July 26–30, 2014
67
Monday afternoon
physics of “Bounce Juggling” in particular. This type of juggling lends itself
to an elegant discussion of the application of each of Newton’s three laws
of motion in a qualitative, non-threatening way. For those who desire a bit
more rigor, our discussion will extend to applications of rotational physics
as well.
BK02:
2:40-2:50 p.m. Making Physics Phun in Two-Year
College
Contributed – Madhuri Bapat, Eastern Arizona College, Thatcher, AZ 85552;
I would like to share an account of physics programs that I have developed
for the last 15 years at a two-year college in a small rural community in Ar-
izona. We offer physics at three levels—conceptual physics, college physics-
algebra based, and university physics-calculus based—all taught by me for
over 10 years. Students are catered to their levels by adding innovative lab
activities and projects to the curriculum. The enrollment has doubled in 10
years as a result of many additional out of classroom activities such as an
outreach program, physics club, model rocketry and robotics classes. Many
success stories will be shared in the presentation. This author emphasizes
love and enthusiasm for physics and laid-back personality of instructor
along with providing relaxed and cooperative atmosphere in the classroom
while teaching and learning.
BK03:
2:50-3 p.m. Promoting Phun in Conceptual Physics:
Physics in Movies and Everywhere
Contributed – Doris Jeanne Wagner, Grove City College, Grove City, PA
16127;
Emily Hare, Grove City College
In the spring of 2013, our department re-evaluated the one-semester
survey conceptual physics course we offer as part of our core curriculum.
Based on feedback from students in the course, we added a very successful
“Physics of Movies” component starting in fall 2013. I also added a discus-
sion board, “There’s Physics in That” in the fall offering, in which students
posted on where they had seen physics outside of the classroom and
commented on classmates’ posts. Many students fully embraced the spirit
of this activity, and excellent online discussions took place. This talk will
summarize my efforts in the class and describe the results of assessment.
BK04:
3-3:10 p.m. Science Through Film and Fiction: Teaching
Science with Virtual Reality
Contributed – Derin A. Sherman, Cornell College, West Mount Vernon, IA
52314;
When a student creates a virtual world, she also explores the scientific
method. She can perform a wide array of scientific experiments, build
and refine theoretical models, make detailed measurements, and test
hypotheses. In Greg Egan’s novel “Permutation City,” the characters design
and debate the scientific laws that will be used to create a complete virtual
world where “copies” of humans will live their lives. Egan’s characters also
explore some of the more abstract ideas in physics, including the multi-
verse theory. Through their reading and virtual lab work, students learn
that science is a creative process used to construct and improve theoreti-
cal models that approximate reality. In this presentation, I will show how
science fiction and virtual reality can be used to effectively teach students
about science. All software used is free and will run on both Macintosh and
Windows platforms.
BK05:
3:10-3:20 p.m. Taste and See that Physics Is Fun
Contributed – Michael J. Ponnambalam, St. Xavier’s College, 7 - 40 Sannathi
St., Tamil Nadu, TN 627116, India;
Communicating the fun, enjoyment and excitement in physics to the
students, or to the general public, becomes a bit easier when the presenter
himself/herself has enjoyed the fun in physics, and has a passionate love
for physics as well as an infectious enthusiasm. Further, when the presenter
dramatizes the events in the presentation, clarifies complex concepts using
familiar examples from daily life, makes inert numbers come alive using an
appropriate metamorphosis, and motivates the students using inspirational
quotations and auto suggestions, the audience finds it easier to taste and
see that physics is fun. The author’s experience in this connection in differ-
ent countries will be presented.
Session TOP05: iOS and Android App
Show
Location: STSS 131B
Sponsor: Committee on Educational Technologies
Date: Monday, July 28
Time: 4–5:30 p.m.
Presider: Lee Trampleasure
Do you have a favorite app for your physics classroom? Do you want to
see others’ favorite apps? Come to this “Show and Tell” for a cavalcade
of apps—both “student” and “teacher” apps are welcome. Each presenter
will get five minutes to show their app. You can sign up at the show or,
to ensure you get time, you can sign up in advance at
/
appshow (this will also help us to avoid duplication). We’ll have dongles to
connect iPad/iPhones to the projector, and maybe some Android devices,
but since devices have different connectors we suggest bringing your own
(if you have one), and we’ll also have a document camera to project any
device that we can’t connect. A list of all apps presented will be available to
those who attend and those who can’t.
Session CA: Panel – Educational
Technology Highlights from MPTL
Location: STSS 330
Sponsor: Committee on Educational Technologies
Co-Sponsor: Committee on International Physics Education
Date: Monday, July 28
Time: 4–6 p.m.
Presider: Wolfgang Christian
Multimedia in Physics Teaching and Learning (MPTL) confer-
ences have been organized annually since 1996 by a European-
based multidisciplinary group of teachers and researchers who
implement and study the uses of computers in the teaching of
physics. Recent topics at MPTL meetings include simulation and
modeling tools, Arduino interfacing, virtual and remote labora-
tories, augmented reality, interaction with Course Management
Systems, and simulations for mobile devices such as tablets. The
target population is undergraduate and high school students and
instructors. This session presents selected MPTL speakers from
non-U.S. countries to contribute to an international exchange of
ideas and technology.
CA01:
4-6 p.m. Create Your Own Physics Simulations for
Tablets Using EasyJava (script) Simulations
Panel – Francisco Esquembre,* Universidad de Murcia, Facultad de
Matematicas - Campus de Espinardo, Murcia, Non US 30071 Spain; fem@
um.es
Felix J. García-Clemente, Universidad de Murcia
We introduce a major version of the successful Easy Java Simulations
modeling tool that allows physics teachers to create, share, and distribute
Java simulations with a very affordable level of training. This backwards-
compatible, new release of EJS, now renamed EjsS, is also able to create
simulations that run in HTML-enabled browsers, using algorithms written
in Javascript. This means that simulations created with this new version
of EjsS can run in virtually any computer or mobile platform, including
smartphones and tablets. And the level of difficulty for the author remains
the same. We have also created a Reader App for Android and iOS that
allows a user to collect and organize a number of such simulations for use
