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Physicists Work on Physics' Uncool Image

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the centripetal-not-centrifugal dept.

WindowsTroll writes "Since it seems that science doesn't appeal to the youth of today, physicists are trying to make physics kid friendly. From the article, 'Bicycle stunts, rap music and modern dance -- all in the name of Einstein.' I am particularly interested in the modern dance, thinking that this is probably a better approach of studying oscillations than the springs that I used when I was in college."

19 of 362 comments (clear)

  1. What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Real physicists like Stephen Hawking, and fictional ones like Quinn Mallory, are very cool!

    1. Re:What? by Lindsay+Lohan · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Real physicists like Stephen Hawking... are very cool!
      I couldn't agree more. God playing dice, black holes, "A Brief History of Time"... these are not stale topics but a newcomers to physics and experts alike might find SH riveting. Check out his lectures, they're not dry, but alive and well-written.
  2. Kids are too smart for this by sidepocket · · Score: 1, Interesting

    As soon as they figure out you're trying to teach them something they'll turn on you!

    1. Re:Kids are too smart for this by LihTox · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Oddly, if you ask most people, they actually enjoyed math for a while, then had a bad teacher and they fell behind or were otherwise discouraged, found it hard, and stopped enjoying it.

      Something just occurred to me: is mathematics more difficult because it is constantly building on things that came before it? Students who get behind during one year of math are still at a disadvantage the next year because they can't multiply, or add fractions, or the like. If you get behind in English or history, on the other hand, you can probably do OK in following years because the skills you develop there are more gradual.

      The majority of people who have an interest in primary education are the sort of people who hated math at school. They then help instill this attitude in all the impressionable young kids. Attitude is infectious, especially to young minds, and someone who doesn't care about math will teach the kids not to care either.

      Perhaps the converse is true, too: the majority of people who have an interest in math do not have any interest in general elementary education, which involves playing a major role in the lives of a classroom full of children. In my elementary school we had special art, music, and phys ed teachers. Why not have the school mathematician and the school scientist as well? (Ignoring the whole funding issue of course.)

  3. Physics and Geeks by Daxx_61 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It all links to the reasons that smart kids are so unpopular at school. Maybe because being smart is seen as an attempt to suck up to the teachers, or picking on nerdy kids is a defence mechanism to cope with lack of ability, but Physics Expert = Geek in many people's eyes.

    --
    Quoth the server, "404."
    1. Re:Physics and Geeks by NardofDoom · · Score: 2, Interesting
      First, define "smart." Does "smart" mean you're in advanced placement or Honors classes?

      There was a girl in my class who took the most advanced class available every grade, and did well in them. We were watching a space shuttle launch and she asked why it didn't run into the ozone layer. She obviously wasn't smart. She was studious, driven, and popular, and graduated with a 3.8 GPA.

      There was a guy who didn't take all the advanced classes, except in math and science. He didn't know why he would need AP history, and did well enough when his interests and the school subject coincided. He wasn't very popular and, frankly, couldn't care less. He graduated with (barely) a 3.0. Is he stupider than the girl who didn't understand what the ozone layer was?

      There are geeks, there are smart, popular people, and there are people who aspire to geekiness but don't have the smarts to achieve it. People are very different, as are the cultures at various schools.

      --
      You have two hands and one brain, so always code twice as much as you think!
  4. Good intentions but... by jerometremblay · · Score: 5, Interesting

    To make sciences look cool, you need to fix the problem that causes nerds to be unpopular.

    As if

  5. Bring back the cool experiments by grahamsz · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Things you probably cant do nowadays but we did in high school (which was only 8 yrs ago)

    1) Play with radioactive stuff

    2) Use transformers to run some 14kV distribution lines up and down the classroom to show the decrease in cable loss

    3) Show that the high voltage back-emf spikes from a relay closing can jam your nerve signals and leave you unable to move (ala taser)

    4) Look inside classmates with ultrasound

    5) Find out how much voltage it takes to blow up a capacitor

    Even then our teacher had a closet full of 'special equipment' that he'd smuggle home every time the inspectors came round to visit.

    I loved physics and i can assure you that 90% of my high school classmates concurred that it was better than chemsitry or biology or social "science". The experiments make it fun.

    1. Re:Bring back the cool experiments by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      my current physics teacher does a lot of this and his classes are always packed, especially the high level ones. last year as an end of the year physics project he let us go wild, my group built a gauss coil gun, another group built a trebuchet (which we used for a lab this year). He is the only teacher I ever had that uses computers correctly and for educational use. He is especially great after natural disasters because he has dual masters in Geology and physics (I have no clue why he works in a public school) and his lectures about the disasters are about 1000x more informative and interesting then any major newsmedia Ive read.

    2. Re:Bring back the cool experiments by suchire · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Ah, but the cool thing about chemistry was also the experiments. We built a bubble chamber to see alpha-particles. We'd look at the polarization of light and how lenses work with photons. We'd examine ideal gas laws and pressure with the way explosive gases move inside a resonating pipe (hooked up to a bass speaker), so that when the teacher lit them, they'd dance with heights that formed a standing wave. Exothermic reactions are fun with thermite. Cotton is made explosive by nitrating the cellulose with concentrated nitric and sulfuric acids. You can draw circuits with a graphite pencil, and then show the sparks fly as you connect a high voltage across it. You can have tons of fun with liquid nitrogen and liquid oxygen (which is very dangerous stuff); it's especially fun to demonstrate molecular orbital theory by suspending oxygen between two magnets. You can ionize gases and move them with magnetic fields, or you can bend electricity with it. Or how about making your own light-sensitive film and developing it?

      Chemistry is just all of the most interesting parts of quantum electrodynamics combined into one fascinating subject.

      --
      Such irE
    3. Re:Bring back the cool experiments by complete+loony · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Some more...

      Wiring up a 300 to 6 turn transformer to 240V mains, and melting a 2 inch nail with the current.

      My dad (the maths physics teacher) would get his year 12 students to set up cool experiments for the primary school kids. Crush cans with air pressure by filling them with steam. Explode tins with airated flour. And some other stuff I can't remember ATM.

      Start a fire drill after a very noisy explosion (acetelene and oxygen from tech studies in a plastic bag in the middle of the oval). I've never seen a quicker drill :).

      --
      09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
  6. ....it's the teachers. Definitely. by trainsnpep · · Score: 3, Interesting
    As a current physics student (crazy physics idiot #3 actually) in IB HL Physics, I've gotta say this: It's all about the teachers. The teachers can make it interesting, or they can make it hell. One teacher in my school is the nicest person in the world, but she can't teach. The two physics teachers I've had are great. They encourage us to do experiments.

    Three of my friends and I wanted to take pictures of exploding balloons. So, we built a circuit to trigger a flash (a strobe actually), and borrowed a camera. We got some amazing pictures out of it (http://www.benza.us/group4/. See second- and third-to-last), while at the same time ended up with extra credit we never intended on. We even ended up doing a short lesson on it.

    To make physics cool, all you need are teachers who make it fun. When it's fun, it's cool.

    Prior to the balloons, we made a potato cannon. Our next project is a ballistic pendulum...If that's not bringing cool and physics together, I don't know what is.

    --
    --<Mike>--
  7. Re:I disagree by Stevyn · · Score: 3, Interesting

    My sophomore chemistry teacher once did a fun demonstration. He attached a rubber hose to the propane supply and the other end to a small funnel. He dipped the wide end of the funnel into a shallow dish of soapy water. When he turned on the propane, large propane bubbles formed and sank because propane is heavier than air. On the floor was a candle and the propane bubbles then burst into flames.

    He did this while playing the song "Great Balls of Fire". He was a cool teacher.

  8. Re:Kid friendly? by emjoi_gently · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I found Physics to be the most accessable of sciences. All the experiments with springs and optics and gravity.... they had that immediate feedback. Easy to get that feeling of "Okay, that makes sense".

    It was far easier to grasp than rings of electrons and so on you got in chemistry, or the horribly obscure and seemingly pointless theory you had to absorb in maths.

  9. Things that seem to work by Somnus · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm working on my PhD, and teach. What has worked for me:

    * Demos, demos, demos. The louder, brighter and more mysterious-seeming, the better.

    * Some students are into technology, others are into cosmology and exotic topics. Draw connections between their lives and physics, esp. the possibilities stemming from new developments.

    * Be very crisp in your own treatment, so the students see the beauty through complication.

    You are not going to achieve social engineering through physics. The goal is to give bright students interested in science something to think about, and hopefully excite their imaginations if they are so inclined.

  10. Re:Too Late! by Nefarious+Wheel · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Yeah, I had him for Physics 11 at El Camino in '68. Got a C in the class and was hated by the rest of the class, who got D's and F's. Guy gave out 3 A's in his life.

    But for having someone split a stump with an axe on his chest while shouting "Faith in Physics!" he coudn't be beat. He was a popularist, a highly dramatic basic physics teacher. Brought in experts to discuss relativity in terms of meter sticks and clocks. A complete bastard, we loved him utterly.

    --
    Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
  11. Video games - why one kid studies physics. by xplenumx · · Score: 2, Interesting
    One of my coworkers had a junior higher who absolutely detested school - he simply didn't see the point; he was going to make computer games. Anyway, one day one of the gaming website had a series of articles regarding physics engines, how gaming companies really needed people with a physics background, and the articles provided some suggested reading. I passed the articles to the mom, who subsequently passed it along to her kid, who totally ate the articles up. All of a sudden this kid who hated school took up a keen interest in his science class. It's been one year now and he's now taking the physics class, has joined the science club, and his grades have made an astounding improvement (he's on the honor roll).

    For the first time in his life, the kid sees a point to his schooling. School still isn't cool (not by a long shot), but now it provides the means allowing him to accomplish his goals.

  12. Re:Rap? Modern dance?! Just show them the physics! by 01dbs · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Put a lit candle under an inverted PYREX beaker (you have to kind of prop it up so the candle doesn't use up all the oxygen). Put this right in the middle of the microwave without the rotating plate. Turn it on and you'll see some strange fireworks, then suddenly a big blob of glowing material will rise to the top of the beaker.

    This material is plasma (and the blob is called a plasmoid). The ionized particles in the plasma get trapped by the magnetic fields generated by the microwave and lifted to the top of the beaker. Some fussing is generally necessary to get this to work, and you can't let the microwave run for too long once the plasmoid forms or you'll probably damage it. But it's pretty cool. Extra cool if you take out the lightbulb so you can really see what's happening.

    If you have trouble getting it to work, turn to google. I'm sure other people out there have done this.

  13. Physics of Football by TimTheFoolMan · · Score: 2, Interesting
    By far, one of the most entertaining reads of the holiday season (for me) was, "The Physics of Football", by Timothy Gay. As a physics prof @ the University of Nebraska, he determined to align two of his favorite subjects.

    The result is very instructive, and covers a HUGE range of topics, including conservation of Warren Sapp's momentum when he hits Doug Flutie! He discusses the flight of a thrown or kicked "oblong spheroid," and even does some statistical analysis of how likely a fan is to participate in "the wave" as it moves through a stadium (or attempts to).

    As one of the reviewers on Amazon.com states, "If Timothy Gay doesn't rewrite this book into a high school level physics text he's really missing a bet." I couldn't agree more.

    Tim