| No.76, January 2002 |
New Developments in Science and Science Education
- PASCO Scientific Professional Development Programs were held at
Widener University in Philadelphia, Penn State and Mercersburg, Pennsylvania
at the Mercersburg Academy. These programs were held during the summer
of 2001. The sessions last for three days and are grade-level and
discipline-specific. They are taught by classroom teachers and cover
training in Data Studio workbooks for use with computers.
For information on future sessions, call 800-772-8700. You can also
use this number for equipment for labs and demonstrations.
- Science Museums in Ohio. Here is a list with information for
seven science museums that you can visit - all in Ohio. These are located
all over the state and would be suitable for class field trips. There is
probably one or more near your school. This list appeared in the
Athens Messenger.
- National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron.
- McKinley Museum in Canton.
- Cincinnati Museum Center.
- Great Lakes Science Center in
Cleveland.
- COSI- Columbus. Note, COSI stands for
Center of Science and Industry.
- Boonshoft Museum of Discoveryin Dayton.
- COSI - Toledo.
There are many fine exhibits in these museums and in some cases they
are interactive also.
- Physics Teaching Resource Agents (PTRA) AAPT has a PTRA program
to help update physics teachers in high schools. Workshops are conducted
by PTRA leaders who are also experienced classroom teachers. These sessions
can be done locally and can qualify as in-service training. Discussed are,
among others, such items as: leadership, organizing the classroom,
content in physics, teaching techniques, trends in science education,
assessment, etc. To contact a local agent, write AAPT/PTRA at One Physics
Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740 or use
"
http://www.aapt.org./programs/ptra/ptra.html".
You can phone at (301) 209-3344.
- Acoustical Lab at NASA - Lewis near Cleveland. This acoustical
testing lab is at the John H. Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio. The lab
was set up to help design and measure noise levels for equipment used on
microgravity space flights. For example, there are International Space
Station (ISS) limits on noise emissions. Featured for the lab are a
hemi-anechoic or a full anechoic chamber (this is one chamber used two ways),
sound pressure level measuring equipment and sound power measuring equipment.
Multichannel equipment with interfaces to computers is also available.
To inquire whether tours are available, you might contact the lab.
- This editor attended a meeting of the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee
on Environment, Technology and Standards this past summer. This is a
subcommittee of the House Science Committee. Dr. Vernon Ehlers, a Ph.D.
physicist and a Representative from Michigan, is the chair. Several expert
panelists read statements and answered questions from the congressional members.
The panelists made several points and voiced concerns such as:
- Standards are important in many areas of life - length, area and volume
measurements; cars; communication; food; etc. Think of how we would do
without them.
- New standards are needed for new technologies (e.g., computer systems
and information technology). We need to establish them more quickly.
- What is the U.S. government's role in setting new standards?
- In the U.S. many standards are voluntary, consensual and transparent.
- Our government needs attachés to deal with setting up global standards
in consultation with other countries.
- The study of standards is now being introduced at the University level in
engineering and business management courses to prepare these students for
when they join the commercial world and work with standards.
- We lose business when our U.S. standards are different from international
or global standards. They are very important for trade.
- The National Museum of American History on the Mall in Washington, DC has a very
interesting exhibit on the men and women who have earned the Nobel Prize.
All of the areas for the prizes are represented: physics, chemistry, economics,
peace, etc. I enjoyed the videos where the Nobel winners each talked about his
or her work, life and influences of teachers and others. There is a room with
a photograph, video and legend for each person. Some of the winners represented
are: E.O. Lawrence (Cyclotron Inventor); Alexander Flemming
(Discoverer of Penicillin); Kary Mullis (Discoverer of the Polymerese Chain
Reaction in Biology); Milton Friedman (Economics); Jane Addams (Founder of
Hull House in Chicago); Martin Luther King, Jr. (Civil Rights Leader) and others.
You might wish to assign your students a project to learn more about one or more
of these important contributors to our society. During a class trip to
Washington, DC, the Museum would be a good place for science students to visit.
- Science Articles in Newspapers. Many newspapers in the U.S. have
articles on science on a weekly basis or otherwise. I have recently read
articles in the Tuesday New York Times, Washington Post,
USA Today and Columbus Dispatch.
Often these are fine, accurate accounts with photographs and drawings.
- Science Articles in Magazines. The news magazines - Times,
Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report often have
fine articles on science with striking color illustrations. Other magazines
that have articles on science and technology are:
The Physics Teacher (an AAPT publication), Physics Today
(an AIP publication), The New Yorker Magazine, Popular
Science, Science (an AAAS publication), Nature,
The American Scientist (a Sigma Xi publication), Science
News and Scientific American among others. I like
Science News because it has short, well-written
and illustrated articles on all areas of science. It is published each week
and is a smaller magazine - helpful to those who don't have time to read longer
articles but want to keep abreast of current activities.
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