reality.
Through an engaging competition where students race an assortment of
household items, SPS has tested how concepts about rolling objects are formed
amongst elementary school students. This unorthodox experiment has been used
as a basis for a complete lesson plan that can be adjusted to accommodate
grade levels from elementary to high school. The lesson concentrates on
topics such as acceleration and its relationship to hollow and solid items,
and rotational and translational energy- the work energy theorem, moments of
inertia and angular momentum. [1] Groleau, Rick, “His Experiments;” Public
Broadcasting Service (PBS). http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/galileo/experiments.html.
(2002) |
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12:35 PM |
NANODAYS 2010 Paul Dolan
(p-dolan@neiu.edu) Northeastern
Illinois University “Nanodays”
is a nation-wide initiative for disseminating information on the growing
field of nanotechnology; the ‘official’ week for these activities is usually
the first week of April. Nanodays operates via the NiseNet (Nanoscale
Informal Science Education Network, www.nisenet.org), and is funded by the
NSF (Grant # ESI-0532536). Numerous schools, museums, research centers and
other institutions are members of the network, and participate in various
Nanodays activities. NEIU is a participant in Nanodays, and has hosted
activities in 2009 and 2010. During the current year, Nanodays activities
were used VERY successfully as the lab activity for the general education
course (“Physics in Everyday Life”). One of the benefits of becoming a member
of the network, is obtaining a (FREE!) Nanodays Activities kit (so long as
one agrees to USE it). Many of the activities in the kit are free-standing
activities that do not need someone to monitor or direct the activities. The
activities in the current kit include: SPM (Scanning Probe Microscopy) (make
& take) BuckyBalls (make & take) Liquid Crystal Thermometer (make
& take) NanoFabrics (aka ‘nanopants’) FerroFluids Surface Area Gravity
Measurement – Molecules Measurement – Stretchability (Nano Twister)
Measurement – Rulers & the Human Body Molecules: Self Assembly Several of
these activities (with instructions) will be available for participants to
experience during the meeting (including some of the ‘Make & Takes’). |
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12:35 PM |
PEM Fuel Cell System (CSU-FC) Ely I. León (eleon21@csu.edu) Chicago
State University I
will present the prototype of a new type of dewpoint humidification PEM Fuel
Cell testing system (Called CSU-FC); as a part of the Fuel cell development
and implementation research. CSU-FC has four cylinders, each with a different
mediums and temperatures, and electronic controller to sample information and
distribute fuel up to as many fuel cells. The system is designed to sample
information of the performance for each individual cell within the stack. The
system leads to a new redesign fuel cell stack for more simple and friendly
replacement of damage individual cell with in the stack. Details of the
CSU-FC computer simulation, construction, data collection and data analysis
are presented. |
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