No physics classroom is an isolated system. Our students bring their whole selves—their emotions, dreams, and life history—into our learning spaces, and they carry their classroom experiences out into the world. In this talk, we'll explore frameworks for helping students connect the idealized content of the physics classroom with the complexities of the real world. By doing so, we can empower...
Many students enter physics with limited math readiness, yet they must learn scientific concepts while developing the mathematical tools to apply them. This creates a tension: students need science to drive math learning, but math gaps can hinder progress in physics. To address this challenge, a revised instructional sequence was piloted in which waves were introduced before kinematics. This...
We want all of our students to see themselves as “physics people.” Helping students build their physics identity is key to deepening both their engagement in our classrooms and their interest in pursuing a physics-related career. In this session, I will share the STEP UP Everyday Actions that you can do to help foster your students’ physics identity.
Some variations of connecting two inductors in parallel with a battery (along with some current-limiting resistors) will be discussed [1-2]. A switch is used to power the circuit up or down. Interesting aspects of the behavior of the circuits include a response that cannot described by a single exponential, and a contradiction with Kirchhoff's laws if all circuit elements are assumed to be...
Even though we teach electric field lines, most of us probably can’t draw the electric field lines when there are more than two point-charges. I will present a program to draw electric field lines for an arbitrary arrangement of up to 4 point-charges.
"Planting the Seed" is one way that the Virginia Department of Aviation describes the objective of their educational programs. Initiatives include the ICON A5 Introduction to Flight Program, which brings a light sport amphibious aircraft to public events; the Virginia Aviation Teacher’s Grant, offering up to $500 for K–12 educators to develop aviation-themed lessons; and two scholarships...
Who in Physics has served as a mentor to you? What did you find valuable? In what ways do you wish you had additional or different mentorship? We asked these questions to 32 undergraduate women in physics from across the U.S. as part of a larger research study examining the experiences of undergraduate women in physics. Our analysis is ongoing, yet we already note mentorship's vital role in...
This research was conducted with the goal of better understanding the experiences of undergraduate women in physics as well as understanding the role that physics-related clubs play in cultivating and maintaining physics identity in undergraduates. We coded 31 interviews with undergraduate women in physics in the U.S. to examine the way their identities were shaped by the physics clubs that...
At the past few meetings, we presented demos we called "Let it go" and "Defying Gravity." "Let it go" was a demo involving rolling objects downhill. It showed that the speed of the objects at the bottom of the hill depended on the object's moment of inertia. "Defying gravity" was a demo which involved a pair of rails arranged in a V-shape with the open end raised above the closed end. When an...
I will review the opportunities for research awards, grants, scholarships, and presentations through the Virginia Academy of Science (VAS) for undergraduate students and the Virginia Junior Academy of Science for high school students. VAS has been actively promoting science in Virginia for over 100 years.
This presentation will reproduce and discuss a few laboratory exercises that are easy for the students to complete in one class period and offer instant feedback to the student whether they have completed the exercise correctly. These experiments focus on reinforcing major physics concepts while reducing the amount of teacher grading.
The slope of a graph shows up everywhere in physics, whether we call it velocity, acceleration, mass or another rate of change. Yet, for many students, connecting the simple idea of “rise over run” to its real physical meaning is surprisingly difficult. They often see slope as just a line on a graph rather than a powerful tool for describing how one quantity changes with another. Helping...
The Virginia Junior Academy of Science (VJAS) provides a valuable platform for secondary students in Virginia to engage in scientific research, including specialized opportunities for those interested in Physics. By participating in hands-on projects and presenting their work, students—particularly Physics enthusiasts—cultivate scientific...
2025 was declared by UNESCO to be the International Year of Quantum, in part to recognize the foundation of Quantum Mechanics that was established in the mid 1920’s by Einstein, Bohr, Schrodinger, and many other pioneers. Those scientific underpinning gave the world the foundation for the 1st Quantum Revolution that transformed our society in the 20th Century with the transistor, laser, MRI...
In this discussion, we will ask our panelists to discuss the impact of AI in our classrooms, both present and future, and how best we can utilize this emerging technology to improve student learning.
This workshop will comprise two different projects.
The first half of the workshop will focus on constructing a standing wave generator that can demonstrate the fundamental frequency or first harmonic, and many of the consecutive harmonics. Also, forced nodes, nodes, antinodes, different wavelengths and frequency can be easily demonstrated using this standing wave generator. These...
Evidence of the wave nature of electrons is given by the fact that electrons can diffract. A common demonstration consists of sending a beam of electrons through a graphite target which results in a bullseye pattern on the fluorescent screen of a cathode ray tube. Due to the crystalline structure of the target, one expects the pattern to be similar to sending laser light through two...
Artificial Intelligence is rapidly shifting how teachers design lessons, differentiate content, and engage students. This discussion will focus on how AI can serve as a teaching assistant for physics educators. We will explore practical classroom applications of tools such as Brisk, which integrates seamlessly with Google Docs to streamline feedback and grading; Diffit, which adapts complex...
Since the COVID pandemic, the algebraic fluency of our pre-health college students has been diminishing, yet that math is still very important to students' success even in concept-centered introductory physics classes.
As a possible solution to this problem, we will present a year-long applied algebra course that we developed and offered in the past 4 years at the University of Virginia...
"They don't make them like they used to", a common refrain after even a small collision. Modern cars are frequently left with expensive damage or totaled in even small collisions. This demo uses the complaint that old cars were better as a vehicle for discussing impulse, energy conservation and why it's better that the car breaks instead of you.
Notes:
This demo will use breakaway glass...
This study explores the teaching experiences of international graduate teaching assistants (IGTAs) in undergraduate STEM classrooms at a large regional public university in the United States. Guided by Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory, specifically the concept of power distance, the study investigates how IGTAs make sense of authority and classroom dynamics in a new educational setting....
Single photons provide a compelling entry point into quantum physics, offering a tangible way to explore the fundamental principles of quantization. Creating a single photon is hard. The key way to determine that you have a single photon is to show it can be measured once and only once. The experiment to certify that you have a single photon source was first completed by Nobel Laureate Alain...
Beach balls from 4-inch to 24-inch diameter were dropped from a 5-meter high balcony to demonstrate the important effects of buoyancy, drag and spin (Magnus) forces on slow moving beach balls. These activities were part of a class taken by students during summer session. The large size to mass ratio of the beach ball allows drag and Magnus effects to be easily observed at speeds and times...
We will demonstrate various properties of rotational motion using the Pasco Rotating Platform attached to the Pasco Mechanical Oscillator/Driver motor. Using a three-step pulley on both the rotating platform and the motor allows several ranges of rotational speed. Measurements will be collected by a Pasco interface using a Pasco Wireless Force Acceleration Sensor and a Wireless Motion...
The purpose of this project is to uphold fairness while maintaining rigor and consistency across different exam versions, all while assessing the same learning objectives. Furthermore, we intend to streamline the exam format to fulfill two main purposes: first, maximizing the benefits of the different study resources utilized in the course, and second, creating a format that is ideal for...
This lab activity promotes student-led inquiry and collaboration by engaging two separate physics classes in the design, execution, and evaluation of a custom experiment. In the first phase, students are tasked with independently designing a physics lab, including defining the objective, identifying relevant equations and concepts, and outlining clear procedures and materials. These...
Students introduced to thermodynamics often struggle with the distinctions between temperature, heat, and internal energy, concepts all used more or less interchangeably in everyday life or in pop-science but which have precise and distinct definitions in physics. In this talk I will highlight how physical systems with negative heat capacity, for which spontaneous energy losses correlate to...
Would you like to razzle, dazzle your students with cool demonstrations that tie theoretical physics to practical everyday applications that your students can relate to? This presentation will show numerous, easy to duplicate, demonstrations and applications that will keep your students actively focused, involved, and motivated. The demonstrations will cover topics in kinematics, optics,...
