Looking for a Summer job?

Hey Everyone!

The Governor's office just created a new website for students who are searching for summer jobs--check it out!!! If you need help with completing applications, writing resumes or if you need a reference for a position, let me know.

Northglenn's First Annual GO (Girls Only) Engineering Day...are you in?!

AP Physics 1 Blog Assignment: Centripetal Force and Universal Gravitation

Write a blog post in which you address one of the following questions (including claim, evidence & reasoning to support your answer):

Option A: If the sun is constantly pulling the Earth toward it, why is it that the Earth doesn't collapse into a fiery ball of death and disaster?

Option B: If the sun suddenly died, what would happen to the Earth?

Option C: If a comet or other cosmic object collided with the Earth and caused a change in its mass or speed, what would happen to the Earth?

AP Physics 1: Egg Helmet Design & Drop Report

For your blog, you need to:
* Provide a Name for your Report
* Explain the problem you were asked to address
* Describe and show (in pictures) your initial product (name, 3 design features) and provide an analysis of the first drop test
* Describe and show (in pictures) your improved product (name, specific design improvements) and address how your design improvements will affect the egg's chances of survival based on the idea the relationship between force, time and impulse.
* Report on the results of your second drop test.
* Provide an analysis of why your egg did/did not survive based on what you know about helmet design, crush/crunch zones, and the relationship between force, time and impulse (change in momentum).
* Evaluate the impact of your specific design improvements, describe the major problems that we saw during the drop tests, and describe any other changes you would suggest making in the future to improve your product.

AP Physics 2: Extra Credit Blog Post

I forgot to post this on Friday, so I will make this extra credit.
Write a blog post in which you explain what the Northern and Southern Lights are, what they're caused by and how electromagnetism is involved. Your post should include at least one image (with credit given to the photographer) and AT LEAST 3 sources (cited).

Boulder Mini-Maker Faire 2015: Exploring Awesome.

As a Teacher Advisory Board member for RAFT, I was recruited to volunteer this weekend at the RAFT booth at Boulder's Mini-Maker Faire.  Although I'm relatively familiar with the Maker movement, I wasn't terribly sure what the event was all about.  As soon as I started reading about the event, and the accompanying Innovation in Education (IED) Summit, I was itching to go! 

Although I'd intended to take several workshops, we ended up spending most of the day exploring all of the exhibits and project and whatnots.  What a wealth of ideas!

 Read on for some of the highlights!

* Muscle Wire:
Learning about Muscle Wire at CU's Science Discovery booth.  Muscle Wire (aka Nitinol or Flexinol) is a material that contracts when heated and relaxes when cooled, simulating the motion/structure of muscle.  This material is one of the coolest advancements for robotics, as it can be used for controlling motion, and in load-bearing machines.  I wish we'd known about this material before implementing the prosthetic hand project. 

* Screen Printing with Boulder Public Library
Boulder Public Library had a fantastically awesome booth--with three different activities:  1) taking awkward family photos (with a host of different props!); 2) making LED bookmarks; and 3) screen printing your own t-shirt.  Steve and I both got to choose our own designs and bombard the crew with questions about how to DIY.  I think we're both psyched about creating our own set-up in the future--for home and/or school!

* Athletic Interpretations:  

Meeting and talking with Eris and David from Athletic Interpretations was awesome!  They were at the Faire to share their innovation for boxers which uses a photogate to measure the rate of speed bag punches.  Their company is based in Fort Collins, and they said they'd be willing to come talk with our kids about their project and process.  What a cool application of the circuits we've been learning about in physics, coupled with optic tools!  The guys tried to teach us how to use the speed bag...Steve did significantly better than I did!

*  Learning to Solder with Clear Blue Engineering

Clear Blue is a local company that had a booth to teach basic soldering...even though they were targeting kids, they kindly allowed me to partake!  Steve enjoyed the glasses...

and the product...

*TinkerMill Creations

* Boulder Fire Rescue Pulley Systems:

Boulder Fire Rescue demonstrated how they use pulley systems for mountain rescues, discussing the physics of the tension forces and load analysis.  I need to keep these guys in mind for future guest speakers about the everyday applications of physics!

* Launcher Ideas:
Goalie stick trebuchet?  Yes, this will definitely happen sometime soon!  And, why did we never think to add a toilet seat to make our launchers a bit more cozy?!

* Decibullz Ear Buds & Ear Plugs
Decibullz is a company that creates custom-fit ear buds using a plastic that is pliable when heated in hot water...kinda like mouth pieces. They were selling the blunt end bits from their manufacturing and had a station set up for kids to create their own ear plugs.

CU Teach Engineering Mini-PD (Winter 2015)

After attending CU Teach Engineering's PD over the summer, I was psyched to participate in another training with this group.  On Thursday, a small group of us met and built two different apparati to possibly use in class.  First, we each received a lens to use with a smart phone or tablet in order to use the device as a microscope.  We just taped these on for the afternoon, but you could set up a small contraption with a variable stage--similar to the one pictured here (check out Instructables for basic instructions). 
We had fun exploring textures around the room and checking out skin cells!

The other apparatus that we built was a lego colorimeter (check out the ACS article for specific instructions).  You can saw off the tops of legos to create perfectly-fit cuvette holders, use two small blocks with holes as LED holders, and then use the bricks to create a dark box for measuring light absorption/transmission .  Two cuvettes are used to provide a longer path length for the device.  Then, LEDs are used as both a light source (hooked up in series with a battery and a small resistor (35-65 ohms).  A second LED is set up on the other side of the cuvettes to serve as a light sensor (did you know they could act as a light sensor? This was news to me!), attached to a multimeter to measure voltage.  While this was intended as an engineering activity for chemistry, I can see this as a fantastic activity for physics as well--it takes away the "black box" nature of many devices (specs, etc) and shows students how light and and electricity can be used to create tools for measuring a variety of things.  This is a nice step toward understanding how waves are used in many medical devices.   Also, because different colored LEDs can be used, it provides a nice discussion for light and color absorption/transmission.

Side View:  Left side shows the leads for the light-detecting LED--these connect to a basic multimeter or voltmeter. 

 

Note butt-end/base of LED stuck in hole of a small/thin block with leads protruding outward--identical LED insertion on other side of apparatus. 

View of the LED light source--you can see the leads coming out of the LED, connected to a 65 ohm resistor and a small watch battery. 

LED light source illuminating sample.

View of the LED light detector (note:  there is no sample between light source and the light detector)

View from above of cuvette holders, light source (on Right) and light detector (left).