Volume 54 Issue 8, November 2016

The Physics Teacher

This month's cover reveals the elegant path of a light affixed to a tossed bat's center of mass, amidst a flurry of cusps and rosettes representing the bat's gyrations. Taken with an iPhone 6 and the app "Slow Shutter Cam" by Jacob Lev Amme of Albany High School in Albany, CA (Teacher: Valerie Risk), it won first place in the Contrived Category of the 2016 AAPT High School Physics Photo Contest. See Reversing the AAPT Photo Contest: A Physics Teacher Education Activity to learn how Richard Hechter leverages the photo contest entries in his classroom.

 

Note:  TPT is seeking a "For the New Teacher" Column Editor.  See the Editorial in this issue

 

Columns

Figuring Physics, Tricks of the Trade, Little Gems, Astronotes,  Physics Challenge for Teachers and Students, Fermi Questions, Visual Physics, and Websights.

Papers

Community Outreach with Play-Doh® Electronics by Tom Bensky and William Bensky.  DOI: 10.1119/1.4965261

A New Way to Demonstrate the Rainbow by Dragia Trifonov Ivanov and Stefan Nikolaev Nikolov.  DOI: 10.1119/1.4965263

Reversing the AAPT Photo Contest: A Physics Teacher Education Activity by Richard P. Hechter. DOI: 10.1119/1.4965264

The “Finding Physics” Project: Recognizing and Exploring Physics Outside the Classroom by Judith Beck and James Perkins.  DOI: 10.1119/1.4965265

Multiple-Choice Answers: To Change or Not to Change? Perhaps Not Such a Simple Question by Heidi Wainscott. DOI: 10.1119/1.4965266

Maximum Range of a Projectile Thrown from Constant-Speed Circular Motion by Nikola Poljak.  DOI: 10.1119/1.4965267

Pedagogical Techniques Employed by the Television Show “MythBusters” by Erik Zavrel. DOI: 10.1119/1.4965268

25+ Years of the Hubble Space Telescope and a Simple Error that Cost Millions by Said Shakerin. DOI: 10.1119/1.4965269

Vič Goes to Near Space by Vida Kariž Merhar, Rok Capuder, Timotej Maroševič, Sonja Artač, Alenka Mozer and Maja Štekovič. DOI: 10.1119/1.4965270

Twitter and Physics Professional Development by Taoufik Nadji. DOI: 10.1119/1.4965271

A New Version of an Old Demonstration Experiment Using the Elihu Thomson Jumping Ring Apparatus by Theodore Foster, Arthur Cary, John Mottmann and Willem van Wyngaarden.  DOI: 10.1119/1.4965272

Teaching Electric Fences: The Physics Behind the Brainiac Video by Michael Vollmer. DOI: 10.1119/1.4965273

How to Drive a Car on a Snowy Slope by Yasuo Ogawara.  DOI: 10.1119/1.4965275

Inexpensive Audio Activities: Earbud-based Sound Experiments by Joshua Allen, Alex Boucher, Dean Meggison, Kate Hruby and James Vesenka.  DOI: 10.1119/1.4965276

And the Survey Says: Public Schools Used in OCR Calculations of Physics Availability, 2013-14 Academic Year by Susan C. White.  DOI: 10.1119/1.4965282

Additional Resources

DNA Science Lesson & Digi-Kit

Inspired by an article from The Physics Teacher, this multidisciplinary lesson and digital resource collection is based on How Rosalind Franklin Discovered the Helical Structure of DNA: Experiments in Diffraction (Braun, Tierney, & Schmitzer, 2011). Click the image to access this resource.

 

Article Collections from TPT and AJP    

 

TPT Presents: Columns and other Collections from The Physics Teacher