Educational Transfer Plan:

Modern Physics Workshop

Name: Stuart Briber

Mentor: Hartmut Sadrozinski

Category: Staff Development

Content Area: Science - Physics

Grade Level: 10-12

Title: Modern Physics Curriculum Workshop

Objectives:

Through a workshop experience in conjunction with the Physics Department at UC Santa Cruz, 10 High School science teachers will further their knowledge of subjects in modern physics, become aquainted with classroom activities and software to aid in teaching these subjects, and participate in developing strategies to introduce these subjects in their science classes.

Abstract:

For the most part, high school physics classes do not attempt to teach aspects of the discipline that have originated in this century. Modern physics has a very different nature from the classical roots which comprise most curriculums. However, despite the difficult, non-intuitive nature of the theories and models that form the foundation of this knowledge, many students gravitate to its powerful implications.

The U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation have advocated inclusion of current ideas in physics into high school classes. The concepts found there are guiding new technology and form the framework of current ideas about the universe. Currently there are few effective models to help teachers introduce modern physics to the classroom. Fellow IISME participant, Kelly Clark and myself hope to make the proposed workshop will both help to review and inform teachers on modern physics content as well to form strategies to there introduction.

The session is being planned to cover 2 weeks, funded in part by a grant through Quarknet, an educational outreach institution from the Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois. The workshop will be held at UC Santa Cruz, using their facilities and involving some lectures from their physics staff there as well as Resources: This workshop is being established under guidelines established by the Quarknet program, they will provide some funding for teacher stipends for those participating in this workshop. In addition we will need printing and mailing of fliers to schools to invite participants, classroom and lab space along with networked computers, speakers from the university, and a reproduction budget.

Using the Pacific Bell Web site resource called "Filamentality" featured at the IISME Mid-Year meeting by Leslie Takai, I have set up a Treasure Hunt style list of questions and links on-line for obtaining answers to these questions about critical topics in modern physics. This web site can be used by teachers as a convenient focused links page, I also intend to use it with my own physics classes during the coming year.

Classroom labs will require materials for cloud chamber and possibly equipment to construct a particle detector. Most of this is already in hand at the UC lab. Resource material for participants will come from similar workshops held by Quarknet and at Stanford' Linear Accelerator. Finally we will need some transportation for field trips. The SCIPP institute at UC Santa Cruz where we have worked this summer is proposed to collaborate on this endeavor.

Tentative agenda: Einstein's Theory of Relativity: How is it Mass and Energy can be interchanged?

Quantum mechanics: Why is it the electron, with its negative charge, simply does not attract to and disappear inside the positively charged nucleus?

Plank's Constant

Heizengberg's Uncertainty Principle: How can new matter appear from a vacuum, how can sub-atomic particles escape the constraints we experience in our larger world?

Wave / Particle duality: How do small particles of matter act as both solid particles and as waves?

Modern cosmology: What issues surround the expansion of the universe and the implications of matter in stars and galaxies?

Standard Model: The currently accepted scheme explaining the most fundamental particles in nature and how they interact with each other to form the world we live in.

Experimental evidence from the particle accelerators.

Activities: Build cloud chambers for detection of sub-atomic radiation particles that can go to classrooms.

• Web-site exploration for material useful in the classroom.

• Learning and practice with "On-Screen Particle Physics."

• Software.

• Possible building of electric particle detector(s) for classroom use.

• Formulation and discussion of plans to transfer lessons into the physics classroom.

Trips:

• Stanford Linear Accelerator - Palo Alto
  
• Lick Observatory- Mt. Hamilton. Intel Scanning Tunneling
  

Microscope Assessment: There will be an initial entrance survey (see below) to determine how comfortable teacher participants are already with modern physics subjects and what things they are already doing to teach these in the classroom. We plan to have at several paid follow-up days after school starts again to review progress and problems with implementation.