Science Teaching tips from Lee Trampleasure

October 14, 2009

Loma Prieta 20 year anniversary

This Saturday (October 17, 2009) marks the 20th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake. Everyone who was in the Santa Cruz/SF Bay Area has their story of where they were, and KQED’s Forum call-in program had a great hour yesterday. It’s been long enough ago that for my students (juniors and seniors in high school) the earthquake is now only...

General/Science Education Comments: 2

September 30, 2009

Generic science class data table

In my physic classes, we do a lot of labs. Students are encouraged to create their own data tables, but many aren’t so “linearly” inclined, and have difficulty creating neat tables. I created a generic data table they can use on any lab. Design of the data table Most of our labs require three measurements of ten different settings of...

Modeling/Physics/Science Education Comments: 0

September 12, 2009

“Progressive” thermostats to save energy

Sitting in my cold, air-conditioned classroom the last week, while it was 85-95ºF outside, a design for a new thermostat came to me. Currently, thermostats cool (or heat) a building to a desired temperature. My new design would create a floating target temperature, that moves up and down as the outside temperature changes. The goal would be to target a...

Science Education/Weather Comments: 2

August 6, 2009

A concept map for the Modeling cycle

At the AAPT meeting in Ann Arbor, I presented a poster on concept mapping in physics classes. An idea that arose there was the creation of a concept map of the ASU Modeling Cycle, so I created one. Take a look and let me know what you think. I’ll probably make adjustments to it when I get suggestions. Modeling cycle...

Modeling/Physics/Science Education Comments: 5

July 29, 2009

Concept Mapping in the High School Physics Classroom

Below is the content of my poster presentation from the American Association of Physics Teachers national meeting in Ann Arbor, MI. (I’ll be adding graphs from surveys shortly.) Concept Mapping in Physics AAPT Summer Meeting; July 28, 2009 Lee Trampleasure Carondelet High School Concord, CA Concept Mapping in Physics Concept mapping is the creation of a diagram that represents the...

Science Education Comment: 1

July 21, 2009

Target shoot: Ball on ramp, conservation of energy

Many physics teachers do a “target shoot” lab for conservation of energy. The basics of the lab is that students roll a ball down a curved ramp and predict where it will land. By calculating the change in gravitational energy from the top to the bottom of the ramp (“Phase A” in the sketch), students can use this as the...

Modeling/Physics/Science Education Comment: 1

July 17, 2009

Metric conversion and proportional reasoning

Background A teacher presented the following question on the Physical Science email list of the National Science Teachers Association: I’ve run into a roadblock and hope someone can assist. This year we will be teaching conversions in the metric system for our physical science classes. We kind of skipped over that in other years. Anyhow, I’m not sure how to...

Physics/Science Education Comments: 5

June 16, 2009

Magic fence or power of inverse square?

On a walk through UC Berkeley, I came upon the following sign on a fence: Here’s a broader view of the sign and its surroundings: The distance from the building to the fence is about 2m (6′). The question: Has UCB discovered a new fence that can stop magnetic fields? Or, is this just an example of the inverse square...

Physics/Science Education Comments: 4

June 12, 2009

The physics (and biology) of snake movement

Science Friday had a great piece on snakes slithering today. The main researcher in the video is Dr. David Hu from the Applied Mathematics Laboratory, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, New York, NY. Turns out it’s much more compicated than one would think. The scientists used smooth surfaces and even Jello to test their hypotheses. Here’s the...

Science Education Comments: 0

June 2, 2009

The math in a hybrid car

For an end of the semester project in my physics classes, I posed the following question to my students: If you put 100,000 miles on a car, which is a better deal, a hybrid or a traditional car? Students were asked to look up a car they would be interested in buying, but the car has to come in both...

Science Education Comment: 1