Dice, Admissions, Math, and Fluorescent Light Bulbs
In physics news this week, we have a fascinating result without a good theoretical explanation (so share this with your students!). Diego Maza and his team in Spain filled a cylinder with dice, and then twisted it back and forth, about once per second. Amazingly, despite the fairly low angular acceleration, the dice "packed" themselves into an ordered arrangement relatively quickly (image below). Packing is an important issue in the subfield of granular materials -- imagine shipping flour or sand -- and this might be an efficient new technique.
During this season of university applications, it is appropriate that Scherr and Gray from Seattle Pacific, working with the APS Bridge Program, have an important new paper looking at diversity in grad school admissions. They interviewed physics faculty from 16 selective PhD-producing universities in the United States, and found that a fixed view of intelligence (not the "growth mindset" from Dweck) is widespread. This matters because, like GRE scores, the effect is detrimental to efforts at increasing diversity in our field.
In first-year undergraduate physics courses, math preparation is one of the strongest predictors of student success. A team from Texas used a diagnostic test to direct students with weak math skills toward a simple online review tool. The results were clear: underprepared students who did the extra math review were four times more likely to pass the course. This seems like a good addition for any large-enrolment course with straightforward prerequisite skills.
Physics Education has a paper by a UK-based team about their efforts to set up a real-science-in-schools program, based on a future space telescope project but essentially computational in nature. Their enthusiasm and excitement shines through, but they also identify some issues in their implementation. If you are designing a project like this, I suggest collaborating with an experienced teacher from the outset.
A team from Kiel looked at the physics teacher training program in Germany, and suggests that teacher prep focus more on subject-specific pedagogy, and increase efforts to connect students with effective practices via classroom observations.
Nicolases Plihon and Taberlet from France have a paper in which they explain how fluorescent light bulbs work, and why they flicker as they age. It's a good description, and quite interesting.
Seen around the web this week:
Matt Blackman shares Eugenia Etkina's video of a room experiencing a mysterious force.
The folks from Pivot Interactives show us how to make dry ice pucks for low-friction kinematics.
Chuck Betz is using Kelly O'Shea's card-sort activity.
Thomas Ledoux does a practical involving impulse and friction.
Moses Rifkin has his students make physics image macros (memes).
@NBCphysics does an electrostatics can race.
Dan Burns's students measure the impulses of model rocket motors.
Ben Wildeboer's students catch a projectile in mid-flight.
and Matt Blackman lights an LED in the electric field of a water basin.
Summer research experiences for students:
At CERN
At Perimeter
During this season of university applications, it is appropriate that Scherr and Gray from Seattle Pacific, working with the APS Bridge Program, have an important new paper looking at diversity in grad school admissions. They interviewed physics faculty from 16 selective PhD-producing universities in the United States, and found that a fixed view of intelligence (not the "growth mindset" from Dweck) is widespread. This matters because, like GRE scores, the effect is detrimental to efforts at increasing diversity in our field.
In first-year undergraduate physics courses, math preparation is one of the strongest predictors of student success. A team from Texas used a diagnostic test to direct students with weak math skills toward a simple online review tool. The results were clear: underprepared students who did the extra math review were four times more likely to pass the course. This seems like a good addition for any large-enrolment course with straightforward prerequisite skills.
Physics Education has a paper by a UK-based team about their efforts to set up a real-science-in-schools program, based on a future space telescope project but essentially computational in nature. Their enthusiasm and excitement shines through, but they also identify some issues in their implementation. If you are designing a project like this, I suggest collaborating with an experienced teacher from the outset.
A team from Kiel looked at the physics teacher training program in Germany, and suggests that teacher prep focus more on subject-specific pedagogy, and increase efforts to connect students with effective practices via classroom observations.
Nicolases Plihon and Taberlet from France have a paper in which they explain how fluorescent light bulbs work, and why they flicker as they age. It's a good description, and quite interesting.
Seen around the web this week:
Matt Blackman shares Eugenia Etkina's video of a room experiencing a mysterious force.
The folks from Pivot Interactives show us how to make dry ice pucks for low-friction kinematics.
Chuck Betz is using Kelly O'Shea's card-sort activity.
Thomas Ledoux does a practical involving impulse and friction.
Moses Rifkin has his students make physics image macros (memes).
@NBCphysics does an electrostatics can race.
Dan Burns's students measure the impulses of model rocket motors.
Ben Wildeboer's students catch a projectile in mid-flight.
and Matt Blackman lights an LED in the electric field of a water basin.
Summer research experiences for students:
At CERN
At Perimeter