Nobel Prize Week
The big physics news of the last week was the announcement that the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics would go to Rainer Weiss, Barry Barish, and Kip Thorne for their work on building LIGO and detecting gravitational waves. It's a great story, from Einstein's prediction of the waves' existence, through the complicated and long process required to build sufficiently-sensitive detectors, to the optimism in the field as we build new, complementary observatories. There's a rumor that LIGO/VIRGO observed a signal consistent with a neutron star merger last month.
However, it was widely noticed that the physics, chemistry, and medicine prizes (collectively known as the science Nobels) all went to old white men. The nomination and selection process is neither open nor transparent, but in a very informative tweet chain, Andrew Morrison pointed out that we can contact the committee to suggest nominees (Lene Hau, Fabiola Gianotti, and Helen Quinn come to mind).
High school teachers might be happy to hear that the superb Graphs and Tracks is now available online. It could be a great self-paced review of kinematics. Relatedly, SimBucket has started adding videos to their website, which look a bit like Direct Measurement videos.
Last weekend, the HBO show "Last Week Tonight" ran an in-depth segment in which they looked at the state of forensic science, and the dangerous ways in which that field is impacting law. I was reminded of James Gates' work to reform forensic science. Forensic science already presents plenty of opportunities for physics contexts; this social justice dimension makes me wonder...
Physics Education has an upcoming article about bicycle dynamics that would be accessible to high school students. It could also be a good starting-point for a student project.
Physics Education is also carrying a three-paper description of the "Einstein-First" programme, developed by a team in Western Australia. The idea is to introduce general relativity and quantum mechanics at the start of secondary school (ie: grade 6). I find it really interesting, but remain unconvinced. I hope the authors are able to do some careful evaluation of the implementation this year.
Brain Frank has a blog post with 5 great techniques he uses to get more thinking in class. These are the sorts of things that really matter -- highly recommended.
A few great practicals in gif form on Twitter this week:
Lowering a box onto a tumbler for the constant velocity model (Casey Rutherford)
Projectile through a rotating hoop (Burke)
Colliding tumblers (Tiffany Taylor)
and Mr Gorman's students can't wait to start doing video analysis.
Until next week!
- Danny
However, it was widely noticed that the physics, chemistry, and medicine prizes (collectively known as the science Nobels) all went to old white men. The nomination and selection process is neither open nor transparent, but in a very informative tweet chain, Andrew Morrison pointed out that we can contact the committee to suggest nominees (Lene Hau, Fabiola Gianotti, and Helen Quinn come to mind).
High school teachers might be happy to hear that the superb Graphs and Tracks is now available online. It could be a great self-paced review of kinematics. Relatedly, SimBucket has started adding videos to their website, which look a bit like Direct Measurement videos.
Last weekend, the HBO show "Last Week Tonight" ran an in-depth segment in which they looked at the state of forensic science, and the dangerous ways in which that field is impacting law. I was reminded of James Gates' work to reform forensic science. Forensic science already presents plenty of opportunities for physics contexts; this social justice dimension makes me wonder...
Physics Education has an upcoming article about bicycle dynamics that would be accessible to high school students. It could also be a good starting-point for a student project.
Physics Education is also carrying a three-paper description of the "Einstein-First" programme, developed by a team in Western Australia. The idea is to introduce general relativity and quantum mechanics at the start of secondary school (ie: grade 6). I find it really interesting, but remain unconvinced. I hope the authors are able to do some careful evaluation of the implementation this year.
Brain Frank has a blog post with 5 great techniques he uses to get more thinking in class. These are the sorts of things that really matter -- highly recommended.
A few great practicals in gif form on Twitter this week:
Lowering a box onto a tumbler for the constant velocity model (Casey Rutherford)
Projectile through a rotating hoop (Burke)
Colliding tumblers (Tiffany Taylor)
and Mr Gorman's students can't wait to start doing video analysis.
Until next week!
- Danny