OAPT Newsletter

Escaping the Daily Routine: Game Based Learning and the Digital Escape Room

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2026-06-01T12:22:35-04:00

Courtney Kates, Teacher Candidate — York University, ckates@uwaterloo.ca
Tasha Richardson, PhD, OCT, Teacher — TDSB, tasha.richardson@tdsb.on.ca

“It is the day of your unit 4 test when you wake up and realize that your alarm hasn't gone off. You race to school and you see all of your classmates outside of the room looking at a note on the door.”

In less than two years, students in Ontario high schools will all be part of what is collectively known as Generation Alpha. This cohort, born after 2010, is often referred to as “digital natives” who are characterized by high digital literacy, proficiency in touchscreen navigation and app-based play, along with shorter and more rapidly shifting attention spans (Fernando & Premadasa, 2024). For many educators, these characteristics highlight a need to incorporate more student-centered approaches that are visual, multimodal, and hands-on (Fernando & Premadasa, 2024). Using escape rooms with a compelling narrative can sometimes give students the motivation they need to focus on practicing and reviewing the skills they need to work with concepts taught in class.

Designing a Science Unit: Grade 10 Biology — Part 2

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2026-04-19T12:39:03-04:00

Chris Meyer, York Mills Collegiate Institute
christopher.meyer@tdsb.on.ca

What happens when you let a physicist teach biology? This is the second part of an article where I explore the design of a biology unit for grade 10 science. You can find the first part here. The big design ideas are these: use observations and questions to drive our inquiry narrative, observe realistic evidence just like historical scientists, allow students to explore and find patterns before teaching the names of things, and use the science of learning to improve the “stickiness” of the ideas in students’ minds. The previous article left off with an examination of how our brains structure knowledge as webs of connections, and the process of learning as an attempt to make connections between new and old knowledge networks. Now we are ready to summarize what teaching really is!

Designing a Science Unit: Grade 10 Biology — Part 1

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2026-03-29T10:42:02-04:00

Chris Meyer, York Mills Collegiate Institute
christopher.meyer@tdsb.on.ca

Here there be dragons
What happens when you let a physicist teach biology? Science, that’s what! Well, not at first. I still have my science teaching notes (in the form of overheads) from 25 years ago and at the time, I taught the biology unit of grade 10 science in a very traditional way. Fast forward 22 years and I found myself teaching grade 10 science again, now with a very different perspective on learning. As part of my redesign of our school’s grade 10 science course, I needed to build a biology unit from scratch. I have absolutely no university training in anything remotely biological, so I felt ready to give it a go! For me it was terra incognita, unknown country. As my guide, all I had were the learning principles I chose for the grade 10 course: questioning and scientific observation. When I described to my colleagues what I was doing, they thought it crazy. But fools rush in…

Call for Articles

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2025-10-05T12:45:13-04:00

Eric Haller, Peel District School Board, Editor of the OAPT Newsletter
eric.haller@peelsb.com

We are once again looking for submissions to the OAPT Newsletter. Our newsletter is made possible by volunteers who contribute their thoughts and ideas for others to use in their classrooms. Many of our writers are Ontario high school teachers, however some of our writers teach in university, work abroad, work in science outreach, have retired, or have even left the teaching profession for some other career that involves physics. We have numerous writers who pen something for us regularly, but we are always on the lookout for new writers as well!

If you’re interested in writing for us but aren’t sure what you could write about, consider some of these topical themes in physics education:

How are you taking advantage of AI in your physics classroom?
How are you combatting the misuse of AI in your physics classroom?
What fun things have you been doing with the destreamed grade 9 science course?
How have you been incorporating climate change into your physics courses?

In addition to those current topics, we are always looking for articles involving these timeless topics:

Physics education research
An interesting lesson, demo, activity, or project you did with your students
How you teach physics differently than other teachers
How you assess students differently than other teachers
Some resource, equipment, software, website, film, or book that you found useful for teaching physics
Social justice issues that pertain to physics (correcting the gender imbalance, disrupting systemic racism, BIPOC scientists and where they fit into the curriculum, and so on)
Explanations of big, new physics announcements, and how to make it accessible for students
A lesson you did which incorporated interesting historical events and perspectives
Professional development opportunities for physics teachers
Something that another physics teacher did or wrote about that inspired you
Preparing students for careers in physics
An interesting field trip or virtual field trip you took your physics class on
Something you presented at a recent OAPT conference that you wanted to share with a wider audience

If you want to brainstorm an article, or have already written an article you think would be good for the newsletter, you can email me, Eric Haller, the editor of the OAPT newsletter. Please reach me by going to https://oaopt.wildapricot.org/contact and clicking on the email link next to my name. Alternatively, emailing me at the address I listed above works too. If you are thinking about writing an article for the newsletter, we accept and publish articles year-round, so they can be sent in whenever is convenient for you. Please keep the following guidelines in mind when writing articles for the newsletter, to make it easier for us to publish them on our website.

Organize your article like so:

Title of the article
Your name and job (school, school board)
Your email address
A snappy opening paragraph that would go before the “Read More …” link (it’s what OAPT members see in the email blasts)
The rest of the article, including images, files, video, etc.
References (see below)
Tags (see below)

There is no limit on how short or long an article can be, write however much you feel fits best.
Avoid fancy formatting, as the newsletter is essentially a blog. Keep it simple and basic. We can manage simple lists, but not nested lists and titles. Do not use colours or fancy fonts.
Any diagrams, tables or photos for the article should be sent to us separately as .jpg or .png image files, and their sources should be cited in the article itself. Larger images (2000+ pixels wide) are better, when viewed they will be scaled down for readers with smaller screens. Pictures with adults’ or students’ faces can be used if the media releases are on file, but in general, if you are using your own photos, it is safest to obscure your students’ faces.
If you need to show lengthy equations, type them out in an equation editor and then take a screenshot to capture them. We cannot insert LaTeX or Microsoft Word equations into the articles natively. If your equations are short and simple enough, writing them in plain text is okay.
You can include links to other websites in your article, please type out the URL in full for us in your article instead of hyperlinking it to a word or sentence.
We can include videos in the articles. If you are supplying your own footage, you can upload it to YouTube and we can embed it into the article, or you can send the file to us and we will use Vimeo to embed it ourselves. Any videos we share must be legal to share.
If you want to include lesson materials for readers to use (for example, a .pdf), you can send us files, which we can embed in the article.
Consider including tags for your article to make it easier to find for other readers. Tags include words like ‘forces’, ‘pedagogy’ or ‘careers.’ For a full list of tags that have been used in the past, check out the newsletter’s website, scrolling down and looking at the margin on the left.
Ensure what you wrote is your own to avoid plagiarism. Please do not submit any articles written by someone else, or written by artificial intelligence. At the OAPT Newsletter, we proudly only publish articles that have been written by real humans.
Cite anything that is not yours, like sentences, ideas, and images. If you are using Creative Commons content, such as a photograph or illustration, include all the necessary information for the license (including links if required).
If you are citing sources in your article, please use the APA format. Include in-text citations, which typically include the author, a comma, and the year of publication, all in brackets, like this (Knight, 2004). If it is a direct quotation, the page number should be included as well, like this (Knight, 2004, p.17). If it’s been a while since you’ve done APA style referencing, checkout one of the many online citation tools that can do it for you, or check out https://apastyle.apa.org/. At the end of the article, include a list of all the references you used, for example, see below.

References:

Knight, R. D. (2004). Five easy lessons: strategies for successful physics teaching. San Francisco: Addison Wesley.

Should Teachers Fear Artificial Intelligence?

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2025-10-05T12:45:30-04:00

John Caranci, CTL Lecturer Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
john.caranci@utoronto.ca

In 1964, Marshall McLuhan, a University of Toronto English professor and media theorist, wrote a book titled Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, where he predicted the internet and social media. Paraphrasing: the instantaneous world of electric informational media involves all of us, all at once. It is a brand-new world, … the global village is as wide as the planet, yet as small as a little town where everybody is maliciously engaged in everybody else's business, and in which you have extreme concern with everybody else's business (McLuhan, 1964). This was thirty years before the smart phone and the internet became commonplace, even longer for social media and Artificial Intelligence; all predicted by McLuhan.

Over the last few years there has been a change in electronic information media, the new medium of Artificial Intelligence. McLuhan defined a “medium” as an extension of us through technology where it shapes perception and understanding. So, Artificial Intelligence fits the definition. Other examples are language, novels, newspapers, television, the light bulb, cars and movies. His idea is that a medium, not the content, shapes society and human consciousness. The medium of artificial intelligence, it is said, will shape and reshape us in the classroom.

Designing a Unit in Science: A Detailed Look at a Lesson

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2025-09-03T11:56:00-04:00

Chris Meyer, Past President, Ontario Association of Physics Teachers
christopher.meyer@tdsb.on.ca

In the previous article, “Designing a Unit in Science: A Three-Year Journey”, I shared the story of designing a new chemistry unit for grade 10 science. The next stage in this journey is the exploration of one lesson in detail, examining how the nitty-gritty pedagogical details get woven into one learning experience. If you haven’t had a chance to read the previous article, don’t worry! The important pedagogical themes to follow are:

Authentic problems. New learning is motivated by realistic situations and questions that people outside of school might ask.
Using science to teach science. New ideas and concepts are introduced using observational evidence. Our provisional understanding is tested through experiment. This helps answer the question, “how do we know this?” or “how did people figure this out?”.
On-demand skills. New chemistry skills are introduced “on demand”, when there is an immediate need to explain, describe, or calculate something new.

Time to see where the rubber meets the road!

Designing a Unit in Science: A Three-Year Journey

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2025-08-18T12:36:05-04:00

Chris Meyer, Past President, Ontario Association of Physics Teachers
christopher.meyer@tdsb.on.ca

When I was first asked how I design my units and lessons, I didn't know how to explain it: I just think about the unit and put it together?! This is the challenge of teaching in a nutshell: figuring out how to unpack our thinking and explaining it to others. Three years ago, starting in the spring of 2022, I began designing a new chemistry unit for grade 10 science. At the same time, to track my work process and explain what I'm doing, I started writing this article! And now here we are in the fall of 2025, after I have taught the chemistry unit a few times and refined it. This process was especially challenging for me because the topic of chemistry is outside my comfort zone - I didn’t have longstanding practices to fall back on and had to figure out pretty much everything from the ground up. So, welcome to my pedagogical workshop, prepare yourself for an odyssey of an article!

Two Engagement Problem Solving Pedagogies

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2025-07-17T13:53:46-04:00

John Caranci, CTL Lecturer Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
john.caranci@utoronto.ca

As physics teachers, we want to engage each and every one of our students. Physics teachers are trained to make objective and evidentiary observations of students as well as physical phenomena. Even if we run a flipped classroom, how do we know if all of the students are focused on their work? Practicing problem solving can be done using two very simple pedagogies that engage every student.

When students practice solving multistep algorithmic problems, a teacher cannot stand over every student to see where they make their mistakes, Foldables or a Graffiti Walk can make this possible. Even using these pedagogies, teacher observation skills are still required. The following are easy steps to perform these pedagogies.

The Effects of Assessment on Students

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2025-06-13T09:10:33-04:00

John Caranci, CTL Lecturer Ontario Institute of Education
john.caranci@utoronto.ca

As physics teachers, few of us consider the psychological effects of assessment on students during assessments. Content, content, content is the mantra of teachers when assessing (as, of, and for student learning). “We are assessing what individuals know” seems to be our Newtonian view. The phenomenon (learning) happens the same way if we assess or not, we believe.

I've spent 50 years in the physics classroom at the high school or university level. We have the basic cause-and-effect rules for assessment. If students study hard and/or you teach them well, they will succeed; but we work with humans. Humans are complex creatures, they do not always follow cause and effect.

Consider this scenario: You have taught Newton’s second law (F = ma) doing four examples on the board which included some manipulation of the formula before and after substitution. You reiterated “without an unbalanced force on a mass it will not accelerate”. You remember to emphasize the term unbalanced. Then you gave the students five homework questions which were equivalent to F = ma in various states of manipulation. You may even have done a few lab activities about the unbalanced force. The students did the homework questions relatively successfully even though a couple of students had to get assistance because they found that some of the questions were not grammatically clear to them. Then, nine days later you give a test on forces of which you give one multiple-choice question and one problem that involves Newton’s second law in terms of F = ma or its definition. As a teacher, you chose the questions, you chose how they were to be assessed, and you chose how many questions to ask. Do students truly know Newton’s Second Law if they answer those questions correctly?

Building Physics Skills: A New Hope

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2025-04-07T10:44:21-04:00

Chris Meyer, Past President, OAPT
christopher.meyer@tdsb.on.ca

In the fall semester of 2024, I taught grade 11 physics for the first time in many years. I was surprised by my students - surprised by their weak math skills and the disconnect between their learning habits and mark expectations. These students were noticeably different from my students of the past. Was this a lingering pandemic hangover or part of a gradual change that I only noticed because of my absence from physics teaching? Whatever the reason, I was caught off guard and not able to adjust. So this semester, I decided to make some changes to meet this challenge and help my students better develop their learning habits and physics skills.

Quantum for Educators 2025 Workshop

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2025-03-03T18:38:43-05:00

John Donohue, IQC Senior Manager, Scientific Outreach
jdonohue@uwaterloo.ca

We’re excited to announce the 11th Quantum for Educators (QEd) workshop, which will be held July 16-18 on-campus at the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) at the University of Waterloo. This workshop, formerly known as Schrödinger’s Class, focuses on accessible, affordable, and appropriate ways to introduce quantum mechanics and quantum technology to high-school students.

QEd Participants will leave with ready-to-use activities and concrete curriculum connections to celebrate the 2025 UNESCO International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. QEd explores fundamental concepts like superposition, wave-particle duality, and entanglement as well as applications in existing technology like atomic clocks and emerging technologies like quantum computing.

Generative AI Second Impressions

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2025-02-18T10:25:52-05:00

Eric Haller, Peel District School Board, Editor of the OAPT Newsletter
eric.haller@peelsb.com

The generative artificial intelligence ChatGPT was released upon the world back in November of 2022. This Newsletter published an article from Robert Prior on his first impressions of it shortly thereafter in January of 2023. Now that our society is over the initial shock of AI, and more and more companies have had the chance to release and further develop their own competing chatbots (like Microsoft’s Copilot, Google’s Gemini, and China’s DeepSeek), I thought it would be a good time to revisit the topic. In this article, I will be looking at how generative AI has improved, and I will provide some thoughts on how it has impacted my students, myself as a teacher, and even some of my coworkers.

In the previously mentioned article on first impressions, we saw how ChatGPT performed when solving various physics problems. I thought the best physics question from that article was the following:

A ball travelling 1.2 m/s rolls off a table and hits the ground 0.75 m away. How high is the table?

In Memory of the OAPT’s First President, Ernie McFarland

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2025-01-08T14:03:35-05:00

James Ball, University of Guelph Sessional Lecturer
jball10@uoguelph.ca

In the winter of 1977 at the AAPT (American Association of Physics Teachers) conference in Chicago, Ernie McFarland (then a faculty member at the University of Guelph) had a chance meeting with Scarborough high school teacher George Kelly. Both felt that it shouldn’t be necessary for Ontario’s physics teachers to travel to the United States to become better teachers. As a result of Ernie and George’s efforts, the OAPT (then known as AAPT-Ontario) became an official section of the AAPT in 1979 with Ernie as it’s first president. If you are interested in the history of the OAPT you can find an article, not surprisingly written by Ernie, here.

Embodying Newtonian Mechanics

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2024-12-26T15:58:17-05:00

Dr. Carolyn Sealfon, Minerva University
csealfon@metalearning.ca

Wellness and mindfulness act as buzzwords these days, often seen as separate from physics. Yet we know they are important, and everything is related to physics! In this article, we will consider a few simple classroom activities that can both help students internalize the basic physics of forces and motion and also help facilitate well-being in our classes.

As Brookes, Etkina, and Planinšič argue, it is helpful to clarify our intentions as physics instructors and to align our instruction with our intentions. One valuable intentionality they propose is, “The way in which students learn physics should enhance their well being.” This intentionality underlies the renowned Investigative Science Learning Environment (ISLE) approach to teaching high-school and first-year university physics (Brookes et al., 2020).

As physics instructors, one way we can integrate well-being and physics is through inviting students to feel the physics that they are learning in their bodies. When we are asked, “What do you teach?” we usually respond, “physics,” when really the answer is “human beings”. Very often, especially in physics, we and our students can get “stuck in our heads” and almost forget we are whole human beings.

Image from "Piled Higher and Deeper" by Jorge Cham, www.phdcomics.com, used with permission.

Call for Articles

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2024-12-02T13:51:19-05:00

How are you taking advantage of AI in your physics classroom?
How are you combatting the misuse of AI in your physics classroom?
What fun things have you been doing with the destreamed grade 9 science course?
How have you been incorporating climate change into your physics courses?

In addition to those current topics, we are always looking for articles involving these timeless topics:

Physics education research
An interesting lesson, demo, activity, or project you did with your students
How you teach physics differently than other teachers
How you assess students differently than other teachers
Some resource, equipment, software, website, film, or book that you found useful for teaching physics
Social justice issues that pertain to physics (correcting the gender imbalance, disrupting systemic racism, BIPOC scientists and where they fit into the curriculum, and so on)
Explanations of big, new physics announcements, and how to make it accessible for students
A lesson you did which incorporated interesting historical events and perspectives
Professional development opportunities for physics teachers
Something that another physics teacher did or wrote about that inspired you
Preparing students for careers in physics
An interesting field trip or virtual field trip you took your physics class on
Something you presented at a recent OAPT conference that you wanted to share with a wider audience

The Habit Hump: Just Get Over It!

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2024-10-27T15:11:39-04:00

Chris Meyer, Past President, OAPT
c.meyer@bell.net

We want our students to become confident, fluent users of physics. We want them to develop good, reliable habits that will carry them through our physics classes and beyond. But very often, students become stuck on the habit hump! What is this mysterious hump? It is an analogy I use for our experience of the learning process and how we react and respond to it. If students better understand the learning process, my hope is they will make better decisions be more likely to stick to their learning. So, what is the habit hump and how do we get over it?

SNOLAB Hosts 2nd Annual Dark Matter Day Poster Design Contest

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2024-10-25T15:08:03-04:00

Rachel Richardson, Education & Outreach Coordinator
outreach@snolab.ca

Everybody loves a mystery, and dark matter is one of the biggest mysteries in our universe today. SNOLAB is Canada’s deep underground science laboratory that hosts large, international experiments; some of these experiments are designed to help unravel the mystery of dark matter. To celebrate Dark Matter Day, a public outreach initiative celebrated during Halloween, SNOLAB is hosting a creative poster design contest. Students and members of the community are invited to design original, two-dimensional visual artworks, in any medium, exploring the theme of dark matter.

Participants can be as creative as they like, letting their design shine as bright as the stars! Imagine an individual dark matter particle, or how it holds the universe together! They could draw an existing detector, dream up their own cosmic blueprint for an experiment, or travel deep into space following their imaginations into the oldest parts of the universe.

Quantum for Educators 2024 Online Sessions

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2024-10-09T14:22:33-04:00

John Donohue, IQC Senior Manager, Scientific Outreach
jdonohue@uwaterloo.ca

Date: November 18-21, 2024
Location: Online!
Hosted by: Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo, Ontario

With 2025 announced as the International Year of Quantum Science & Technology, there’s never been a better time to bring quantum science to our students. To help prepare educators no matter where they’re located, we’re excited to host a series of virtual sessions on how to connect quantum technology to the curriculum, hosted by the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) at the University of Waterloo.

These sessions will take content from our long-running Quantum for Educators (QEd) workshop to explore fundamental quantum principles like superposition and entanglement, connect them to curriculum-relevant topics like waves, polarization, vectors, and probability, and show how they are applied in modern and emerging technologies like quantum computing and communication. We’ll also overview affordable hands-on activities that can be done with your classroom.

How to Teach Climate Change in Grade 11 Physics

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2024-09-18T12:06:15-04:00

Michelle Lee, Lisgar C. I.
michelle.lee@ocdsb.ca
Iain Braithwaite. John F. Ross C.V.I.
iainbraithwaite@ugdsb.on.ca
Milica Rakic, Essex DHS
mica@opusteno.com
Roberta Tevlin, Retired
roberta@tevlin.ca

Climate change may be the biggest problem that humanity has ever faced. The sooner that we deal with it, the more chance we have of succeeding. Physics teachers can play an important role in helping students understand the problem and its existing solutions, and help students feel empowered to take action. This article shows how you can teach about climate change, while reinforcing fundamental skills and concepts in the grade 11 physics curriculum. As usual, these OAPT resources are free.

OAPT Physics Hour Presents: The Climate Action Simulation Game!

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2024-09-11T10:16:56-04:00

Roberta Tevlin
roberta@tevlin.ca

Join us Thursday September 26th from 7:00 to 8:00 PM to learn about the many solutions to climate change, while engaged with other teachers in a role-playing game! By the end of the hour, you will see how climate change is very serious and very complicated — but — it is also something that can be solved. You will leave energized and ready to try out this lesson with your classes the next day. This game would be good for SNC1W, SNC2D, SPH3U, SES4U, many geography courses, or anywhere else you want to discuss climate solutions.

This virtual Physics Hour is run by Roberta Tevlin, Milica Rakic, Iain Braithwaite, Michelle Lee, Tim Langford, Tom Eagan, and Felipe Almeida. Sign up for the event here. Please share this opportunity with others who you think may be interested in joining. The Zoom meeting link will be sent out 48 hours prior to the event.

Kinematics is Boring: Taking the Arithmetic Out

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2024-07-22T11:25:34-04:00

John Caranci, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education/U. of T., CTL Lecturer Intermediate/Senior Physics, Chemistry, Science
john.caranci@utoronto.ca

A while ago when I taught high school my grade 10 Science class came into my classroom after my grade 11 physics class had left. I had just done a lesson on the development of the kinematic formulae using graphing. One of my grade 10 students seemed mesmerized by the boards covered in figures and diagrams. They turned to me and asked what was on the board. I said kinematics, which is part of the grade 11 physics course. Their response was “I guess it will be biology next year for me.” What makes kinematics like this? Is it the mathematics? Is it the lack of relationship to the real world (ignoring friction)?

I began playing with alternatives to present the topic. I recognized it was not the authentic or real-world connections, it appeared to be the arithmetic. Notice, I did not say the mathematics or physics. Many times, a simple arithmetical mistake (even to the point of a miss-written minus sign), might cause them to believe that their whole solution, and therefore their understanding of kinematics, is wrong.

When a student approaches a kinematics problem, they usually draw the sketches and list what’s given and what’s required. Then they choose the formula. That is where the physics ends, and the arithmetic starts. As physics teachers, do we assess physics or arithmetic?

En-ROADS: A Powerful Simulator to Explore Solutions to Climate Change

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2024-06-24T09:17:16-04:00

Roberta Tevlin (retired physics teacher)
roberta@tevlin.ca

Climate change is an incredibly complex and serious problem. Many people avoid thinking about it because it seems so hopeless. This article is an introduction to something that will help you and your students see a way out of the mess. En-ROADS is a simulator of climate solutions from MIT. It is powered by over 20,000 simultaneous equations. It is a tool designed for business and government policy makers — but it can be used with grade-9 students. It is free and updated every couple of months.

Do yourself a favour and go to https://www.climateinteractive.org/ and select EN-ROADS, the first large button available. Play around with the simulator for a bit and then come back to this article to learn how you can use it.

A Video Analysis as an End of Unit Assessment

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2024-05-10T08:28:56-04:00

Dale Simnett, Peel District School Board
dale.simnett@peelsb.com

Friends, Peers, Physics Teachers,
The use of video in physics as a means of teaching and learning is as old as optic obscura. I’m sure most physics teachers have a video analysis project that they can dust off and give to their students. Identifying the terrible physics in cartoons, superhero movies, or more recently, the Fast and Furious series, is a right of passage in physics teaching!

Observing the world, making measurements, and trying to make sense of what we see is at the heart of physics. Why not make that a goal in our teaching as well as our assessment? I propose using a video analysis as an end of unit assessment.

Why should you try video analysis as an assessment? Here is my case.

Hamilton, McMaster, and the April 8 Eclipse

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2024-03-19T15:00:02-04:00

Dr. Robert Cockcroft, Assistant Professor / Director, William J. McCallion Planetarium / Secretary, Canadian Astronomical Society (CASCA)
cockcroft@mcmaster.ca

Hamilton and McMaster University are lucky to be positioned along the path of totality for the upcoming April 8th eclipse, and as such, both have been preparing for it for some time now. McMaster’s Provost has purchased 600 000 solar eclipse viewing glasses, enough for every Hamiltonian, so that you can use them to view the Sun while it is partially covered by the Moon leading up to, and after, totality. These free viewers are available while supplies last at the Hamilton and Haldimand library branches, the McMaster University libraries, and the Burlington libraries. They are also being distributed through participating school boards.

Why do total solar eclipses capture the imagination of so many people, whether or not you’re in science? I offer three answers that spring immediately to mind.

Quantum for Educators 2024 Workshop

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2024-03-13T16:43:37-04:00

John Donohue, IQC Senior Manager, Scientific Outreach
jdonohue@uwaterloo.ca

Date: July 29-31, 2024
Location: Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo, Ontario

The Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) at the University of Waterloo is excited to announce our 2024 free in-person summer workshop on quantum mechanics and quantum technology.

The 10^th Quantum for Educators (QEd) workshop (formerly known as Schrödinger’s Class) will take place July 29-31 this year. Led by quantum experts from the IQC, QEd will explore fundamental quantum principles like superposition, wave-particle duality, and entanglement and show how they are applied in emerging technologies like quantum computing. Participants can expect to leave with affordable activities and accessible lesson plans with concrete curriculum connections to take back to their classrooms.

Financial support for travel and accommodations is available for Canadian teachers. Applications are due Friday May 3rd.

The What, Why and How of the April 8, 2024 Eclipse

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2024-03-09T17:58:47-05:00

Orbax, Production Specialist for Physics Education Content, Dept of Physics, University of Guelph
orbax@uoguelph.ca

Greetings educators! Orbax here from the Department of Physics at the University of Guelph.

I’m here to speak to you today about a very important topic.

You’re likely aware of a newly discovered disease that has been sweeping across Ontario in the last few weeks.

Eclipse fever has taken hold and it’s taking over news broadcasts, school board meetings, targeted ads and classrooms throughout our province.

To Be or Not to Be Eclipsed: The Path of Totality!

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2024-02-11T08:34:01-05:00

Olga Michalopoulos (Retired)
michalopouloso@hdsb.ca

A rare phenomenon that only comes around once in a lifetime is set to take place in Ontario this spring. A total solar eclipse on Monday, April 8, 2024 will turn daytime into darkness in Ontario, and we have an opportunity to share this experience with our students. The last time a total solar eclipse took place in Canada was August 2008, but it was only visible in Nunavut.

Did you know that the chance of seeing a total solar eclipse in any one location on the Earth is about once every 400 years? For instance, the next total solar eclipse to be visible in the GTA won’t occur until October 26, 2144! This is why it’s referred to as a “once in a lifetime” event.

First, a little astronomy background. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, casting a shadow on the Earth that either partially or completely blocks the light from the Sun on the areas of the Earth where the shadow falls.

Calculating a Planet’s Temperature

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2024-01-24T11:35:30-05:00

Shawn Brooks, UTS (University of Toronto Schools)
sbrooks@utschools.ca

With just a little coaxing, and a little help from their calculators, our grade 10 science students can use a simple energy-balance type of climate model to calculate the average temperature of a planet.

With this activity, your students will be able to calculate what the earth’s average surface temperature would be if it didn’t have a greenhouse gas containing atmosphere.

This one-period activity can show your students how the numerical value of Earth’s albedo (0.3) is very meaningful to our planet’s temperature! If you are looking to inject a little more physics into your Earth and Space Science: Climate Change unit, this might be the thing for you.

Greening Electricity Using Project Drawdown for Grades 9-12

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2023-11-29T13:37:06-05:00

Milica Rakic, Essex DHS
mica@opusteno.com
Roberta Tevlin, retired
roberta@tevlin.ca

In order to prevent the worst of climate change, the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) has to be reduced as fast as possible. The enormity of this task can look overwhelming and can lead to climate despair. However, we already have the technology we need and a great source of information about this can be found on the website of Project Drawdown where they provide details of almost 100 solutions.

The goal of Project Drawdown is to show how we can ‘drawdown’ the emission of GHGs and then ‘drawdown’ the amount of these gases that are already in the air. This article shows how you can have your students examine 19 of these solutions which are involved in the production and use of electrical energy. This exercise is a good fit for the electricity unit in grade 9 science, the climate change unit in grade 10 science, the electricity unit in grade 11 university physics, and the energy transformation unit in grade 12 college physics.

High School Physics Teachers Evening at York University

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2023-10-20T09:15:59-04:00

Randy Lewis, Department of Physics and Astronomy, York University
randy.lewis@yorku.ca

All high school physics teachers are warmly invited to York University at 5:30 p.m. on Friday November 3, 2023. Professors in our Department of Physics and Astronomy value this annual event and are looking forward to connecting with high school teachers again this year.

Three York professors will give short talks about their research. You can see our telescope (which is the largest on any university campus in Canada) observing the opposition of Jupiter. Dinner and drinks will be provided, and there will be opportunities for casual conversations with familiar friends and new colleagues. We also have a few textbooks that are no longer needed at York, and we are glad to donate these to any high school teachers who can make good use of them.

Details can be found at this website: https://www.yorku.ca/science/physics/outreach/high-school-teachers-night/

Best wishes for the school year, and we hope to see you at York!

Two Excellent Simulations from PhET to Help Explain the Greenhouse Effect

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2023-10-09T10:52:52-04:00

Michelle Lee, Lisgar C. I.
michelle.lee@ocdsb.ca
Roberta Tevlin,Retired
roberta@tevlin.ca

Understanding the greenhouse effect is critical to understanding climate change and PhET has two excellent simulations that can help. This article describes how you can use these two simulations and a couple of supporting videos, to help your students develop a good understanding of the topic. This is most obviously relevant to the grade 10 Climate Change Unit. It is also relevant to grade 9 Astronomy and Ecosystems, Grade 10 Optics, and senior chemistry and physics.

Call for Articles

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2023-10-09T10:52:48-04:00

Eric Haller, Peel District School Board, Editor of the OAPT Newsletter
eric.haller@peelsb.com

It’s the start of another school year and the OAPT is once again looking for submissions for the newsletter. The newsletter is made possible by volunteers who contribute their thoughts and ideas for others to use in their classrooms. Many of our writers are Ontario high school teachers, however some of our writers teach in university, work abroad, work in science outreach, have retired, or have even left the teaching profession for some other career that involves physics. We have numerous writers who pen something for us regularly, but we are always on the lookout for new writers as well (writing for us looks great on a resume).

If you’re interested in writing for us but are looking for inspiration, a topical theme in education at the moment is of course climate change. Destreaming is relevant now too, students who took the destreamed grade 9 science class last year are now taking streamed grade 10 science classes, which has left some gaps in their education, which could be discussed in an article. Many school boards are handling the streamed grade 10 science courses differently as we wait for the grade 10 destreamed curriculum to be released, with some boards still offering SNC2P, and other boards forcing students to take SNC2D. The James Webb Space Telescope has been operational for some time now, some readers might want to know how we can incorporate its findings thus far into our classrooms. And there’s a total solar eclipse coming for some Ontarians on April 8th, 2024, which many teachers will want resources for. A lesson, or possible field trip ideas, would be great to help teachers take advantage of this [roughly] once-in-a-lifetime event. In addition to those topics, many teachers are incorporating indigenous stories, knowledge, and history into their science lessons now, and there is a growing demand for resources to help teachers continue to do so in a meaningful, and respectful way. If none of those topics sparked your interest though, we are always looking for our mainstays, like the following:

Short Physics Presentations Available for Livestreaming

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2023-10-09T09:12:33-04:00

Greetings educators!

Orbax here from the Department of Physics at the University of Guelph.

At the University of Guelph, Physics Education research has long been a field of interest and Science Communication is something we take particular interest in. In 2017 Dr. Joanne O'Meara created a class that is now known as IPS3000, a third year science communication course which is a requirement of all our Physics Undergrads. In this class they focus on, and are required to produce, science communication in all its forms from scholarly essays to podcasts to videos to even newspaper articles!

Over the last couple of years the course has been taught by Dr. Alex Gezerlis and we are looking for high school classes who would be interested in helping our physics students become better communicators. Our undergrads have been honing their public speaking skills and have developed a series of short presentations that they would like to livestream directly to your classrooms.

Resources for Teaching About Climate Change

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2023-09-23T13:40:20-04:00

Developed by James Ball, Iain Braithwaite, Michelle Lee, Robert Prior, Milica Rakic, Dale Simnett, and Roberta Tevlin.

Climate Change is moving fast and our window of opportunity to act decisively is shrinking. As science teachers, we can contribute to the solution by making sure that Climate Change is being taught, and taught well. We have been working this summer to develop ready-to-use resources to help you and your colleagues.

Review: Smokejumpers

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2023-09-10T16:01:54-04:00

Robert Prior, ePublisher of OAPT Newsletter
science@robertprior.ca

After this summer, wildfires will remain front-page news, and not just in places that are under threat of burning. How can you do hands-on activities in class with something so destructive? And why would you want to?

The “why?” is an easy question to answer. Not only are wildfires topical, but our students have been affected by them: by smoke almost certainly, possibly even worse (depending on where they are). Certain public figures have been throwing around blame for the many wildfires and the failure of fire crews to immediately extinguish them. An understanding of how wildfires are fought, as well as the costs and risks of doing so, will help our students appreciate the reasons we have so many burning wildfires, and hopefully help them learn to distinguish between serious questions and political point-scoring.

That's where this simulation comes in. It's a solitaire tabletop game placing the player in the position of fire chief, responsible for containing wildfires for an entire season with a limited budget. The player deploys fire crews, aircraft, and other resources while the ignition and spread of fires is governed by rules based on the Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System, which is backed by over 50 years of research.

Hands-On Climate Change Activities

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2023-09-02T10:09:51-04:00

Iain Braithwaite, John F. Ross C.V.I.
iainbraithwaite@ugdsb.on.ca
Roberta Tevlin, retired
roberta@tevlin.ca

Climate change can feel very threatening and at the same time it can feel very abstract. Demonstrations that use simple materials can help students understand the concepts better, and they provide a change of pace. We have gathered a collection of nineteen demonstrations to help with the grade 10 Climate Change unit, both SNC2P and SNC2D.

Schrödinger's Class

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2023-09-02T09:52:44-04:00

John Donohue, IQC Senior Manager, Scientific Outreach
jdonohue@uwaterloo.ca

Date: December 1-3, 2023
Location: Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo, Ontario

The Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) has a free workshop on quantum mechanics and quantum technology taking place December 1-3 on the University of Waterloo campus. Schrödinger's Class will provide you with lesson plans and affordable, ready-to-go activities explained by quantum experts to take back to your classroom. Applications are due Monday October 16th. Financial support for travel and accommodations is available.

What Can the OAPT (And You) Do about Climate Change?

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2023-06-15T19:27:07-04:00

Roberta Tevlin, Retired Teacher
roberta@tevlin.ca

Are you concerned about climate change? Do you wonder what you can do? A group of OAPT members have got together to help OAPT members to take action. We have some suggestions.

The (Engineering) Design Process in the New Science Curriculum

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2023-04-18T15:49:38-04:00

Chris Meyer, Past President of the OAPT
Chris_meyer1@sympatico.ca

The revised grade 9 science curriculum introduces a new problem-solving process that might not be familiar to many teachers: the (engineering) design process. Let's explore this problem-solving strategy and examine some design tasks that I have created for grade 9 science. Read on!

Advanced Curve Fitting in Desmos

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2023-03-18T14:34:01-04:00

Eric Haller, Peel District School Board, Editor of the OAPT Newsletter
eric.haller@peelsb.com

Often, we ask students to do an experiment, gather a set of two-variable data, make a scatter plot, and then try to find the curve of best fit, along with its equation. Historically, Microsoft Excel was the go-to for doing something like this, however nowadays I find my students are most comfortable using Desmos to graph things, because it’s free, simple to use, and doesn’t require any installation or logging in. Desmos is great for making scatter plots and fitting curves, and it can even fit curves beyond Excel’s ‘Add Trendline’ functionality, which is limited to exponential, power, logarithmic, and polynomial-types of curves (Excel can do additional curves, but it's tricky, check out my previous article for instructions on how to do that if you like). In this article, I’d like to go over how you can do a curve of best fit in Desmos, even for complicated curves like what you would find with a damped harmonic oscillator experiment, or with Kepler's third law of planetary motion.

Reflections on My Journey Destreaming Grade 9

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2023-02-26T10:09:21-05:00

Brad Dixon, Destreaming Coach, Minor Head of Science, Guelph CVI, UGDSB
Twitter: @TeachingMrDixon

The first semester of destreaming grade 9 science has now come to a close. If you were someone like me who was involved in math as well, you might be 3 semesters deep at this point. Regardless, semester change is always a great time to reflect on what has happened. If you are destreaming, a lot has likely happened.

This year I've had the privilege of being a leader in my school, working to iron out the kinks in the destreaming process in both math and science. This has given me the opportunity to work with many teachers, and also the time to reflect on what the wins and losses are so far.

For those of you deep in the destreaming weeds right now, I have compiled some of my reflections, lessons learned, and some advice that hopefully can help some of you.

Virtual Physics Hour: Post-Secondary in the Post-Pandemic Era

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2023-02-25T10:10:17-05:00

Please join us for our second virtual physics hour March 1^st at 7pm EST. This session will feature a panel from post secondary institutions who will reflect on what first year physics (and science programs) look like post pandemic. If you are interested in joining us, please fill out the google form here. This again is not restricted to OAPT membership so feel free to pass it along to those you feel would be interested!

TIPERs: Sensemaking Tasks for Introductory Physics

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2023-02-14T11:16:10-05:00

Robert Prior, ePublisher OAPT Newsletter
science@robertprior.ca

Getting students to think about a problem, as opposed to simply plugging numbers into a formula, is a never-ending challenge. It is possible to design exercises that focus attention on concepts, but it is difficult, and most textbook questions are of the plug-and-chug variety.

This book provides a collection of exercises that emphasize conceptual reasoning, many of which are useful for high school physics classes.

The 45th Annual OAPT Conference - Registration Now Open!

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2023-02-09T09:08:27-05:00

The OAPT is pleased to return to its traditional 3-day in-person conference in 2023! We are looking forward to connecting with new members and welcoming back returning members. Take advantage to (re)connect with educators from across the province at Perimeter Institute in Waterloo from Thursday May 4 until Saturday May 6.

The Joly Photometer

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2023-02-05T11:40:57-05:00

Eric Haller, Editor-in-Chief of the OAPT Newsletter, Peel District School Board
eric.haller@peelsb.com
Robert Prior, ePublisher of OAPT Newsletter
science@robertprior.ca

There’s a lot of physics hidden in the grade nine curriculum, if you know where to look. For example, the inverse-square law appears in the space unit, as part of the reason scientists know how far away stars are. It is often presented as a given, but deriving it from experimental evidence is a neat way to use a hands-on activity to show the process of science.

How did physicists measure light before they had photometers? John Joly, FRS, invented a comparative photometer over a century ago. We’ve used this simple device to explore the inverse-square law in a totally low-tech way.

Physics Competition Juror Opportunity (CaYPT 2023)

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2023-02-05T10:57:57-05:00

Jim Chen, Physics Graduate Student, University of Toronto
jim.chen@stemfellowship.org

The Canadian Young Physicists’ Tournament (CaYPT) is a national high school research-based competition that also serves as a selection competition for the International Young Physicists’ Tournament (IYPT). In teams of 3-5, students conduct research on 10 open-ended physics problems with no definite solution. Students develop their own theoretical model, apply their physics knowledge and debate with other teams about their solutions to the problems.

CaYPT is looking for jurors to evaluate student presentations and give students a score based on the quality of their theoretical model, experimental results and overall presentation, including their discussion with other students. An honorarium of $70 is provided per half day of juror work.

First Impressions of ChatGPT

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2023-01-28T19:25:09-05:00

Robert Prior, ePublisher of OAPT Newsletter
science@robertprior.ca

The new artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT, from OpenAI, has been in the news lately, with many pearls clutched about the possibilities of students using it to cheat, while boosters have proclaimed that it is poised to revolutionize teaching.

I’ve spent some time playing with it, and at the moment it doesn’t match the hyperbole of either side.

Skill Fluency and Memory Consolidation in Grade 9 Science

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2023-01-12T16:52:45-05:00

By Chris Meyer, Past-President, OAPT
Chris_meyer1@sympatico.ca

Does it seem like students are getting slower and slower when working on a quiz? Do they behave like a gas, expanding to take up all the time for the test no matter how much time you provide? Why is this happening? The answer to this is likely complex. Students are more anxious and risk averse than in the past and are desperate to avoid “losing” any marks. These are cultural factors that are very hard for us to control. But another factor is that we don't train students to be fast! Speed or fluency is seldom an explicit goal of our science instruction.

Building LED “Candles” for Grade 10 Optics

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2022-12-16T10:45:46-05:00

Richard Taylor, retired Physics teacher, Ottawa Carleton District School Board
Richard@teya.ca

“Brrrriiinngg! Hello, Richard? I was just cutting up some candles to use in the grade 10 optics labs and I got thinking about those cute little LED things you made. Do you think you could make some more for me?”

Certainly I remembered the grade 10 optics labs! Carefully prepping all those candles and optical benches, carefully priming the students to use the candles. Turn out the classroom lights and then the chaos begins. Matches breaking, fingers and hair getting singed, wax spilled on lab benches and floors (amazingly slippery!), images too dim to be seen, and which way up is that candle flame image anyway?

Several years ago, I came up with a better idea: mounting a red and a green LED on top of a 9 V battery. The LEDs produce about the same amount of light as a candle, and having the two different colours makes it easy to see whether an image is upright or inverted. After building 15 more of these, I thought it was about time to share the instructions so that other teachers can build their own.

Virtual Physics Hour is back!

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2022-11-28T10:41:40-05:00

The Ontario Association of Physics Teachers (OAPT) is excited to bring back the Virtual Physics Hours series due to popular demand! In addition to our spring conference, the OAPT will be hosting virtual evening PD sessions for educators to drop in, learn, and share with colleagues. Session 1 will be held on Wednesday December 7th at 7:00pm EST.

Our first session will be focused on Destreaming Grade 9 and feature a panel of incredible educators who each are experts in different areas. Andrea McPhee, Sean Jackson , Chris Meyer and Ashley McCarl Palmer will all share insights into their own current grade 9 classrooms and answer your questions.

Andrea (@ms_mcphee) brings a wealth of knowledge, especially when it comes to bringing technology into the classroom.
Sean (@mrjacksondotca) is a specialist in teaching tools and is an expert when it comes to choosing the right teaching strategy to engage learners.
Chris (@ChrisMeyerSci) is well known for his thoughtful scaffolding and collaborative inquiry focused classroom.
Ashley (@phsyicswithmcp) has done a deep dive into assessment and grading strategies, shifting the focus back on to learning.

Sign up is via this form. Given this session is not primarily physics focused, any high school science educator is welcome to join, so please pass this along to anyone who may be interested. A zoom link will be sent to those that signed up closer to the date.

We are looking forward to seeing you soon!

The OAPT Physics Hour Committee

2023 Conference: Call for Presentations

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2022-11-12T11:45:53-05:00

We are back! The 2023 OAPT Conference will take place May 4-6, 2023 at Perimeter Institute in Waterloo.

The search is on for presenters. Do you have an interesting lesson, a novel teaching idea, a hands-on activity or pedagogical tips that you would like to share? Please consider submitting a proposal for a presentation or a workshop that touches upon any aspect of physics teaching.

The workshops will be offered during four blocks on Friday (two in the morning and two in the afternoon) and two blocks on Saturday morning. Presenters can choose the length of session they want to present in. Please note: Presenters receive a special discounted conference rate.

We offer three formats: 15-minute presentation, 25-minute mini-workshop and 60-minute workshop.

Deadline for presentation proposals: December 10, 2022 Please submit proposals here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1bZIsqp0BBQqHiB3rsi4JagY9HACYg5lQmFLPxNBUVTk/edit

Questions? Contact Saara Naudts or Olga Michalopoulos (Conference Co-Chairs).

Freefalling For You: Improve Your Teaching of Freefall!

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2022-11-10T11:00:00-05:00

Chris Meyer, York Mills C.I., Toronto District School Board
Chris_meyer1@sympatico.ca

Pride comes before the freefall
What topic could be easier, right? It’s just straight up and down — no funny business. Freefall is the poster child of constant acceleration, everyone’s go-to example. We can teach this in our sleep! But we might not realize that we are setting up our students for a physics ambush. While our students’ first freefall problem might seem straightforward and understandable, the second one often contains a trap!

Second freefall problem: “You drop a ball from a window 1.9 m above the ground. How much time does it take to hit the ground?” The student sizes up the problem; it seems easy. The displacement is 1.9 m downward. The acceleration is known; the student is feeling confident. They can find the time if they know one more motion quantity. Ah, the final velocity is zero! Problem solved!

And thus, the unsuspecting student is ensnared in the most common trap of freefall motion. This highlights the real challenge of understanding freefall: students need a genuinely sophisticated understanding of forces to make use of freefall ideas. Emphasizing freefall before studying forces allows students to tumble into numerous, all-too-common learning traps. Let’s nimbly dodge these traps and explore a better way to study freefall!

Save the Date: 2023 Conference

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2022-11-05T10:33:48-04:00

High School Physics Teachers Evening at York University

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2022-10-27T16:54:41-04:00

Randy Lewis, Department of Physics and Astronomy, York University
randy.lewis@yorku.ca

All high school physics teachers are warmly invited to York University at 5:30 PM on Friday November 11, 2022. This annual tradition has not been possible for the past two years, and professors in our Department of Physics and Astronomy are looking forward to reconnecting with high school teachers this year.

Three York professors will give short talks about their research. Tours of our telescope (which is the largest on any university campus in Canada) will be available. Dinner and drinks will be provided, and there will be opportunities for casual conversations with new colleagues and familiar friends. We also have a collection of textbooks that are no longer needed at York, and we are glad to donate these to any high school teachers who can make good use of them.

Science Communication Presentations from the University of Guelph

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2022-10-22T15:53:27-04:00

Orbax, Production Specialist for Physics Education Content, Department of Physics, University of Guelph
orbax@uoguelph.ca

Greetings educators! Orbax here from the Department of Physics at the University of Guelph.

When I went to university for physics in the late 90s, “science communication” as we know it now did not exist. Our science communicators were there, but it seemed like it was much more of a journey to find them then than it is now. Television (both high-end productions and cable access), radio, print media… these were the ways in which we found science communication mostly born out of a necessity to demystify some of the more obscure elements of our profession as well as a way to combat some of the pseudoscience that was rampant in the media.

Free Lesson Extensions Bring Grade 11 Physics to Life for Diverse Students

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2022-10-07T10:48:12-04:00

Kim Jones, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at McMaster University
kjones@mcmaster.ca

It’s the question students have been asking for generations, in math classes, in science classes, and definitely in Physics classes… “Miss, when am I going to use this?” They rub their faces and pull on their hair in despair, unable to connect the laws of motion to their day-to-day dreams of the future.

Studies have shown that students are more motivated and interested when they are able to draw a straight line between their learning and its application to helping to solve real-world problems. This is especially true for girls.

When we look at the problem of girls being under-represented in engineering programs across the country, one of the pain points we can identify is that girls are more likely to opt out of grade 12 physics, a mandatory course for entry into post-secondary Engineering programs. Although there are systemic reasons for this, one of the easiest fixes is to make grade 11 physics curriculum more real-world solution focused.

Why Teach Bohr Diagrams?

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2022-09-06T15:09:23-04:00

Chris Meyer, Past President, Ontario Association of Physics Teachers
christopher.meyer@tdsb.on.ca

The stock and trade of the science teacher is the Bohr diagram. Ask a random person off the street what an atom looks like and they will describe a Bohr diagram (well, actually something similar but with ovals — just Google “atom”). But is the Bohr diagram a useful representation of the atom to teach students? In this article we will explore the conceptual foundations of the Bohr diagram and my proposed alternatives. Along the way, we will delve into the science of the atom and flesh out some challenging ideas. Now, normally when I write an article, I share well-rehearsed practices from my classroom. This article will be different! Here I share my musings as an attempt to define this problem and layout possible solutions. I'll also let you in on a little secret of mine: when I want to learn more about something, I choose to write an article about it! Since this is an exploration, I would be very happy to hear your thoughts on these ideas. I am no chemist and I recognize that I am venturing into dangerous terrain. Read on!

Call for Articles

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2022-09-02T08:47:18-04:00

Eric Haller, Editor of the OAPT Newsletter, Occasional Teacher with the Peel District School Board
eric.haller@peelsb.com

It’s the start of another school year and the OAPT is once again looking for submissions for the newsletter. The newsletter is made possible by volunteers who contribute their thoughts and ideas for others to use in their classrooms. Many of our writers are Ontario high school teachers, however some of our writers teach in university, live abroad, have retired, or have even left the teaching profession for some other career that involves physics. We have numerous writers who pen something for us regularly, but we are always on the lookout for new writers as well (writing for us looks great on a resume). With COVID precautions being relaxed and hybrid classes in the rear-view mirror for most of us, some of you may need inspiration for what to write an article about this year. Fear not, remember that we are facing the destreaming of grade 9 science, so articles pertaining to destreaming or the teaching of physics content in the new science course would be beneficial to our readership. For further inspiration, here are some other possible topics for articles:

How do electrons in a circuit know what to do?

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2022-05-31T09:19:36-04:00

Chris Meyer, Past President, Ontario Association of Physics Teachers
chris_meyer1@sympatico.ca

At times electrons can seem awfully clever, as if they talk to one another and plan what each will do: “okay, so you two go along that path and I'll go along this one” or “I'll only give up ¼ of my energy here because the next load has a higher resistance and I need to give it ¾ of my energy”. How do they pull off these amazing feats of collaboration and foresight? For years I was genuinely stumped when trying to explain the rationale behind series and parallel phenomena; my attempts were all variations of “well, because that’s what happens”.

How do electrons “know” that there is another resistor connected in series down the road? How do they “know” which parallel path to choose? For that matter, how does a battery connected to a single resistor “know” how much current to push? There are so many mysteries of simple electric circuits! Let's explore the last question first, which will help us answer all the others.

May 25, 2022 OAPT (Ontario Association of Physics Teachers) Physics Contest

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2022-03-21T07:56:36-04:00

The annual online physics contest open to ALL Grade 11 and 12 physics students will be occurring on May 25th. The contest is one hour long and is free! The contest will be open to BOTH Grade 11 AND Grade 12 students due to the generous support of the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto. All physics teachers are encouraged to have their students enroll. Please remind students that it is intended to be a FUN contest and that it cannot impact their mark so that they do not feel intimidated to participate.

May the Real Polarization Model, Please Stand Up

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2022-03-05T21:52:09-05:00

Saara Naudts, Peel District School Board
saara.naudts@icloud.com

Inspired by Adam Mills’s recent articles on Shining Light on Grade 10 Optics (see part 1 and part 2), I wanted to extend the spotlight to linear polarization in the grade 12 The Wave Nature of Light unit. When teaching how light gets polarized when passing through a filter, we often see a rope and gate model, where a vertically oriented filter allows vertical vibrations to pass through and a horizontally oriented filter allows horizontal vibrations to pass through. Unfortunately, this model has its shortcomings.

Over a decade ago, OAPT past-president, Roberta Tevlin introduced me to an activity during which students act out the process of polarization through a polarizing filter the right way. As an advocate for “learning by doing” and as a supporter of John Dewey’s Experiential Learning Theory (Dewey, 1938), I want to share this simple, yet effective dramatization of linear polarization. I hope you will give it a try with your students and find it to be a meaningful and effective teaching strategy.

Monthly Star Gazing Guide

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2022-02-09T11:33:00-05:00

Orbax, Production Specialist for Physics Education Content, Department of Physics, University of Guelph
orbax@uoguelph.ca

Greetings everyone! Orbax here. For those of you who don’t know me, I’ve been a member of the Department of Physics at the University of Guelph as an instructor for over 13 years now, and most recently as a production specialist in physics education content. Just like you, I love physics and I love teaching physics. I remember when I was young laying in my parents’ bed and poring through a book my father had from his university class on astronomy. I had very little understanding of what I was looking at in those pictures but I knew that the fantastic images in front of me showed a universe that laid just beyond the clouds, one that captured my imagination and that sent me down a path to becoming a physicist.

Since then my career has taken me to many places but I have never lost the fascination I’ve always held for outer space. I feel there are few things more galvanizing to scientists and interesting to the population as a whole than space exploration. As such, I’ve started a video series of monthly ‘Star Gazing Guides’. Very much in the tradition of the old Jack Horkheimer: Star Gazer series (does anyone else remember those?), we take a look around the night sky for upcoming events of interest. The videos are very much aimed at the general population with little or no astronomy experience, but as a physics teacher, I try to use a portion of the video to slyly backdoor some actual physics education content. We talk about wavelengths of light, rotational axes, basic planetary interactions, and try to explain things like the solstice or an eclipse.

Improving the Teaching of Forces: Cognitive Chunking and Chaining

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2022-02-19T11:07:02-05:00

Chris Meyer, Past President, Ontario Association of Physics Teachers
chris_meyer1@sympatico.ca

In my early years of teaching physics, I was often surprised by the difficulties my grade 12 students (actually OAC students at the time!) had with forces. Many times, the sneaky culprit responsible for their troubles was the first law of motion. “Why are they having trouble with such simple grade 11 ideas?” I puzzled, “these are good students”. I have been wrestling with this question for 23 years and now have a better understanding of what I'm trying to accomplish as a teacher and what is happening inside my students’ heads. Let’s explore a better way to train students to think about forces.

Review: How Far Away Is It?

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2022-02-02T22:08:08-05:00

Robert Prior, ePublisher OAPT Newsletter
science@robertprior.ca

There’s a lot of good physics (and math) embedded in the grade nine space unit, if you know where to look for it. David Butler is a retired computer scientist who is fascinated with space, and he’s applied his mathematical background to explaining, in simple terms, what’s behind the fancy pictures we see from NASA, and how we know what we know about the universe. To do this he’s created a series of video books focusing on different topics, as well as hundreds of short classroom-ready video clips on topics ranging from astronomy to quantum mechanics.

Rich Problem-Solving Challenges for Virtual Students

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2022-01-18T11:08:31-05:00

Chris Meyer
Past-President, OAPT
Chris_meyer1@sympatico.ca

Are you looking for exciting tasks for your students now that we have made the sudden switch to virtual teaching? You have come to the right place! A staple of our grade 12 physics classes is our physics challenges: cooperative-group problem-solving tasks that involve a physical apparatus, measurements, a prediction, and an experimental confirmation. One of my COVID projects has been making careful videos of these challenges that allow students to understand the problem and make measurements directly from the video. A separate solution video allows students to experimentally verify their predictions. Normally, I would write a long-winded, exhaustive article about the pedagogical design of the challenge process, but not this time! Instead, this will be a quick article so I can share these with you as quickly as possible! Looking for an engaging and rich task to wrap up your physics course with? Read on!

Arithmetic Questions in Brightspace Quizzes

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2022-01-04T09:52:14-05:00

Eric Haller, Editor-in-Chief of the OAPT Newsletter, Secondary Long Term Occasional Teacher with the Peel District School Board
eric.haller@peelsb.com

With the switch to online and hybrid learning, we have had to migrate much of what we do in class to an online environment for the students working from home. Many boards have opted to use Brightspace for their virtual learning environments, and that’s what I use to post my announcements, synchronous meeting links, lesson notes, calendars, grades, assignments, rubrics, and so on. Students can find and submit their assignments to me using the Assignments tab. The Rubric tool allows me to create and share rubrics with my classes, making marking, exporting marks to the Grades section, and returning feedback, all extremely quick and easy. Brightspace streamlines this so well that I no longer accept hardcopy or emailed submissions. In conversations with my coworkers about the features in Brightspace that we use, I was surprised to learn that many of my peers were not comfortable using Brightspace to give tests. I still regularly see my colleagues administer pen-and-paper tests in their hybrid classes. Students attending school in-person write the test in the traditional way, and students at home typically print out a .pdf of the test, write on it in pencil, and scan and send it back to the teacher. Tech savvy students might just write directly onto the .pdf using a tablet instead. While this method works for many teachers, I find that it creates numerous problems. Since we can’t really proctor students writing the test online, they can use their notes, the internet, and even call their friends for help without our knowledge. They can even take extra time and email their responses in late, claiming their Wi-Fi is slow or using some other excuse. Students who write the test in-person will be at a significant disadvantage compared to their online counterparts, and so some will decide to stay home on test days to write the test online, which creates attendance issues. Furthermore, marking both hard and soft copy tests can take a lot of extra time compared to just marking one type of test. To avoid these problems, I have students write my tests in Brightspace by using the Quizzes tool.

Shining the Light on Grade 10 Optics (Part 2)

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2021-12-24T14:17:45-05:00

Adam Mills
President, Ontario Association of Physics Teachers
Assumption College Catholic High School
adam_mills@wecdsb.on.ca

This article continues from the initial article I wrote on optics, which detailed many of the misconceptions that students struggle with but are hidden inside the simple mathematics of the unit. In this article I look at practical ways for making the optics unit more interactive, with a focus on developing the rules for ray diagrams and the cooperative group problem solving I have my students complete at the end of the unit.

Write Like Einstein: A Review of Harold Geisler’s Einstein Font

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2021-11-24T18:19:14-05:00

Robert Prior, ePublisher of OAPT Newsletter
science@robertprior.ca

Have you ever wished you could write like a great scientist? Now you can, with Harald Geisler’s Einstein font. It won’t give you Einstein’s brains or his cool hair, but at least you can have his handwriting.

To Remind Ourselves of Our Shared Purpose: An Opinion Piece About Building and Achieving Collective Efficacy

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2021-11-12T17:25:25-05:00

Saara Naudts, Peel District School Board
saara.naudts@icloud.com

What a ride these past couple years have been… We dealt with contract negotiations and navigated through new realities as a result of the global pandemic. We have shown true grit adapting to various new learning environments including quadmesters, virtual learning, modified semesters, hybrid learning, and other previously unfamiliar formats. My intention with this article is to explore what has helped us get through these challenges and the role of the OAPT in building and achieving collective efficacy among physics educators in Ontario.

Online Exit Cards

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2021-11-02T15:38:57-04:00

Eric Haller, Editor-in-Chief of the OAPT Newsletter, Secondary Long Term Occasional Teacher with the Peel District School Board
eric.haller@peelsb.com

I was taught about exit cards when I was in teachers college, but I was never asked to complete any as a student, and as a new teacher I didn’t really think they made sense. We typically can’t dismiss the students who complete their exit cards early, nor can we hold back students who need more time to complete them after class; so I didn’t really see the value in doing exit cards. With the current pandemic, however, times have drastically changed. In the Peel District School Board (PDSB), we are currently using a teaching model where we are simultaneously teaching students both in class and at home (also known as the hybrid learning model or the community learning model). Prior to the pandemic I could do a quick scan of the classroom and see which students were working, which weren’t, and who was struggling. Now, with many students at home with their webcams off, scanning the room is no longer possible. I had found myself in need of a teaching strategy that would give me a means of checking in on every student in the class (both in school and at home). I also wanted a teaching strategy I could use everyday that would encourage the students at home to attend and participate in class, and one that allowed me to continuously track individual student achievement. To solve this problem, I realised that exit cards would work perfectly, so long as they were submitted to me online.

Scientific Models for Electrical Polarization: A Close Look at Grade 9 Static Electricity

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2021-10-23T15:10:19-04:00

Chris Meyer, Past President, Ontario Association of Physics Teachers
chris_meyer1@sympatico.ca

Why explore the idea of polarization?
A good way to learn about static electricity is by exploring things around us: run a comb through your hair, peel different fabrics apart, go down a plastic slide in a playground, there's so many possibilities! Another common one is the rubbed balloon sticking to a wall: an example of a charged and uncharged object interacting that requires some subtle science to explain. The grade 6 science curriculum mentions examples like this but leaves out the scientific tools to properly explain it. The grade 9 curriculum mentions charging by induction and again leaves out the science. Electrical interactions form the conceptual backbone for an understanding of atoms and molecules, electric circuits and fields, and why those annoying bits of Styrofoam keep sticking to our hands! The missing idea from the curriculum is polarization, a concept that explains the attraction between a charged and neutral object. Polarization also serves as a conceptual bridge between the topics of static and current electricity, which are often taught as two distinct topics. The curriculum provides a poor road map for learning about electricity; it will pay us great dividends as teachers to do a better job of this, so let's explore polarization! I want to share with you two lessons for grade 9 science that focus on this important electrical concept.

Teaching Astronomy by Inquiry: Light and Chemistry!

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2021-10-16T12:18:41-04:00

Chris Meyer, OAPT Past President, TDSB hybrid teacher-coach
Christopher.meyer@tdsb.on.ca

Back in the day, I used to teach at the Ontario Science Centre and present their school programs. I would meet the visiting teacher and mob of grade 9 students in advance of my “Cosmic Connections” program and ask, “So has your class covered the astronomy unit yet?” On more than one occasion, the teacher answered, “No. You’re it!” That’s right; my 45-minute extravaganza was all the astronomy that students would get in grade 9. Despite fifteen years passing since then, the topic of astronomy still does not fall within every teacher’s comfort zone, so I hope that sharing the resources for our inquiry-based unit on grade 9 astronomy will help. In this article I will explain the ideas and pedagogical design of our unit and hopefully encourage you to check it out!

This is the second part of Chris’s article on teaching astronomy by inquiry. For the first part, please go here.

Teaching Astronomy by Inquiry: The Sun, Moon, and Math

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2021-10-09T12:54:22-04:00

KineCards: A Manipulative Activity for Teaching Kinematics

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2021-09-30T14:09:03-04:00

Robert Prior, ePublisher of OAPT Newsletter
science@robertprior.ca

Many of our students struggle with mastering the relationship between position-time graphs and velocity-time graphs. They may know that the velocity-time graph shows the slope of a position-time graph, or that the position-time graph shows the area under the velocity-time graph, but they have trouble telling if two graphs are related except by actually doing the calculations.

We all know that practice makes perfect, but drawing many graphs takes lots of time, and time is in short supply. This activity uses pre-drawn graphs so students spend time thinking rather than drawing.

This Is Why…

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2021-09-22T14:55:14-04:00

Joanne O’Meara, Professor, Department of Physics, University of Guelph
omeara@uoguelph.ca

When people think about what physicists do, they often jump directly to the esoteric, like quarks or globular clusters, and don’t necessarily see the myriad connections of physics to our everyday experiences. I’m not criticizing those among us devoted to the esoteric, but I do worry that we are missing out on inspiring and engaging with a large fraction of the science-curious by not taking the time to explore some of the fascinating physics on display in the natural world. As physicists, we are practiced at the art of asking ourselves Why? when we observe something beautiful, unusual, or unexpected, and the feeling that comes from figuring out the answer is what keeps us exploring. I love being able to bring these little explorations into my classroom, especially when I’m teaching first-year physics to biological science students, as helping them to see the relevance of what they are learning can have a profound effect on their motivation. From the beauty of a double rainbow, to penguins using bubbles to reduce drag, or the effect of polarization of scattered light on flies looking for someone/thing to bite, I love that look of wonder and appreciation on my students’ faces when we take a short tangent to extend our learning in optics or mechanics.

Call for Articles

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2021-08-29T10:44:34-04:00

It’s the start of another school year and the OAPT is looking for submissions for the newsletter. The newsletter is kept alive by volunteers who contribute their thoughts and ideas for others to use in their own classrooms. Many of our writers are Ontario high school teachers, however some of our writers teach in university, live abroad, have retired, or have even left the teaching profession for some other career that involves physics. We have many writers who pen something for us regularly, but we are always on the lookout for new writers as well (writing for us looks great on a resume if you’re relatively new to teaching). We accept and publish articles year-round. Typically, our articles are aimed at the grade 11 and 12 Ontario physics curricula, however sometimes we publish articles regarding physics in grade 9 and 10 science, or about physics in general.

Diversity

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2021-08-24T12:10:28-04:00

Adam Mills, President of the OAPT
adam_mills@wecdsb.on.ca

Being a heterosexual, Caucasian male I am hardly an authority on diversity; however, my school community consists of many diverse cultures, races and religions. As such I have been attempting to make a conscious effort to better connect with my students, by ensuring that they gain an understanding that there do exist many physicists that are indeed non-Caucasian, non-male with various sexual orientations. This brief article will explore a few of the techniques, resources and ideas I am implementing in my classroom that you can easily incorporate into yours tomorrow!

Review: Professor Povey’s Perplexing Problems

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2021-07-25T16:14:10-04:00

Vjera Miović, OAPT Newsletter Editor, TDSB teacher
vjera.miovic@gmail.com

If you are like me, maybe you miss discussing random physics problems with nerdy friends who are scattered around the pandemic-stricken globe. Or you just like interesting puzzles, beyond sudoku and crosswords. Perhaps you are looking for challenging problems for your eager senior students or a contest-prep science club. Here is a good summer read for you: Professor Povey’s Perplexing Problems, by Thomas Povey (2015).

Reflecting on 2020-2021

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2021-06-30T15:02:21-04:00

Ashley McCarl Palmer, Waterloo Region District School Board, OAPT Vice-President
ashley_mccarlpalmer@wrdsb.ca or @physicswithmcp on Instagram, Twitter and YouTube

As we move into the end of a very difficult and challenging school year, I think it is natural to take some time to reflect on where we are now compared to where we were last September (or even last winter, pre-pandemic). Once you’ve taken some time to do what makes you happy, refill the tank or bucket or whatever metaphor you wish to use, and feel like you have the energy, I encourage you to reflect on what we've all accomplished as a community of educators. Some things we have had to learn quickly, like a new technology platform, or perhaps a different approach that has surfaced in the classroom when we were forced into hybrid or distance learning. I think it's good for all teachers to think about practices we’ve used over a school year and think about which ones we’d like to keep and what we will let go of and thank them for what they have given us (a little Marie Kondo for those of you who, like me, ended up organizing the house last March after watching her show on Netflix).

The Rifleman’s Rule

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2021-06-23T21:07:13-04:00

Eric Haller, Secondary Long Term Occasional Teacher, Peel District School Board
eric.haller@peelsb.com

A couple of years ago I bought a bow and got into the sport of archery. To improve my accuracy at the range, I decided to invest in a laser rangefinder that could tell me the distance to my target, and its angle of elevation/depression. After using it for the first time, I discovered a third feature I was not aware of, the “Angle Intelligence™ Distance” (as it is referred to in the HALO OPTICS user’s manual). Interestingly, the rangefinder takes the angle of elevation/depression and the line-of-sight distance to the target into account, and calculates the adjusted distance to the target, as though I were instead shooting at a target across a perfectly horizontal field. Reading through the entire user’s manual, I couldn’t find any mention of what formula they used for the calculation, so I figured I would try working it out for myself. After a few hours of trying with a pen and paper, I discovered it was a lot more difficult of a problem than I had initially thought; so I turned to the internet. I eventually found the formula I was looking for; named the “rifleman’s rule.” The rule is fairly complicated to derive, however no part of the derivation requires anything beyond a grade 12 understanding of physics or math. This article will guide you through the derivation of the rifleman’s rule. You could work through it with your students, use this knowledge to help your school’s archery team, or even perhaps use it in the field yourself.

Physics for Penguins: A Project for Grade 10 Science

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2021-06-07T15:09:11-04:00

Robert Prior, ePublisher of OAPT Newsletter
science@robertprior.ca

The grade ten climate unit is often neglected. This is unfortunate, not only because it is the most relevant unit for our students, who will be dealing with a changing climate, but because it deals with many physics concepts.

Here is a project I use with my grade ten students. It’s a fun, hands-on way for students to demonstrate that they understand basic concepts relating to thermal energy and energy transfer — key topics in grade 11 physics!

Fast Feedback

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2021-05-24T11:28:11-04:00

Felipe Almeida, Toronto District School Board
felipe.almeida@tdsb.on.ca

As every student in an introductory physics course (like SPH3U, the grade 11 physics course in Ontario) is untrained, all their practice should be portioned appropriately in both task and problem. I have created scaffolded practice problems for the grade 11 physics course in Google Forms so students can submit their responses for immediate feedback. The forms are intended to save time and make practice/‘homework’ more meaningful and rewarding for both teachers and students. A previous article presented the forms used for portioned practice, this article will present fast feedback.

Portioned Practice

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2021-05-12T09:43:05-04:00

Felipe Almeida, Toronto District School Board
felipe.almeida@tdsb.on.ca

As every student in an introductory physics course (like SPH3U, the grade 11 physics course in Ontario) is untrained, all their practice should be portioned appropriately in both task and problem. I have created scaffolded practice problems for the grade 11 physics course in Google Forms so students can submit their responses for immediate feedback. The forms are intended to save time and make practice/‘homework’ more meaningful and rewarding for both teachers and students. This article presents the forms used for portioned practice, a future article will present fast feedback.

The Plinko Model for Energy in Electric Circuits

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2021-04-02T13:20:35-04:00

Chris Meyer, President, Ontario Association of Physics Teachers
chris_meyer1@sympatico.ca

When it comes to the study of electricity, it is the simplest ideas that students understand the worst. This is because electricity does its thing invisibly, so our job as teachers is to help make those microscopic goings-on visible. To do this, we create conceptual models that allow us to visualize what happens inside a circuit. I would like to share with you the resources I have created.

Red-Hot Steel vs. Frozen Lake: A Real-World Energy Problem

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2021-03-19T11:12:18-04:00

Robert Prior, ePublisher of OAPT Newsletter
science@robertprior.ca

What happens when you heat a 20 kg cylinder of steel red-hot, and put it on a frozen lake? This may look like a silly question, but Lauri and Anni Vuohensilta — the crazy Finns of Beyond the Press — did it, and it makes a nice guided inquiry activity for exploring energy transfer in the grade 11 physics.

Physics Labs For Independent Learning

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2021-03-08T14:15:40-05:00

Daniel Muttiah
daniel.muttiah@tdsb.on.ca

My first-year physics professor, Dr. D.S. Scott, in my first year of university said something that has stayed with me over the years. During one of his lectures he asked the question: where is the best physics lab located? There were various responses from different students and his response was a no to all the major labs mentioned. Finally he responded with the statement: the best physics lab is the world around you. I have not forgotten Professor Scott's words of wisdom which have inspired me over the years, both in my learning and in my teaching.

So You Wanna Go Gradeless…

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2021-02-09T16:04:26-05:00

Ashley McCarl Palmer, WRDSB Teacher
ashley_mccarlpalmer@wrdsb.ca or @physicswithmcp

As we move forward in the pandemic, education is finally taking a huge leap as many educators abandon their old ways of teaching and trying something new. For some, they have heard about this wave of people going “gradeless” and they are curious about what it is about. For others, they look at their old methods of assessing and recognize that tests may not cut it anymore… and if you get rid of tests (or things that were traditionally numerically marked) then what goes into a student’s grade? Or perhaps more importantly, why even grade them at all?

Using Quizlet with your Virtual Classes

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2021-01-25T10:38:23-05:00

Steven Fotheringham, Halton District School Board
fotheringhas@hdsb.ca

As you prepare your classes for the new quadmester, you will be looking for new ways for your students to make connections with one another. Whether your classes are in-person, virtual or blended, you can try Quizlet in your classes. I have had a lot of success integrating Quizlet Live into my virtual teaching practice. Here's a quick overview of how Quizlet can be used in virtual classes.

Review: Phyphox

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2021-01-14T08:43:07-05:00

Robert Prior, ePublisher of OAPT Newsletter
science@robertprior.ca

How do you conduct physics experiments remotely? Most students will not have access to much in the way of measuring equipment, but most of them have smartphones that contain a variety of sophisticated sensors. Phyphox is an award-winning app developed at RWTH Aachen University that allows access to these sensors for performing physics experiments.

It’s OK to be an OK teacher in 2020

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2020-12-17T11:17:26-05:00

Brad Dixon, Science & Math Teacher, Minor Head of Science
Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute
bradley.dixon@ugdsb.on.ca

This year I feel like every time I turn around there is a new social media post, or email from my favourite teaching organization or vendor, introducing or highlighting a new innovative COVID-19-friendly teaching practice. It is great that so many people are reaching out and sharing ideas to help advance us all as a profession.

In any other year, I have enjoyed scrolling through social media to see this sharing, and have utilized many good ideas and resources from those who share. I have always been thankful for those who take the time to share their ideas freely online, and sometimes I even try to contribute my own ideas. However, this year I am finding that seeing this sharing is more stressful than helpful. After some self-reflection I came to the conclusion that I only have the time, energy and mental capacity to be an okay teacher this year. I also decided that I’m okay with that.

Cooperative Groups for Simultaneous Learning

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2020-12-10T22:45:20-05:00

Chris Meyer, President, Ontario Association of Physics Teachers
chris_meyer1@sympatico.ca

Our first quadmester of teaching has been filled with many surprises. A big surprise for me was how well cooperative group learning worked in my class — I was quite nervous and doubtful about this! In the end, it allowed my colleague Mike Doig and me to deliver a very rich physics course that used simultaneous learning from day one. In this article, I will share our strategies, which I hope will help you with your teaching. Read on!

General Relativity: Beyond the Bowling Ball and the Trampoline

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2020-11-23T11:09:33-05:00

Kelly Foyle (kfoyle@perimeterinstitute.ca), Outreach Scientist, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
Philip Freeman (freeman@sphericalcows.net), Teacher, sd38 (Richmond) Richmond, BC

The authors were inspired to write this article while they worked on Perimeter Institute’s new black hole resource together. To learn more about general relativity and black holes and find ready-to-use, hands-on activities you can do with your class, download the free resource here.

One of the most startling and remarkable discoveries of the 20^th century was that gravity is not a mysterious, invisible force. In developing general relativity, Einstein showed that gravity is the curvature of spacetime due to the presence of mass and energy. But what does the “curvature of spacetime” mean? It is hard to get your head around this mind-bending concept! In relativity, space and time are mixed together into “spacetime” and gravity is explained by the curved geometry of this combination. That space and time can be mixed and curved is contradictory to all our everyday experiences. It is a lot for our brains to handle. While physicists can use the equations, even they need to use analogies to build a deep understanding of such counterintuitive concepts.

One common analogy used to introduce general relativity is the idea of a “mass on a rubber sheet” or “bowling ball on a trampoline”. The bending of the surface caused by the mass pulling the sheet down is used to illustrate the curvature of spacetime in general relativity. A rolling marble on the surface follows a curved path, or “orbits” the central mass, giving convincing evidence of the parallel between the sheet and the action of gravity. But there is a problem with this demonstration – it isn’t showing what it claims to show. In this article we argue that this analogy, as used, is fundamentally flawed and creates significant misunderstanding for both students and teachers. We explain where the problems arise, and how to avoid these problems and still provide a strong visual model and deeper understanding of how general relativity works.

First Virtual Physics Hour

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2020-11-10T09:12:50-05:00

On Thursday, November 5, 2020 we hosted our first Virtual Physics Hour. We were pleased with the attendance and the flow of the workshop and we plan to do more in the future. Below is a summary of presentations as well as a link to a Google Folder which contains slideshows and information from each presenter.

Adam Mills: Bringing interaction into the virtual world using Pear Deck, Jamboard and Peer Instruction.

Rachelle Frederick: Using observations and communication as a form of assessment and evaluation.

Ashley McCarl Palmer: Hands on Physics at Home

Chris Meyer: Cooperative Group Learning in and out of Cyberspace.

The Google Folder can be found here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1RKyNs2Zeswn7QH9_KBLzKRFs4ASx0vGc

Keep an eye out for our next workshop!

Call for Proposals

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2020-11-06T09:50:34-05:00

As many of you are aware, we will not be hosting our traditional face-to-face conference this year; however, we will be offering Virtual Physics Hours on a monthly basis! These Virtual Physics Hours will take place in early December, February, March, April and May during the evenings.

We are currently accepting proposals for sessions at a variety of time lengths to be delivered via Zoom during these Virtual Physics Hours. The deadline for proposals is Tuesday, November 24, 2020. If you have something you would like to present please fill out the Google Form.

Looking forward to your proposals,
The OAPT

How to Use a Green Screen for Teaching

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2020-11-05T10:44:15-05:00

Steven Fotheringham, Halton District School Board
fotheringhas@hdsb.ca

In August 2020, rather than to try to simultaneously juggle both the teaching of students online as well as face-to-face, I decided to focus my efforts on doing online teaching exclusively for the school year. It seemed like a better idea than the alternative, as our school board (HDSB) has expected teachers to teach to students online and face-to-face simultaneously.

This seemed like a genuinely once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to attempt something creative as well as to endeavor to solve the teaching requirement of the foreseeable future.

After months of experimenting with various settings, a solution presented itself that would allow me to superimpose my image onto a screen. This method worked with all video conferencing software such as Brightspace's Virtual Classroom, Google Meet, Zoom, Skype, etc. In this article, I will show you the physical setup of my virtual classroom, as well as the free software used to superimpose my webcam over my virtual blackboard.

Cognitive Apprenticeship, Problem Solving, and Online Learning

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2020-10-15T14:35:41-04:00

Chris Meyer, President, Ontario Association of Physics Teachers
chris_meyer1@sympatico.ca

Enter the Workshop
Let's help our students improve their problem-solving abilities by borrowing an educational idea from long ago. There was a time when learning a complex skill or craft involved years of work as an apprentice in the workshop of an expert. Imagine that we are a young apprentice learning the craft of making shoes.

Our first tasks might be very simple: putting the last tacks in a sole; lacing up the shoe; or adding the final polish. As our skills develop, we are given more complex and challenging tasks and construct more of the shoe until eventually we make our own from start to finish. There are two features of this mode of learning that are useful to emulate in our physics classes: the tasks given to the apprentice are usually meaningful because they help the expert and are important to the success of the workshop as an enterprise; and the apprentice receives rich continuous feedback that is mostly self-generated because she is able to compare her work against that of more experienced people.

Review: The PocketLab Voyager Bluetooth Sensor

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2020-09-26T10:47:09-04:00

Robert Prior, teacher at Agincourt CI
robert.prior@tdsb.on.ca

For years we’ve used computer-connected sensors to do physics. They can be extremely useful, but are expensive and require computers (which in my school are a limited resource). I discovered a pair of cool projects on Kickstarter that solve these problems: the PocketLab Voyager and PocketLab Air, made by Myriad Sensors. I just received my PocketLab Air, so in this article I’ll describe the PocketLab Voyager.

The Effects of the COVID-19 Shutdown on Graduating Grade 12 Students’ Physics Studies

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2020-08-25T13:49:27-04:00

Chris Meyer, President, Ontario Association of Physics Teachers
chris_meyer1@sympatico.ca

High schools were shut down this past spring [2020] due to the pandemic, causing learning to move online for the final three months of the school year. What effect has this had on the learning of our grade 12 students who have now graduated and are entering university this fall? I have been working with the U of T Engineering Outreach Office to try to answer this question. This spring, they created an online Engineering Academy to help grade 12 students improve their skills prior to starting their first-year courses. I was involved with the physics component of this Academy and surveyed the students to find out more about their COVID-19 learning experiences. The Academy was free to any student who accepted admission to U of T Engineering and many of the incoming students took advantage and signed up.

The Science of Group Work

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2020-03-14T12:20:20-04:00

Chris Meyer
President, Ontario Association of Physics Teachers
Hybrid Teacher-Coach for Science, Toronto District School Board
christopher.meyer@tdsb.on.ca

Who really likes group work? You know, like when your admin groups the staff at meetings to work on exciting, meaningful tasks? Many students grumble and resent group work, some of them knowing that they will have to pull the full weight of their team. There is a good chance that you did totally fine at school without much meaningful group work, so why bother, right? The reality is that group work is often organized poorly or haphazardly, making for an unsatisfying experience. However, when done well, group work is the most effective learning environment for the vast majority of students. Education research has compared the learning outcomes of many different learning environments and the ones that consistently come out on top are those that deeply integrate group learning. If you haven’t been a fan of group work in the past, I encourage you to read on! We will explore how the brain works, how group work helps it, and share some tips that will hopefully encourage you to look at group work in a new light.

Demonstrating Diversity in Physics Content Videos

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2020-02-08T14:32:17-05:00

Roberta Tevlin, teacher at Danforth CTI
roberta@tevlin.ca

I like to use videos that are just a few minutes long in my classes. I use them to supplement the hands-on activities and show physics that is too dangerous, difficult or expensive to do in the classroom. However, I recently noticed that almost all of the videos I use are hosted by people who are white and male. This reinforces a pervasive stereotype about what sorts of people do physics — which is not a message that I want my students to receive.

I went on a hunt for videos that could change that perception and I have put together a spreadsheet of what I have found so far.

Increasing the Gender Diversity in Lecture Content

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2020-02-02T08:52:45-05:00

Sara Cormier, Instructional Assistant, McMaster University
cormiesl@mcmaster.ca

At the 2018 OAPT Conference held at IQC, University of Waterloo, I had a very lovely, inspiring conversation with Roberta Tevlin. As a side note, I always have productive chats at the OAPT conference with a variety of people (this is a shameless plug to encourage everyone to register for the 2020 OAPT conference at McMaster. It was during this conversation that we chatted about how to increase the diversity of the examples we share in class. Afterwards Roberta spearheaded the idea to create a resource to share with everyone that compiles diverse examples of physicists. She pulled Michelle Lee, Sara Naudts and me in to help. The resource is really great and well laid out. I am supremely impressed with it (I had only a small contribution in creating the resource) and have used it to increase the diversity in my own teaching which I describe below. To learn more and use this great resource yourself, I encourage you to read another OAPT article (after you finish reading this one, of course), written by Roberta. You are also welcome to use any of the examples I’ve used below.

Shining the Light on Grade 10 Optics

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2020-01-02T11:38:20-05:00

Adam Mills
Vice President of Teaching and Learning, Ontario Association of Physics Teachers
Department Head of Science, Assumption College Catholic High School
adam_mills@wecdsb.on.ca

This article is the first in a two-part series surrounding the development of an inquiry-based optics unit for grade 10 Science. The focus of this first article is to provide the reasoning why inquiry-based optics is needed in Science 10 and some of the important ideas that I introduce to help battle the preconceptions students hold.

I taught Science 10 for the first time in a while last year, and I have it again this year (by request). After changing the way I taught Physics 11 and 12 to a more inquiry-based style, I decided to do something similar with Science 10. This in turn led me down a path towards more effectively introducing optics to my students. In speaking with other teachers, I quickly found that the simplicity of the mathematics in the optics unit can often mask serious conceptual difficulties. I began to look at what Physics Education Research had to say about the common conceptual misunderstandings and came across the following series of questions asked by Goldberg and McDermott in their 1987 paper [1].

The Light that Burns Brightest

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2019-12-08T09:14:25-05:00

Chris Meyer
President, Ontario Association of Physics Teachers
Hybrid Teacher-Coach for Science, Toronto District School Board
christopher.meyer@tdsb.on.ca

I have a question for you to think about, which I have chosen for two reasons: first, it is about electric circuits, which are fun; second, answering this question well requires thinking carefully about how we describe circuits. If you work through it carefully, you should discover one important reason why many students and teachers get tripped up when thinking about electric circuits. Now, I don’t want you getting bogged down in the weeds on this, so let’s start by assuming the devices are ohmic, meaning they faithfully obeys Ohm’s law. My question is this:

Which bulb would be brighter: a 10 Ω bulb or a 20 Ω bulb?

Take a few minutes to think about this question. What assumptions are you making about the circuit in which this bulb is found? Can you think of an example where either answer is the correct one? Keep thinking! And when you are ready for the full discussion, read on!

A New Look at Newton’s Laws of Motion

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2019-11-16T14:23:27-05:00

Roberta Tevlin, OAPT Newsletter Editor, Teacher at Danforth CTI
roberta@tevlin.ca

One of the standard parts of an introductory physics course is a study of Newton’s Three Laws of Motion. They are part of the Ontario curriculum for grade 11 physics and most teachers would agree that they are essential. Chris Meyer has presented an improved way to teach the three laws of motion that will deepen student understanding: Teaching Forces I and Teaching Forces II.

In this article, I hope to reinforce Chris’ approach with a look at how the history of these three laws is wrongly presented.

Quick Guide for Teaching Physics: Forces

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2019-11-10T17:31:29-05:00

Chris Meyer
President, Ontario Association of Physics Teachers
Hybrid Teacher-Coach for Science, Toronto District School Board
christopher.meyer@tdsb.on.ca

Welcome to part three of my “Quick Guide” series! We have dealt with the introduction to our physics course and the motion unit, which means it is time to tackle the topic of forces. There are many tips and tricks I have come across in physics education research and from refining my own practice that I would like to share with you, so read on! My challenge for you is to choose at least one tip from the list below to try out this year during your unit on forces.

How Strong of a Vacuum Can You Make with Your Mouth?

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2019-11-03T17:40:31-05:00

Eric Haller, Occasional Secondary School Teacher, Peel District School Board
eric.haller@peelsb.com

This summer I had the opportunity to teach the grade 12 college-level physics course for the first time.

Due to the nature of summer school in my board, I was not given access to any of the school’s science equipment or textbooks; thus, I had to come up with plenty of simple, wallet-friendly, hands-on activities for the students. While I came up with a few good experiments and demonstrations, my favourite activity was an experiment to see how much my students ‘suck’; or in more professional and appropriate terms, how strong of a vacuum they could create with only their mouths. To measure this, all you need is a long straw and some water. Keep reading to find out how!

Quick Guide for Teaching Physics: Motion

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2019-10-28T16:56:00-04:00

Chris Meyer
President, Ontario Association of Physics Teachers
Hybrid Teacher-Coach for Science, Toronto District School Board
christopher.meyer@tdsb.on.ca

Once classes have settled down and our students are trained (see the Quick Guide for Introduction Lessons), we are now ready to focus on teaching some physics! The first unit often taught is motion, both in the grade 11 and 12 courses. Most teachers feel pretty confident with this unit, but I hope to share some tips that might help you out in a few tricky spots. Read on!

Canadian Young Physicists’ Tournament

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2019-10-22T19:16:27-04:00

Jim Chen
caypt@stemfellowship.org

I would like to introduce to you a great opportunity for your students, the Canadian Young Physicists’ Tournament (CaYPT).

Unique Competition Style
Every year, the CaYPT Committee selects 10 open-ended physics problems for students to solve. Student form team of 3 to 5 and work for several month to conduct their own research. Unlike other physics competitions, the problems of CaYPT does not have a definite answer, it encourages students to develop their own theoretical model and conduct their own experiments to verify it.

CaYPT 2020 will be held in March at the University of Toronto. Students will present their solution in front of other teams in a thesis defense-like format. Their performance will be graded by professional physicists. The outstanding students will compete in the International Young Physicists Tournament (IYPT) representing Canada.

Great for Students and Teachers
The CaYPT is an exceptional opportunity for students since it allows them to apply physics concepts learned in class to real-life situations. It inspires students to explore concepts beyond the curriculum expectations. Many of the CaYPT problems can be easily converted to classroom demonstrations. This can help teachers attract more student into the school’s physics classes. Since the CaYPT is a team competition, it also makes for a great club activity.

For more information about CaYPT please visit http://stemfellowship.org/caypt/
For details about CaYPT 2020, please visit http://stemfellowship.org/caypt/caypt-2020/
The CaYPT 2020 Problems are available at http://stemfellowship.org/problems/

If you have any questions please contact caypt@stemfellowship.org

Equity Through Understanding: Electric Current & Potential Difference

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2019-10-13T12:20:57-04:00

Dave Doucette,OCT
Richmond Hill HS (retired)
STEAM Education Consultant, FAST Motion Studios, Toronto
doucettefamily@sympatico.ca

A 2016 paper¹ surveying Purdue University electrical engineering undergraduates discovered “…seniors were more confused than novices about physical concepts such as charge, current and electrical field.” The study did not reveal precise reasons but did caution that well-intentioned but incorrect analogies “usually transform into foggy concepts students carry towards graduation (p4).” This echoed a 2008 engineering-science paper² investigating obstacles to concept attainment of direct current. One barrier was weak modeling of the phenomenon, “…and identified the cause of this deficiency as lack of direct experience which can be remediated by creative instructional design.”

The actual mechanism of potential difference and direct current involves surface charge distribution. The challenge to develop this conceptual foundation is its invisible nature. Students cannot directly observe charge and ‘creative instructional design’ is needed to carefully scaffold inferences from static to moving charge. This paper suggests a series of activities to create the experiential background necessary for robust modelling of surface charge distribution. This conceptual foundation will be applied to series and parallel circuits to reinforce Kirchhoff’s laws.

We Can Fix the Gender Imbalance in Physics

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2019-10-09T20:49:47-04:00

Chris Meyer, OAPT President
christopher.meyer@tdsb.on.ca

We Can Do Better
For many years I really didn’t know what to do about the obviously small proportion of female students in my school’s physics classes. At the time, I think I managed to convince myself that it wasn’t my problem or perhaps that it was beyond my ability to change. Fortunately, I was wrong on both counts. We can improve the gender balance in our physics classes using two strategies: encouraging grade 10 girls to take physics with presentations and an after-school activity; and encouraging grade 11 girls to continue with physics by directly addressing gender issues.

A Ghostly Hologram

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2019-09-22T16:25:34-04:00

Saara Naudts, Physics Teacher (Peel District School Board)
saara.naudts@icloud.com

When I was looking at a quick and fun activity to spark students’ interest in optics, I came across several "how to turn your smartphone into a 3D hologram" videos. It shows how when you place a small, clear pyramid on your phone's screen playing a specially created “hologram” video, the video appears floating above your phone within the pyramid.

Intrigued, I wondered if this was just another internet hoax as I couldn't understand how a hologram can be created using a smartphone, but a colleague overheard my questioning and affirmed she heard from a teacher's friend's friend that this works! Hmmm... I wasn't really oozing confidence after that answer, so I tried building one myself.

Relativistic Mass or Rest Mass?

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2019-09-29T17:03:06-04:00

Philip Freeman, teacher at Richmond Secondary School (Richmond BC), Executive member BCAPT
freeman@sphericalcows.net

Most short introductions to special relativity include the idea that the relativistic mass of an object depends on its velocity (m = γm₀). However, if you do much further reading in modern physics you will soon come across the idea that this is a bad concept. Why? What is wrong with the term ‘relativistic mass’? Some answers to this are physical, some ideological. Here is an overview of the case for and against relativistic mass.

Demonstrating Diversity in Science

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2019-09-08T08:18:12-04:00

Sara Cormier, Michelle Lee, Sarah Naudts, Roberta Tevlin

The four of us, like many of you, are concerned about how slowly the world of physics is moving towards diversity. Over the summer we put together some resources to make it easier to demonstrate to our students that there is a place for everyone in physics.

Schrödinger's Class

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2019-09-08T08:12:42-04:00

John Donohue
jdonohue@uwaterloo.ca

Date & Time: November 22-24
Location: Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo, Ontario

Join us for three days at the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) for the fifth Schrödinger's Class teachers' workshop on quantum mechanics. You will have the opportunity to attend lectures and engage in hands-on activities focused on the integration of quantum technology into the current teaching curriculum. We will discuss quantum information science and technology to give you a deeper understanding of quantum mechanics. You will discover how harnessing remarkable quantum phenomena is not only transforming the way we compute and communicate today, but how it will change the technological landscape of tomorrow.

Application Deadline: October 4th 2019
The workshop will run November 22-24 2019

The workshop is open to any Canadian science and technology teacher, with a focus on physics and chemistry. There is no registration fee, and costs of transportation, accommodation, and meals are covered.

More details can be found at: www.uwaterloo.ca/iqc/programs/schrodingers-class

Quick Guide for Teaching Physics: The Introductory Lessons

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2019-09-02T08:27:12-04:00

Chris Meyer, President, Ontario Association of Physics Teachers; Hybrid Teacher-Coach for Science, Toronto District School Board
chris@meyercreations.com

Hello everyone and welcome to the first installment of my quick guide for teaching physics! In this series, I will share with you my tips and strategies for teaching each major unit of the grade 11 and 12 physics courses. The ideas I share come from my 20+ years of teaching high school physics and mounds of physics education research. In addition to quick explanations of what to do and why, I will provide links to help you learn more or access resources.

Improv-PHYS-ation: Cultivating Physics Learning Communities

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2019-06-23T17:29:21-04:00

Carolyn Sealfon, PhD, teacher at University of Toronto Department of Physics and researcher at the Ronin Institute
csealfon@physics.utoronto.ca

Nancy Watt, President, Nancy Watt Communications
nancy@nancywattcomm.com

We would all like to build classroom communities where our students flourish. We would like our students to develop their curiosity, creativity, critical thinking, persistence and resourcefulness. As science educators, what can we learn from the arts?

In improvisational theatre (“improv”), an “ensemble” is a group of people that work together cohesively and support each other to co-create a performance, recognizing and building upon each other’s individuality and contributions. For social learners, participation in an ensemble can foster our best learning. Can we create ensembles in our classrooms?

Rosalind Franklin, DNA and the Interference of Light

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2019-06-08T18:42:58-04:00

Roberta Tevlin, Editor OAPT Newsletter, Teacher at Danforth CTI
Roberta@tevlin.ca

We need to incorporate more diverse examples of scientists in our courses. Sara Cormier (Physics Instructor at McMaster University) and I are trying to develop resources that will help teachers to do this. (If you would like to be a part of this — please send me an email!)

I started to compile a data base of good examples when I found myself completely distracted by the work of Rosalind Franklin. Her work on the X-ray crystallography of DNA fits perfectly into a lesson about the interference of light! As well as showcasing an important female scientist, an examination of her work can deepen students’ understanding of interference patterns and it highlights a very important connection between biology, chemistry and physics. I found a couple of short videos and a really simple, cheap demo that shows why the interference pattern formed by DNA provides clear evidence of its helical structure!

As, for, of… How to effectively assess collaborative learning

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2019-06-02T08:47:54-04:00

Vjera Miović, Teacher at Silverthorn CI, OAPT Newsletter Volunteer
vjera.miovic@tdsb.on.ca

Imagine a test (and yes, it’s for marks!) during which everyone gets to see everyone else’s work, students can change, correct and update their product for a better mark, they consult each other and talk freely, and they even google information they need to solve a problem. What would you think of this assessment method if it was a physics class, or a math class? Wouldn’t that be considered cheating? And yet, my grade 9 tech students get evaluated exclusively this way.

The Hole Truth: Why black holes aren’t what you’ve probably been told they are!

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2019-05-26T10:33:45-04:00

Philip Freeman, teacher at Richmond Secondary School (Richmond BC), Executive member BCAPT
freeman@sphericalcows.net

Black holes are big news these days. Unfortunately a significant number of statements in the press are not only mistaken but wrong in ways that obscure the truly interesting and important things we know about black holes. This article hopes to clarify a number of points about what black holes are and are not.

The Story of Physics: Storytelling for High School Physics Teaching

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2019-05-16T19:56:13-04:00

Brian Lim, Teacher Rosedale Heights School of the Arts, Toronto
Brian.lim@tdsb.on.ca

“In the beginning…”

So starts one of the most famous and influential stories in Western civilization. Neil Degrasse Tyson continues the narrative this way:

“...sometime between 12 and 16 billion years ago, all the space and all the matter and all the energy of the known universe was contained in a volume less than one-trillionth the size of the point of a pin. Conditions were so hot, the basic forces of nature that collectively describe the universe were unified. For reasons unknown, this sub-pin-pint-size cosmos began to expand…” [1]

Photos from the 2019 Conference

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2019-05-09T16:35:38-04:00

Courtesy of Rolly Meisel we have a small gallery of photographs from the 2019 OAPT Conference at IQC in Waterloo. Check it out and relive memories (or see what you missed)!

See the gallery…

Update on the May 22nd OAPT Grade 11 Physics Contest

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2019-05-08T16:25:48-04:00

Shawn Brooks, Manager of the OAPT Contest, teacher at UTS
sbrooks@utschools.ca

Sandy Evans, Editor of the OAPT Contest, teacher at Northview Heights Secondary School
Sandy.evans@tdsb.on.ca

This is a reminder about the upcoming FREE OAPT Physics Contest on May 22^nd. This year, for the first time, the contest will be open to BOTH Grade 11 AND Grade 12 students due to the generous support of the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto.

Controlled Experiments with Three Factors in SPH4C Grade 12 College Physics

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2019-05-05T10:46:17-04:00

Tim McCarthy, Teacher, St. Ignatius of Loyola Catholic Secondary School
mccarthyt@hcdsb.org

Controlled experiments with three factors are a great way for physics students to practice identifying and testing factors that may affect a situation. They provide an excellent opportunity to practice the Scientific Investigation Skills found in Strand A. The students are provided with a situation, brainstorm possible factors that may affect the situation, reduce the list of factors to three that can be tested in the physics lab, develop hypotheses, design procedures to test the factors, test the factors, analyze the data, perform experimental error analysis, and draw conclusions on the effects the three factors have had on the original situation.

My struggle has been to find situations that easily fit this format and that also match the curriculum specific expectations. I have created one three-factor controlled experiment for each of the six units in my 12C physics course. The three-factor experiment in the first unit is used as assessment for learning (formative) to teach the students how to do a controlled experiment. The remaining five experiments are used as assessment of learning (summative). Simulations are used for some experiments as I do not have the necessary equipment to perform all them in the lab.

Marking Tests Faster

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2019-04-26T06:04:23-04:00

Robert Prior, teacher at Agincourt CI
robert.prior@tdsb.on.ca

Many of us find marking tests a necessary chore. It has to be done, but it’s drudgery. This article describes how I use an app and the Ontario Achievement Charts to mark tests 2-3 times faster, as well as analyze the results.

Event Horizon Telescope Captures First-ever Image of a Black Hole

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2019-04-11T19:24:01-04:00

Damian Pope, PhD, Senior Manager Scientific Outreach, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
dpope@perimeterinstitute.ca

What is the Event Horizon Telescope?
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is a network of radio telescopes spread across the globe. By pooling data from each instrument, it achieves the same effective resolution as a dish the size of the entire planet!

What did it discover?
The EHT collaboration has just released the first event-horizon-scale images of M87*, a supermassive black hole at the centre of galaxy M87. The image shows an asymmetric ring of light surrounding a circular shadow. The ring of light is not the accretion disk, it is the footprint of the relativistic jet created by M87*. The asymmetry is evidence for the direction of the black hole’s spin. The size of the shadow reveals the mass of M87* which can then be used to calculate the radius of the event horizon. Note, the shadow is not the event horizon.

Intersection Traffic Signals: Coding to Control Series and Parallel Circuits in Grade 12 College Physics and Grade 11 University Physics

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2019-04-21T13:25:40-04:00

Tim McCarthy, Teacher, St. Ignatius of Loyola Catholic Secondary School, Oakville, ON
mccarthyt@hcdsb.org

Coding is an important skill for physics students to learn. Grade 12 College and Grade 11 University physics students must build series and parallel circuits, so why not use coding to control them and model an everyday, real-world situation? This can be done by first using TinkerCAD simulations, followed by construction of the simulation using real components; Arduino UNO R3 microcontroller boards, breadboards, LEDs, resistors and wires. Students have a high level of satisfaction as they complete a task that is brand new to most and learn skills that they are likely to need in their post-secondary education.

Light ’Em Up!!! – Electric Greeting Cards for the Grade 9 Electricity unit

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2019-04-14T14:24:19-04:00

Andrew Moffat, Teacher Bishop Strachan School
amoffat@bss.on.ca

Students often struggle with the “Physics” unit in grade 9 Science — electricity. This can lead to a negative association with Physics and fewer students taking grade 11 and 12 Physics. At our school we have tried to make the electricity unit (and specifically the idea of circuits) more fun and engaging by having students create an electric greeting card consisting of LEDs and a battery. This can be done for around $2 per student.

Making Waves — a resource for exploring interference concepts

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2019-04-06T13:16:26-04:00

Philip Freeman, teacher at Richmond Secondary School (Richmond BC), Executive member BCAPT
freeman@sphericalcows.net

Waves are the source of many of the most beautiful and fascinating phenomena in physics, and a key idea underlying our deepest models of reality. The signature feature of waves is interference, and we frequently refer to interference effects to justify our claims about the wave nature of light (and electrons, and buckyballs, and…). This resource provides a new way to model waves that allows a more direct and intuition-building experience of interference.

2019 OAPT Physics Contest is Open for Enrollment!

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2019-03-31T12:54:10-04:00

Sandy Evans, Editor OAPT Physics Contest, Teacher Northview Secondary School
Sandy.evans@tdsb.on.ca

The OAPT Contest is a FREE physics contest and will run on May 22nd, 2019. It is free due to the generous support of the Department of Engineering at the University of Toronto.
It is open to all students in currently attending school in Ontario who had not completed 11U Physics in September 2018. There is even a strong possibility that it will be open in a separate division for Grade 12 students this year — more news about this to come!

Building Confidence and Motivation with Short Building Projects

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2019-03-24T08:52:53-04:00

Margaret Scora, OAPT Past President,
mscora@sympatico.ca

Roberta Tevlin, Editor OAPT Newsletter, teacher Danforth CTI
roberta@tevlin.ca

Mari-Ann Goettsch, teacher at Georgetown DHS
goettschm@hdsb.ca

Over the past couple of decades there has been a dramatic decline in students’ abilities to build and solve hands-on challenges. They are well versed in virtual reality but they don’t have much experience in how to work with materials. This is a shame. They are at a disadvantage when learning physics concepts and they will have huge problems with large projects like trebuchets or Rube-Goldberg machines. In this article we will describe a number of very short hands-on projects that provide opportunities to build stuff using cheap materials.

Quizlet Live!

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2019-03-09T16:02:57-05:00

Steve Fotheringham, OAPT Treasurer
fotheringhams@hdsb.ca

Are you looking for a quick way to assess your class’ understanding of a topic, a way to easily integrate technology into your lessons or a way to break up the routine of your class? If you answered “yes” to even one of these questions, let me introduce you to Quizlet.

Why Don’t Students Improve? Part II

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2019-02-26T21:11:12-05:00

Chris Meyer, President, Ontario Association of Physics Teachers; Hybrid Teacher-Coach, TDSB
Christopher.meyer@tdsb.on.ca

So you put all that time and effort into carefully marking the test, including helpful descriptive feedback, and what happens? The student grabs the test, looks at the mark, and tosses it away. Us teachers understand that a test is an important learning experience, but this common student behaviour shows students think otherwise: a test is just a chance for us to deny them marks or sort out the strong students from the weak (a ranking they already know). From that viewpoint, why should a student do anything more than look at the mark and/or complain? And why bother to look at the feedback and make any effort to improve?

EdPuzzle

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2019-01-05T20:44:15-05:00

Adam Mills, OAPT Workshop Coordinator, Teacher - Assumption College Catholic High School
adam-mills@wecdsb.on.ca

One tool that has really helped change the look of my Physics classroom is Edpuzzle. https://edpuzzle.com/ Edpuzzle is a website that allows teachers to embed questions within videos already created from YouTube or other sources. I find this tool particularly useful to help minimize the amount of direct instruction that I am giving my students in class. This allows my students more time to participate in richer educational strategies such as peer instruction, cooperative group problem solving and inquiry based learning.

Award for Excellence in Teaching High School/CEGEP Physics

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2018-12-20T19:18:50-05:00

Canadian Association of Physicists

Nominations are open for the 2019 award. No one won the award in Ontario last year because there were no applications! Let’s not let this happen again.

There are many great teachers in Ontario, but they are too modest. Find one and nominate them. It is good for that teacher, their school and physics education.

The applications are due by Feb. 28, 2019.

More information about the award and a link to register the nomination is here
https://www.cap.ca/programs/medals-and-awards/medals-teaching/hscta/

Stop Marking So Much!

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2018-12-17T06:06:57-05:00

Roberta Tevlin, Editor OAPT Newsletter, teacher Danforth CTI
roberta@tevlin.ca

Marking is important, but it is boring and it takes you away from the more important aspects of teaching and life. Marking numerical problems is not too bad, but questions that require answers in sentences can be really time-consuming. A number of teachers have complained to me about how much time they spend marking and have asked me to pass on some of my techniques for reducing this.

Why Don’t Students Improve? Part I

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2019-01-15T18:42:50-05:00

Chris Meyer, President, Ontario Association of Physics Teachers; Hybrid Teacher-Coach, TDSB
Christopher.meyer@tdsb.on.ca

For years it drove me crazy. I would remind students again and again about common mistakes and important details; I would make a grand production of it. But, they would make the same errors again and again. Why? A big part of the answer is this: my students never practiced assessing the quality of their own work and making improvements. This is the idea behind metacognition: the ability to monitor the process and quality of one’s own thinking and work. If we don’t train our students and give them opportunities to practice metacognition, they won’t develop this important skill. And they won’t improve.

Learning the Current Electricity Ropes

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2018-12-08T13:01:10-05:00

Chris Meyer, President OAPT
christopher.meyer@tdsb.on.ca

Electricity is almost always invisible; we never get to see electrons doing their thing. Only occasionally do we observe some by-product of electrical shenanigans like a spark, a glow, or a warm battery. This makes learning about electricity tough. As a result, many students (and even some teachers!) don’t develop a clear mental model representing how electrons move in a circuit. There are two important ideas are often missing from our mental models.

College Physics: Electronic Literacy and Numeracy

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2018-12-01T14:30:00-05:00

Roberta Tevlin, Teacher Danforth CTI, OAPT Newsletter Editor
roberta@tevlin.ca

I am teaching the college physics course for the first time. My thirty years of teaching 12U physics and grade 9 science has not been a great guide for this. After two months, I am still struggling. Many of my lessons didn’t go the way I expected and some of them didn’t work at all!

Fortunately, two assignments did work well and in this article I will describe what I did and why I think they worked.

2019 OAPT Conference

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2018-11-18T09:09:03-05:00

Plans are well underway for this year’s OAPT conference being held May 2-4 at the Institute of Quantum Computing in Waterloo.

Our theme is Entangling Learning. We will be highlighting some of the exciting things happening where physics connects with student learning, as well as how we can entangle different parts of the curriculum. Physics is more than a body of knowledge — it is a very successful way of approaching a wide variety of problems.

Registration for the conference will open in February. In the meantime, mark your calendars!

Proposals for Workshop Sessions
We are accepting proposals for sessions at a variety of time lengths. The deadline for proposals is January 25th, 2019. If you have something you would like to present please fill out this Google Form. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdhiR9elS8i2bmuu0MGiGKIMpQFFAzgtAmuRidztjoqEJjPxA/viewform

Financial Support for Attendees
The OAPT is aware that it can be very difficult for high school teachers to attend the OAPT conference because there is so little financial support for professional development made available by their schools, boards and unions. We encourage teachers to tap into these sources for wherever support is available. In addition we make things easier on teachers’ wallets in four ways. These supports are only possible through the generosity of several organizations.

Conference fees are kept very low because the host university provides the facilities and many of the speakers at no cost. Our thanks this year go to The Institute of Quantum Computing.
Residence fees are only $29.99 a night because the real costs are subsidized by the University of Toronto’s Electrical and Computer Engineering. We thank U of T ECE for their many years of support for this and for supporting the OAPT Grade 11 Physics Contest.
The OAPT believes that encouraging first-time attendance will create a new generation of teachers who will want to attend again and again. To encourage first time attendees, we will cover their supply teacher costs for Friday May 11th. Please encourage the young teachers at your school to take advantage of this opportunity. You can apply for this subsidy by filling out this Google form https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfSxnP2v3WRYhScNn0tTvVZmjsOUz-kTmMhKYg_qlDWxv5CdQ/viewform?usp=sf_link
The OAPT recognizes that teachers in northern Ontario lack many of the PD opportunities that are available in the south. They also have much higher travel costs. For the eighth year running, the OAPT will be covering the travel costs for teachers north of Algonquin Park. We would like to thank the Perimeter Institute of Theoretical Physics for helping us to provide this support. You can apply for this subsidy by filling out this Google form. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScjlQ8mPI_aKT7pRM56b4W8oQHsQyfE-OvjNa11HfO7EfldVA/viewform?usp=sf_link

Visualizing Static Electricity

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2018-11-25T13:24:15-05:00

Chris Meyer, President, Ontario Association of Physics Teachers
Christopher.meyer@tdsb.on.ca

Static electricity might very well be the most important topic taught in high school science. Exploring static electricity teaches us how charged particles behave, which becomes the basis for understanding the structure of the atom, chemical reactions, the behaviour of complex biological molecules, cells, and even human thought. Static electricity is challenging to understand because it is invisible; we can’t see the particles doing their thing. As a result, we need to help students construct concrete, visual models of charged particles and provide students with visual ways of verifying their understanding of static electricity.

Mirrors and Ray Diagrams App for Grade 10 Science

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2018-11-11T09:56:23-05:00

Matthew Craig, Teacher at the Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto
matt.simon.craig@gmail.com

I’ve been programming a suite of PC/MAC/Android simulations designed for teaching the Ontario curriculum for science and physics. Previously, I wrote about a Metal Leaf Electroscope Simulator.

In this article I am introducing a simulation I use to teach mirrors and ray diagrams in grade 10 optics. PhET has a simulation for refraction and one for lenses but there is nothing for mirrors, so I developed this simulation for grade 10 optics.

The BIG 5 Challenge: A Rich Activity for the Motion Unit

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2018-11-03T16:13:56-04:00

Chris Meyer, President, Ontario Association of Physics Teachers
Christopher.meyer@tdsb.on.ca

Here is a rich problem solving activity that I use when introducing the five equations of constant acceleration with my grade 11s.

Goal: I want to teach my students how to apply their new understanding to real physical situations and avoid plug’n’chug type questions.

Opportunities for educators to learn quantum: Schrodinger’s Class

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2018-10-14T19:12:49-04:00

Quantum mechanics is a complex subject, but its basic concepts are being taught in Canadian physics curricula. To encourage and inspire students to pursue careers in STEM, educators should have access to the tools and resources that reflect the current content and understanding of the field. Who better to help equip them than the experts pioneering the field itself?

Schrodinger’s Class is a 3-day workshop that takes place at the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC), a scientific research institute at the University of Waterloo. Led by John Donohue, IQC alumnus and now Scientific Outreach Manager, this workshop gives science educators like you the opportunity to attend lectures and engage in hands-on activities focused on the integration of quantum technologies into the current teaching curriculum. Activities include the introduction of quantum superposition using inexpensive light polarizers, as well as using simple physics and math to convey the "spookiness" of quantum entanglement. There will be discussions about quantum information science and technology to give you a deeper understanding of quantum mechanics to bring back to the classroom. You will not only discover how harnessing remarkable quantum phenomena is transforming the way we compute and communicate today, but also how it will change the technological landscape of tomorrow, with your students at the helm.

Here’s what past participants had to say about the event:

“It was an amazing opportunity to gain a better conceptual understanding of quantum physics: great to fill in some gaps as well as uncover some misconceptions I didn’t know I had.”
“I enjoyed being treated like a professional. The entire workshop is engaging and interesting. I felt motivated to go back and teach all physics content, not just quantum, after participating in this workshop. In addition, I enjoyed meeting other physics teachers.”
The activities were “student-friendly” and able to make “quantum tangible” in a time where “there are very few resources out there for quantum mechanics in its modern interpretation.” The collaborative, challenging, and fast-paced environment bolstered their enthusiasm for physics, inspiring them to pass along that passion for to their students.
“I arrived home from the workshop at 11:00 p.m. Sunday night, and at 11:00 Monday morning, I started teaching my Physics 2 students a series of lessons about Quantum Cryptography!!”

There is no cost to the workshop. While there is a $100 deposit require to secure your spot, this deposit is refunded at the end of the event. For those who live greater than 50 km away, accommodations are booked at no cost to you. Applications are open until October 22.

Schrodinger’s Class
November 30-December 2, 2018
IQC, University of Waterloo, Waterloo ON
Free, with $100 deposit

New Physics Videos from the University of Guelph

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2018-10-27T10:56:04-04:00

Joanne O’Meara, Professor and Associate Chair University of Guelph
omeara@uoguelph.ca
Orbax: orbax@uoguelph.ca

As part of a recent endeavour of at the University of Guelph to flip the classroom, we have created a library of YouTube videos to accompany one of our first year courses: Physics for the Biological Sciences.

Physics Experiment Videos and the Rotating Fish Tank

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2018-10-19T19:12:13-04:00

Eric Haller, Occasional Secondary School Teacher, Peel District School Board
rickyhaller@hotmail.com

In science, it’s always nice to be able to do a hands-on experiment. While there are many experiments you can do in class, there are some you can’t. Sometimes a particular experiment may require expensive equipment that you don’t have, may take too long to set up, may yield data that is too imprecise to analyze properly, or an experiment may be too dangerous for a classroom setting. At the latest annual OAPT conference Andrew Moffat showed us several websites with video libraries filled with experiments that I wouldn’t be able to recreate myself (skip to the end of this article for those links). To give you a taste of what kinds of videos are available, and how you might build a lesson around one of them for your students, I’d like to analyze one of my favourite videos from the collections.

Accommodating Multiple Special Education Needs in One Classroom

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2018-10-14T19:08:32-04:00

Roberta Tevlin, teacher Danforth CTI, Editor OAPT Newsletter
roberta@tevlin.ca

Recently, I and all of the other teachers at my school spent an afternoon learning how to access the IEP’s (Individual Education Plans) of our students with special education needs. We were supposed to make notes from these extremely wordy documents and figure out how to implement the required accommodations in our classrooms. Half of our students have IEP’s and all around me, I heard teachers getting frustrated. How are you supposed to address all of these individual needs at the same time?

It isn’t as impossible as it may seem. Much can be accomplished by using the principal of Universal Design and by implementing teaching techniques from Physics Education Research.

Explore Extrasolar Worlds: A hands-on activity for high school science and physics courses

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2018-10-07T19:47:04-04:00

Vjera Miović

Have you ever wondered about life on other worlds? How about what planets outside our Solar System might look like? Do they have an atmosphere? Are they in the habitable zone for their star? Your students most certainly have — especially if they watched any space movies, comics or video games. In that case, leave the motions of our Sun, Moon and Earth behind and let your students go deeper and farther into space in search for exoplanets!

All you need for each station is a light bulb, a box and some play dough balls. Don’t let the cheap materials fool you – there are deep inquiry-based learning opportunities in this activity to satisfy the most curious of minds. Let’s begin.

Spiraling 3U: Why I’m reshuffling the deck

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2018-09-24T20:57:30-04:00

Ashley McCarl Palmer, Teacher Waterloo DSB

There is a growing momentum in the elementary panel to spiral subjects, especially math, which is now flowing into secondary schools. My board has been pushing the spiral math method in the grade 9 and 10 applied courses for the past few years and last year in September our principal asked us to think about our courses to see if spiraling could be beneficial there as well. If I’m completely honest, I scoffed at the idea at first.

PI Workshop at SNOLAB Oct 12th -13th!

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2018-09-14T13:17:44-04:00

In partnership with the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, SNOLAB is hosting a special 2-day workshop for high school physics teachers on October 12^th and 13^th, 2018 in Sudbury.

This free workshop will take place at SNOLAB and consist of hands on teaching resources from Permitter Institute to bring cutting edge research into the high school science classroom with sessions on dark matter, dark energy, exoplanets and more. These workshops will be delivered in English but all resources will be available in both English and French. The second day, Saturday Oct. 13th (which is optional) will include a tour of the underground facility and a lunch and learn with a SNOLAB researcher.

Ontario teachers coverage for the Friday of this workshop is available upon request. Please see the attached poster for more details and feel free to distribute to teachers in your network who may be interested.

Interested teachers can email me at Blaire.flynn@snolab.ca or fill out the registration form here: http://www.pitp.ca/SNOPI-workshop

Let me know if you have any questions at all or would like to discuss this opportunity further!

Many thanks,

Blaire

Blaire Flynn | Education Outreach Coordinator | SNOLAB

705 692 7000 x 2806
www.snolab.ca

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The Future of Physics Teaching

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2018-09-15T11:58:30-04:00

Chris Meyer, President, OAPT
christopher.meyer@tdsb.on.ca

This will be my 21^st year of teaching. I still enjoy my work, but I definitely feel older, crustier, and ... somewhat stumped. Over this time, I have learned a lot about teaching and made many changes. But as I refine my practice, I feel like I am not going in the direction I ought. As I learn more, I discover compelling teaching ideas that conflict with my current teaching practice and strain against the structure of our educational system. I will share with you what perplexes me, in the hope that you will find solutions that I cannot. These are my thoughts about the future of physics teaching.

Perimeter Institute and 4C Physics

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2018-06-20T18:50:32-04:00

Do you teach 4C physics? The Perimeter Institute of Theoretical Physics is planning to create a resource tied to 4C physics and wants to know what you think would be most useful. You can help out by filling in this brief (3 minute) survey. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZM9YYRT If you don’t teach 4C physics, but know someone who does, please pass this on to them.

The End of Conventional Current

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2018-06-17T08:46:56-04:00

Chris Meyer
President, Ontario Association of Physics Teachers

Time to Let Go
It’s time! Conventional current, the mysterious flow of positively charged particles in current electricity, has outlived its usefulness. This model hinders the development of clear physical understanding and places an additional, unnecessary conceptual burden on all our students. We ought to let the few students who pursue the electrical trades, electrical engineering, or physics deal with this awkward relic. Use electron current in high school. It’s time to let go of the ghosts from our disciplinary past and focus on improving our students’ learning.

Hands-On Fields

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2018-06-04T17:29:36-04:00

Roberta Tevlin
Teacher at Danforth CTI, Manager OAPT Newsletter

The concept of fields is fundamental to our modern understanding of physics and the Ontario curriculum dedicates one of the five units in 12U physics to Gravitational, Electric and Magnetic Fields. I have struggled for many years to find ways to make this important but abstract concept more tangible to my students. Here is what I have come up with so far.

OAPT-OTF Physics Camp is back!!

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2018-06-04T17:30:13-04:00

Exploring Inquiry in Science and Physics
Kingston, July 24-26, 2018

Join James, Roberta and (some surprise presenters!!) for twelve new workshops for physics in grades 9-12. These sessions will include topics such as smart phone apps, gravity assists, modelling particle models and concepts schmoncepts. It will also feature three brand-new resources from the Perimeter Institute of Theoretical Physics on Energy, Waves and Climate Change!

All of the workshops will be fully hands-on and engaging. You will have lots of time to explore the materials and discuss the concepts with other keen teachers like yourself. We will be following a schedule that is quite different from the other OTF camps, but which has worked really well in the past. The first two days will be extra-long so that the last day (Thursday) is just a half-day which will make getting home easier. Because we start bright and early on the Tuesday, we strongly recommend that you ask for the optional accommodation on Monday night.

This camp is fully funded by the OTF and therefore registration is only open to teachers who are part of the OTF. We are sorry that we can’t include private school teachers or teacher candidates.

Registration opens June 1.

Last year, we had more registrants than space — so make sure you sign up early! If you have any questions, feel free to email roberta@tevlin.ca. Please email Roberta after you register, so that she can arrange car pooling and other last minute things.

Check out the agenda for more detailed information.

LEDs: An alternative to traditional bulbs

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2018-05-27T19:15:06-04:00

David Gervais
STAO Safety Chair

The traditional incandescent bulbs used for teaching series and parallel circuits are rated for 3 V or 6 V. The problem is that many power supplies can generate 12 to 15 V. As a result, it is common to have many blown bulbs. With several sections teaching this unit, bulbs can quickly become in short supply. Each bulb replacement can cost $1.00 each, and often are included in the general department order at the end of each semester. For those teachers using breadboards, traditional bulbs are also not easily adapted to fit into the small holes. LEDs are a great alternative for many reasons.

“Why Am I Not Getting This?” Feelings of Competence Among Young Women in Physics and Strategies to Strengthen These

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2018-09-01T15:18:42-04:00

Lindsay Mainhood, M.Ed., OCT, current research assistant at Queen’s University
lindsay.mainhood@queensu.ca

As a physics teacher, have you heard your students question their competence in physics? Have you heard them doubt their competence, or even express defeat in understanding physics? For reasons that may be obvious, such feelings among students can be adverse to their success and continuation in physics. Such feelings among young women can be understood as particularly detrimental on the journey toward gender equity in physics.

To explain why feeling competent is an important aspect of students’ success in physics, a research-based rationale is helpful to consider. Physics identity, a concept suggested by Hazari, Brewe, Goertzen, & Hodapp, can be described as the extent to which someone feels like they are a “physics person” (2017, p. 96). A strong physics identity is dependent on the development of four feelings (interest, competence, performance, and recognition). The importance of students’ development of physics identity is substantiated by the fact that physics identity has been shown to strongly predict students’ academic success in physics (Bliuc, Ellis, Goodyear, & Hendres, 2011) and career choice (Hazari, Sonnert, Sadler, & Shanahan, 2010). Feelings of competence, one component of physics identity, are the focus of the article. Competence can be defined as the feeling of being capable of understanding physics concepts.

In this article I share my research study’s findings related to young women’s feelings of competence during their high school physics education. This article’s aim, then, is to connect teachers to their students’ feelings of competence, or lack thereof, and to underscore the importance of helping students to feel competent for success and continuation in physics. Finally, I offer practical recommendations for teachers to help support feelings of competence in students in the physics classroom.

DIY Simulations

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2018-04-24T18:41:36-04:00

Tasha Richardson, OCT
tasha.richardson@tdsb.on.ca

Like many physics teachers in Ontario, I have used pre-boxed learning simulations: PhET, by University of Colorado; Gizmos, by ExploreLearning, and so on. But after having a conversation with a former student, I now have students build their own simulations. I like to ask former students what I could have done better to help prepare them for their post-secondary program. The student in question shared that his engineering program required students to run a simulation of any experiment they were intending to perform prior to doing so in the physical lab.

Note: This article is a summary of a session at the upcoming 2018 OAPT Conference. (Session B: Friday, May 11, 11:15 am)

Making First Year Physics Fun

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2018-04-21T14:51:06-04:00

Ben Davis-Purcell, Instructional Assistant, McMaster University
davispbr@mcmaster.ca

The Department of Physics & Astronomy at McMaster University recently redesigned our first-year physics programme. The most important aspect of this project was the design and implementation of a new introductory physics course (Physics 1A03). Sara Cormier wrote about this course in detail last year, so I will just give a brief overview. Physics 1A03 sees an enrolment of about 1800 students each year, primarily by students who need one physics course to meet a degree requirement. Many students who take the course have never taken grade 12 physics or calculus, so we do not assume prior knowledge or use any calculus. Instead, the goal of the course is to give students an appreciation for physics and show its importance, focusing on concepts that relate to real-life problems. Most importantly, we want to show students that physics is not just valuable, but fun to understand and learn. In this article I will focus on some of my favourite ways in which we make Physics 1A03 fun. I will refer you to Sara’s article for a more detailed overview of the course.

Physics in the news as a vector for classroom engagement

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2018-04-15T10:23:37-04:00

Kelly Meissner, BSc, MSc, BEd
Bluevale Collegiate Institute, WRDSB
kelly_meissner@wrdsb.ca

Now more than ever it has become important for our students to develop a deep understanding of the science in the news that constantly surrounds them. These students will live with the effects of climate change and hopefully make important evidenced-based decisions rather than those based on alternative facts. It is imperative that when our students leave us, they have a strong moral, ethical and scientific compass that supports the betterment of humanity and our precious Earth.

Newton’s Cradle of Confusion

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2018-04-28T08:25:04-04:00

Timothy Sibbald, OCT, associate professor, Schulich School of Education, Nipissing University, North Bay.
timothys@nipissingu.ca

Tiberiu Veres, teacher candidate, Schulich School of Education, Nipissing University, North Bay.
tib.veres@gmail.com

Michael Anderson, teacher candidate, Schulich School of Education, Nipissing University, North Bay.
mdanderson384@community.nipissingu.ca

Newton’s cradle is a classic physics ‘toy’ that is interpreted as showing the conservation of energy and momentum. In some respects it is too good at what it does. Students see predictability in the action that takes place and may not be driven to consider it more deeply. In essence, the instructional problem is that the cognitive dissonance that it causes can be explained fairly readily as conservation of momentum. However, like so many elements of physics, if it is tackled in the right way the richness of Newton’s cradle can be revealed.

Astronomy Workshop

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2018-03-22T20:16:29-04:00

The Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, and Discover the Universe — a national, bilingual program to support the teaching of astronomy in schools — invite you to attend and participate in a FREE one-day astronomy workshop for schoolteachers. The focus will be on the grade nine level, but all interested teachers and education professionals are welcome.

When/Where: Saturday April 28, 2018 from 9 am to 4 pm on the University of Toronto St. George Campus, 50 St. George Street.
Note: the workshop venue is not wheelchair accessible.

The workshop will include curriculum-connected science mini-talks and discussions, a planetarium show, classroom activities and resources, free materials to take back to your classroom, lots of time for questions and discussion, and a chance to talk with astronomers and education specialists.

For more information, and to register, free of charge, go to:
http://discovertheuniverse.ca/workshop/astronomy-workshop-in-toronto-2018/

Discover the Universe (discovertheuniverse.ca) is sponsored by the Dunlap Institute, and the Canadian Astronomical Society.

Biophysics Contest

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2018-03-19T06:05:13-04:00

The Physics Department of York University is hosting a Biophysics contest.

This is a competition open to all Ontario high school students. The contest aims to investigate a rapidly growing frontier of science, and to promote skills in the communication of science. The goal is to demonstrate the interdisciplinary threads that connect together the physical and life sciences, which can seem and feel like disparate areas of science in high school and university! Students must create a poster to visually tell a "story" that relates a fundamental physical concept to a basic biological (or biomedical) topic.

This is a great opportunity to help your students get excited about what is happening where biology meets physics. The first prize is $1250!! The deadline for submission is midnight May1, 2018.

For more information, go to
http://www.biophysics.yorku.ca/contest/

The 2018 OAPT Conference is open for Registration!!!

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2018-03-10T11:32:37-05:00

This year’s conference will take place May 10-12 at Western University. The theme this year is Physics at the Boundaries, where we will explore how physics interacts with other disciplines.

There will be over 30 workshops to choose from to support physics education from grade 9 to 12 and post-secondary. It is a great opportunity to share ideas and concerns, make friends and professional connections.

The costs of the conference are very low — especially if you register before the early bird deadline of April 12 — and there are special rates for teachers who are new, retired or from the elementary panel. The accommodation is subsidized ($30 per night including a hot breakfast!) and there are a limited number of subsidies for travel and first-time attendees.

For more information about the conference and to register go to https://oaopt.wildapricot.org/page-18092

Improv for Scientists

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2018-03-06T16:45:00-05:00

Joanne M. O'Meara
Professor, Associate Chair (Undergraduate)
Department of Physics, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON
omeara@uoguelph.ca

In order to give our physics majors more opportunities to develop their communication skills during their undergraduate degree, we now require them to take a one-semester Science Communications course that focuses on sharing their passion for physics with diverse audiences. This course is structured very differently from the rest of their core courses, with weekly discussion sessions in which students are expected to share their thoughts and opinions on assigned readings or viewings. Students also do at least three presentations during the term and participate in regular in-class group activities such as brainstorming a script/storyboard for a video on the Physics of the Winter Olympics.

Young Women in Engineering Symposium May 5 2018

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2018-02-26T17:04:28-05:00

Dear STEM Educators,

Greetings from the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering at the University of Toronto. I hope this message finds you enjoying a healthy and productive school year. We are planning a campus event this spring designed to increase the number of young women entering STEM professions in Ontario, and we need your help! We are reaching out to Physics educators to identify top female Grade 11 Physics students to take part in our fourth annual Young Women in Engineering Symposium.

This free Symposium will take place on Saturday, May 5, 2018 and will feature:
• A keynote address from a leading female scientist or engineer
• Hands-on workshops
• An Engineering myth-busters panel
• A luncheon with current engineering female students

Kindly forward this message to your school’s Science Head, asking them to please share the application link below with up to three of their top Grade 11 female students (note that students must be entering their Grade 12 year in September 2018 and be planning on taking Grade 12 Physics):

http://uoft.me/YoungWomenEngineeringSymposium

Students interested in participating in the Symposium are asked to complete their application by Monday, March 26, 2018. Due to limited space, we may not be able to accommodate all applicants, and so we will confirm their participation through e-mail by mid-April.

Thank you very much for your help with this initiative. Please don’t hesitate to contact me or Jessica Chow (jessica.chow@ecf.utoronto.ca) if you have any questions.

All the best,

Micah Stickel

Vice-Dean, First Year
Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering | University of Toronto
Office of the Dean, 44 St. George Street, BA1009 | Toronto | Ontario | M5S 2E4
Email: cfy@ecf.utoronto.ca, m.stickel@utoronto.ca
Web: www.engineering.utoronto.ca, www.uoft.me/mstickel
Tel 416.978.7805 | Fax 416.946.0371

Metal Leaf Electroscope Simulator

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2018-01-28T11:21:15-05:00

Matthew Craig, Teacher at the Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto
matt.simon.craig@gmail.com

I’ve been programming a suite of PC/MAC/Android simulations designed for teaching the Ontario curriculum for science and physics. One topic for which I have never had an effective simulation is the metal-leaf electroscope for grade 9 science, and revisited briefly in grade 12 physics.

The electroscope simulation I have developed is a very simple simulation that can be used to show induced charge separation, charging by contact, charging by induction and grounding.

A New Approach to Teaching Motion: Modeling, Metacognition, and Mathematical Sense-Making

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2018-01-10T19:29:26-05:00

Chris Meyer, York Mills C. I., Toronto
Christopher.meyer@tdsb.on.ca

The Gold Medal Race
It was a thrill to watch the Toronto high school student Penny Oleksiak win gold in the pool at the Rio summer Olympics. Now my students and I watch her win every semester as part of our new motion unit for grade 11 physics. In this article, I will describe the new pedagogical ideas that I have built into this unit, starting with Penny Oleksiak. Penny’s outstanding performance is a great example for physics students because: she’s awesome, she’s female, she’s still in high school, and it draws students into a real application of what they learn: sport science.

The 2018 OAPT Conference

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-12-09T09:59:34-05:00

Plans are well underway for this year’s conference which is being held May 10-12 at the University of Western Ontario.

This year’s theme is Physics at the Boundaries. We will be highlighting some of the exciting things happening where physics connects with astronomy, biology, philosophy and more! Physics is more than a body of knowledge — it is a very successful way of approaching a wide variety of problems.

Proposals for Workshop Sessions:
We are still accepting proposals for sessions, but the deadline of Jan. 26, 2018 is fast approaching. If you have something to present please fill out this form.

Financial Support for Attendees:
The OAPT is aware that it can be very difficult for high school teachers to attend the OAPT conference because so little financial support for professional development is made available by their schools, board and unions. We encourage teachers to tap into these sources wherever possible. In addition we make things easier on teachers’ wallets in four ways. These supports are only possible through the generosity of several organizations.

Conference fees are kept very low because the host university provides the facilities and many of the speakers at no cost. Our thanks this year go to our host: Western University
Residence fees are kept to $29.99 a night because the real costs are subsidized by the University of Toronto’s Electrical and Computer Engineering. We thank U of T ECE for their many years of support for this and the OAPT Grade 11 Physics Contest.
Travel fees for teachers coming from northern Ontario and similar large distances are covered by the Perimeter Institute of Theoretical Physics. (This year, Ottawa will be covered.) To apply to receive this subsidy, please fill in this form.
Supply Teacher costs will be covered for a number of teachers attending for the first time. This is being offered for the first time this year using profits from our last few conferences. To apply to receive this subsidy, please fill in the following form.

Integrating Google Quizzes Into Your Teaching Practice

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-12-09T09:35:18-05:00

Steve Fotheringham, OAPT Exhibit Hall Coordinator, Teacher Oakville Trafalgar High School
Fotheringham@hdsb.ca

As with most teachers, I struggle to provide enough feedback for my students so that they can gauge their understanding of the material. As well, I receive emails on a regular basis from the parents of my students asking about their progress in class and they expect detailed answers. To resolve both challenges, I have turned to Google Quizzes for help.

Collaborative Group Problem Solving (Part 2)

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-12-02T17:13:42-05:00

Adam Mills, Teacher Assumption College Catholic High School
adam_mills@wecdsb.on.ca

As discussed in Part 1 of this series of articles, one of the major goals within my Physics courses is to expose my students to problem solving. In order to complete this I have my students engage in context rich problems through a cooperative group problem solving (CGPS) setting. Please refer to the previous article to see the initial setup I use in order to get my students ready to appropriately participate in these types of problem solving opportunities.

Scrambled Science: A Writing and Thinking Activity

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-11-22T17:54:50-05:00

Roberta Tevlin, Manager OAPT Newsletter, teacher at Danforth CTI
roberta.tevlin@tdsb.on.ca

Are you tired of reading answers from your students that just blather on and on about anything that is vaguely related to the question? It took me many years to realize that I needed to explicitly teach my students how to write a good answer. Dave Doucette’s workshops on giving students the H.O.T.S. (Higher Order Thinking Skills) started me on this path. Learning to write clearly also helps students to think clearly. In an earlier article, I presented an activity called Writing with the Four C’s. This time I would like to present something I call “Scrambled Science”.

OAPT Grade 11 Contest — Call for help

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-11-22T17:41:49-05:00

On Wednesday May 23, 2018, the OAPT is running its annual grade 11 physics contest. The competition is meant to check students’ understanding of the grade 11 curriculum. Students have 60 minutes to answer 30 multiple choice questions.

It takes a team of volunteers to make the contest happen and we want to open it up to the membership to get involved. We are looking for questions. Criteria include: (a) being based on the grade 11 curriculum, (b) mostly conceptual, and (c) original. Whether you have one question or five (or ten), please email it/them to oaptcontest@gmail.com by December 15.

Afterwards, the questions will be made available through the OAPT website as a resource for teachers to use as evaluations or as concept peer review questions. Credit will be given to all contributors.

More info about the contest and FAQ:
http://www.oapt.ca/grade_11_contest/

Signing up for the contest and viewing previous contests:
http://oapt.ece.utoronto.ca

Thank you for volunteering and / or signing up.

Using Math in the Physics Classroom Part I: Units and Conversions

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-10-28T12:05:58-04:00

By Chris Meyer

Do you shake your fist at the skies when you look over your student’s math work? Do you find yourself cursing the math teachers in your school? If you do, you are likely not alone. But are our grievances and grudges justified? As a physics teacher, it can feel very perplexing to watch one’s students struggle to use grade 10 mathematics in our grade 12 physics classes. Let’s give our math teachers a break for the moment and explore a surprising factor in our physics students’ struggle: the dialect of math that we speak in a physics classroom.

Advanced Curve Fitting

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-10-24T18:31:26-04:00

Eric Haller, Secondary Short Term Occasional Teacher, Peel District School Board
rickyhaller@hotmail.com

In many experiments students collect two-variable data, make scatter plots, and then try to find the line of best fit so they can talk about how two variables are related. Microsoft Excel has a built-in function that readily does this.

Fostering Physics Identity to Support Young Women in Physics: A Focus on Interest

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-10-09T15:56:20-04:00

Lindsay Mainhood, OCT, recent M.Ed. graduate and current research assistant at Queen’s University.
lindsay.mainhood@queensu.ca

The underrepresentation of women in physics is apparent at all levels of education and in nearly all countries of the world. When looking at the metaphorical leaky pipeline that supplies the field of physics with women, the largest “leak” or loss of young women from physics occurs in the period between the end of secondary education and the first year of post-secondary education (McCullough, 2002). At this time, we see women’s participation in physics education decline from 36% to 20% across Canada, a 16% loss of women from physics education (NSERC, 2010). According to other physics education research, high school is the period of education most likely to spark young women’s physics interests (Ivie, Cuzjko, & Stowe, 2001). This is of educational concern given that most young women reject physics in the period immediately after experiencing high school physics (Hazari & Potvin, 2005).

How might physics education be failing at recruiting and retaining young women? This article focuses in on findings from a study that sought to understand girls’ experiences of barriers (any factor that negatively influences their ideas and feelings about studying physics) in high school physics education. Nine women, who are now studying in a variety of Ontario university programs at undergraduate and graduate levels, met four times in a group setting as part of the research study to discuss their experiences in high school physics classes. This article offers teacher-oriented recommendations based on factors that influence young women’s ideas and feelings about studying physics.

Harnessing Emotions to Help Students Learn

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-09-24T13:02:46-04:00

Presented at the 2017 OAPT Conference, York University
Chris Meyer, teacher York Mills CI

The old me would have scoffed at the thought of my students’ emotional states while learning. “Suck it up and do your work” was my no-nonsense, starch-collared mantra. After all, I’m a physicist! But as I learned more about how the brain works, I was forced to confront my very emotional, educational prejudices. Let’s put our feelings as educators aside and simply ask ourselves the question: “what can I do to help my students learn better?”. Research into the workings of the brain reveal how deeply connected emotion is with learning; emotion is hard-wired into cognition. Teachers need to design lessons to account for students’ emotional response to learning and incorporate not just curriculum outcomes, but emotional outcomes. This article is a summary of the workshop I gave at the 2017 OAPT Conference. You can watch the video and download the PowerPoint slides to learn more.

Schlieren Photography

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-10-01T11:49:13-04:00

Richard Taylor, Teacher Merivale High School, Ottawa

Just before the end of the last school year, I saw this video on the Veritasium YouTube channel. I found it fascinating that such a simple setup could highlight such small variations in refractive index. But is it really so simple to set up? Could this be done in the classroom? My summer project was to investigate Schlieren photography.

Build an Arcade Game — A STEM Project

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-09-17T08:33:26-04:00

Nassi Rafiee, teacher Toronto DSB
Nassi.rafiee@tdsb.on.ca

Many grade 12 physics students plan to pursuit engineering in their post-secondary studies. Surprisingly, many lack a clear idea about the required skillset and what to expect in their next 4 years of education.

Last year I came up with the idea of having students design a mechanical pinball machine that demonstrates the mechanics concepts in grade 12. It was originally intended to focus on team building, engineering design process, physics calculations and writing skills, however as soon as I shared the idea with students, they got so excited that they formed their groups immediately and insisted that they wanted to build it too.

Solving the Math Teaching Problem

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-09-09T11:47:06-04:00

Chris Meyer

How should we improve math instruction in our province? Pundits and politicians are worked up about the recent, discouraging math scores from the provincial standardized EQAO tests. Luckily, our premier, Kathleen Wynne, is coming to the rescue with an announcement of “sweeping changes”, or maybe a “refresh”, for education in our province. But how will we know if any new changes are going in the right direction? The field of education is littered with the wreckage of pedagogical fads driven by experts who have little connection to functioning classrooms. To navigate this debris, the best maps are those that have been informed by the science of learning and the effective practices of our most successful teachers. These maps will help answer the questions we should be asking as we try to solve the math teaching problem.

Teaching Chris’ stuff without being Chris Meyer

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-09-03T13:24:50-04:00

Milica Rakic, Teacher at Walkerville Collegiate Institute, Windsor, ON
mica@opusteno.com

Have you ever had the feeling that your students can do so much more that what they have been showing you in class?

If you are looking for a change, you might find Chris Meyer’s material very helpful. I switched from traditional lecture-based teaching to using Chris’ resources for inquiry-based learning and my students are very happy that I have made that decision.

Eratosthenes Reloaded

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-12-15T21:59:08-05:00

Alasdair Paterson, Teacher at White Oaks Secondary School
Paterson@hdsb.ca

Last spring, I took my students 2200 years back in time. My grade 8 students measured the size of the Earth using shadows — the technique first described by Eratosthenes.

TRAPPIST-1: Planetary System/Rock Band

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-06-17T18:44:39-04:00

Matt Russo, post-doctoral fellow at the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CITA)
mrusso@cita.utoronto.ca

Astronomers and philosophers since as far back as Kepler and Pythagoras have imagined what the music of the spheres would sound like. With the discovery of seven Earth-sized planets orbiting in the nearby TRAPPIST-1 planetary system, this becomes possible as never before. Aside from being a prime target in the search for life, the TRAPPIST-1 planets are interesting because they form the longest discovered resonant chain. This means that the ratios of the planets' orbital periods form simple whole number ratios. For example, for every two orbits of the outer planet, the next one in completes three orbits and similar patterns exist among the orbits of every pair in this system. Since whole number ratios are the basis of rhythm and harmony, TRAPPIST-1 may be the most musical planetary system ever discovered.

Spring Surprise: Projectile Motion made Fun, Mathematical and Real!

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-06-10T15:52:15-04:00

Roberta Tevlin, Editor, OAPT Newsletter
Roberta.tevlin@tdsb.on.ca
Edited by Tim Langford

Projectile motion often involves a lot of mathematical problem-solving that is overly simplified and highly contrived. Football players do not stop to calculate the range before making a pass. Invading armies might want to make calculations for siege weapons, but these tend to be too complicated (trebuchets) or involve too much energy loss (catapults). Guess and check, was probably the preferred technique. Fortunately there is a cheap and reliable projectile launcher that you can use to show that physics works. Your students will be able to use it to hit a target on their first shot by using calculations for conservation of energy and projectile motion.

Collaborative Group Problem Solving (Part 1)

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-05-26T20:51:41-04:00

Adam Mills, Teacher Assumption College Catholic High School
adam_mills@wecdsb.on.ca

I am going to write a two part series of articles in which I discuss the ideas of Cooperative Group Problem Solving (CGPS) and how I use these in my classroom. In part one of the series the foundation for what CGPS encompasses will be discussed and in part two, I will go into more detail as to how I use it in my classes. These topics were discussed in my presentation at the OAPT conference this year. You can find the slideshow as well as extra resources at http://bit.ly/OAPT2017.

Physics Camp Summer 2017

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-05-21T13:17:10-04:00

Roberta Tevlin, Editor OAPT Newsletter
roberta.tevlin@tdsb.on.ca

Physics camp is back again this summer! It will take place just outside of Sudbury on the gorgeous campus of Laurentian University which has with miles of wooded hiking trails and a lovely lake and beach. It will be led by Chris Meyer, Roberta Tevlin and Greg Macdonald from August 9-11. It is paid for by the Ontario Teachers Federation and is completely free (materials, accommodations, breakfast, lunch, coffee breaks, transportation) as long as you are a member of this union. Registration details will be available soon, but in the meantime you should consider keeping those days available. Why would you want to go to physics camp?

Forensic Bloodstain Pattern Analysis

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-04-29T15:10:54-04:00

A Practical Experiment For Learning Kinematics and Other STEM Concepts

Dr. Theresa Stotesbury, Research and Product Development, Trent University
theresastotes@trentu.ca

I am part of a research group out of Trent University (Peterborough, Ontario) that has developed a teaching kit that provides a 60-minute problem-based experiment that is suitable for high school science students. The activity connects forensic science and kinematics through the analysis of blood spatter. I will be presenting the kit at the OAPT conference at 9:30 on Friday May 12th.

The Physics of Stunt Action Field Trip

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-04-21T17:45:13-04:00

Sarah Grimes, Justin Findlay, Dave Doucette, Physics Teachers

Movies, television and video games are awash with heroes, villains and their super-sized cousins. As media consumers, we are captivated by seemingly impossible feats of physical prowess. In fact, they are more than seemingly impossible — they are literally impossible. The magic of cinema coerces us to suspend disbelief and accept the impossible as plausible. How is this done?

With CGI, pulleys, wire-rigging and physics! The magic seen in Mutant X, Lost Girl and other programs was combined at FAST (Fight Action Stunt Team) Motion Studios in Toronto, a highly experienced international team of stunt action coordinators, artists and riggers. Students can visit the studio and experience the process first-hand. While there, they will make connections to the physics they’ve learned and will be exposed to career opportunities in a recession-proof industry.

Assessment is Learning

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-04-10T09:28:19-04:00

A Workshop at the OAPT Conference Workshop, Saturday, May 13
Chris Meyer

One of the most frustrating experiences I have had as a teacher is understanding why my students are not improving. I spend a lot of time and energy designing new and hopefully improved lessons for my students. I try to emphasize key details that I know are tricky or problematic for students. I give them careful feedback on their assignments and tests. And yet, my students make the same exasperating mistakes over and over again— they show such little improvement! But perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised considering I have never specifically rewarded improvement.

A Simple Vector Development of Centripetal Acceleration

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-03-17T08:53:10-04:00

Dave Doucette, OAPT Vice-President
doucettefamily@sympatico.ca

While teaching uniform circular motion in high school, I struggled with developing the a_c = v²/r relationship in an intuitive and cognitively meaningful way. Geometric arguments do not resonate with students. They accept on faith but often with little interest or insight. Here is an approach that may do a better job.

Scientific Teaching

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-03-25T12:17:22-04:00

Keynote Address from the TDSB Eureka! Conference 2017

Chris Meyer, OAPT VP teaching and learning, Assistant Curriculum Leader York Mills C. I.
chris_meyer1@sympatico.ca

When I started learning about the science of teaching, it was with very specific questions in mind like “how can I help my students understand Newton’s Third Law”, or “why do students keep using Δx/Δt for accelerated motion?” As I have explored questions such as these over the years, tantalizing clues have led me away from a specific focus on physics pedagogy towards an examination of how people learn. I discovered that the fields of neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and physics education research are offering up pieces of a scientific model of learning that can provide real, practical guidance for teachers. This model is in its infancy, but is a crucial step towards turning teaching into a practical science. In the fullness of time, it should be as revolutionary for teaching as Newton’s Principia was for natural philosophy.

Good Things Happen in an Affective Classroom

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-04-09T18:00:59-04:00

Christine Hudecki, Teacher our Lady of Lourdes Catholic HS
Christine.hudecki@wellingtoncdsb.ca

We were just a couple of weeks into the new semester when one of my students started to teach me and the rest of the class. It was a great moment and upon reflection, I think that the student felt comfortable ‘taking over’ because of a number of changes that have I made in my classroom. These were changes that reflect the theme of this year’s conference, Affective Physics: Harnessing Emotion to Improve Learning.

The Intersection of Science and Small Contractor House Construction

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-03-10T18:10:13-05:00

Dave Gervais, Chair STAO Safety Committee, construction worker

The options for your students that drop out of high school or graduate with high school are very limited. After rolling through the low paying jobs of the service sector, restaurant or retail business, construction work looks pretty good. How do the science and mathematical principles and calculations in construction compare to that taught in our science classes?

Webinars and Video Calls in the Classroom

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-03-01T18:58:48-05:00

Stacey Joyce, Program Manager at Partners In Research Canada (PIR)

I’m sure that you employ a variety of tools and strategies in your classroom, including inquiry activities, independent or group projects, “assessments as, for and of” learning… the list goes on. But how do you and your students answer the questions they come up with during or after the initial inquiry activity? What types of resources do you teach students to use for their independent research? How do you introduce the students to career options that use Physics?

Here’s where video calls and webinars come in, and don’t think that you can’t afford these options — they’re free from Partners In Research Canada (PIR)!

New Recommendations for the Safe Use of Laser Pointers

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-02-23T20:44:41-05:00

David Gervais, Chair STAO Safety Chair

STAO’s Safe on Science booklet is a great resource for teachers and is used as the standard for safe practices by many school boards in Ontario. It presently states that only class 1 and 2 lasers should be used in the classroom. This bans almost all laser pointers from your classroom. A recent OAPT Newsletter article questioned why class 3R lasers (most regular laser pointers) are not accepted. After carefully reviewing the literature and holding extensive discussions, STAO has decided that laser class 3R should be added for recommended use in schools. The Safe on Science booklet is being revised and will be completed by March 31. This will be sent to school boards in the province.

Colloquium at U of Guelph - Revolutions in Physics Education

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-01-21T09:21:46-05:00

Chris Meyer will be presenting at the University of Guelph Department of physics this coming Tuesday, January 24. All are welcome.

Title of Talk: Revolutions in Physics Education: Build a Better Student, Build a Better Teacher

Abstract: We live in an exciting time for teaching physics. Over 30 years of education research by physics professionals is transforming physics teaching from a mystical art into a practical science. In the process, many educational myths have been successfully challenged. Research is providing great insight into the cognitive development of our students’ physics understanding and the accompanying physical changes that take place in the brain. As a result, pedagogical techniques have broken free from the traditions and fads of the past, and are now grounded in an empirical understanding of how humans learn. By creating a research-based learning environment, we can literally build better students and build better teachers. In this talk, Chris will share the key results from education research that inspired him to create a lecture-free high school physics program that is now spreading across Ontario.

For more information visit: https://www.physics.uoguelph.ca/events/physics-colloquia/revolutions-in-physics-education-build-a-better-student-build-a-better-teacher

STEM Talk: Modelling Climate using Science, Mathematics and Technology

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-01-19T19:55:23-05:00

Dr. Jason Cole
Research Scientist, Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis (CCCma)
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC)

Date: Tuesday February 21, 2017
Location: Durham District School Board, 400 Taunton Road East, Whitby Ontario
Time: 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Understanding Earth's climate and factors that affect it is a complex and important issue for society. Models of varying detail and scope are tools that can be used to capture our knowledge about climate and to explore its response to different scenarios. In this talk, Dr. Cole will discuss the basic ideas behind one such model, called an Earth System Model, illustrating how we translate our scientific understanding into mathematical models and in turn use computer technology to solve the mathematics.

Jason Cole is a research scientist at the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis (CCCma), Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). He works on development and improvement of atmospheric processes in the Canadian Earth System Model and its evaluation using satellite-based observations. Dr. Cole was granted his PhD and MSc in Meteorology from The Pennsylvania State University after having obtained his BSc in Physics and Atmospheric Sciences from McGill University.

The Power of Quiet

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-02-17T19:53:09-05:00

Roberta Tevlin, teacher Danforth CTI, editor OAPT Newsletter roberta.tevlin@tdsb.on.ca

Edited by Tim Langford, Chris Meyer

Physics Education Research has provided solid evidence that lectures may be good at transmitting knowledge but poor at developing understanding and so we should implement student-centred learning in our classrooms. However, Susan Cain, the author of the 2012 best-seller Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking is very dismissive of the way group learning is replacing lectures. The book’s central premise is that our culture is too strongly slanted in favour of extroverts and they way they work and learn.

At first, the anti-group work message of the book just got my back up. I read it so that I could refute it. Further reflection has made me realise that it provides some important insights and even fits well with this year’s conference theme of Affective Physics.

Astronomy workshop for teachers

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-01-14T09:39:03-05:00

Jan.23 to Feb.10 2017

Is astronomy part of your school curriculum but you feel uncomfortable teaching it to your students? We have the solution! Discover the Universe offers a free online astronomy workshop for teachers. In this workshop, we will cover many astronomy subjects such as phases of the Moon and the Solar system and we will provide material and activities to use in class.

For information and registration: www.discovertheuniverse.ca

Blended Learning in a Large University Classroom

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-02-02T17:23:25-05:00

Sara Cormier, Instructional Assistant, McMaster University
cormiesl@mcmaster.ca

The Department of Physics & Astronomy at McMaster University recently redesigned the first-year physics course for the Life Sciences, Physics 1A03. We needed to design a course for a large number (~1800 students per year) who may or may not have taken any physics in high school. For many of these students, Physics 1A03 will be the only university physics course they take. It was essential that we make the course fun and relevant and help instill an appreciation for physics. We needed to create a course that was useful and exciting for students whose predominant interests lie in the life sciences, but also provide enough background physics for those students who may wish to continue in a physics stream. This was a challenge, but September 2016 marked the first anniversary of Physics 1A03 and I think it is now safe to say that we successfully met (or exceeded) our goals.

Improving Writing and Thinking in Physics: Writing with the 4 Cs

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-01-26T21:44:00-05:00

Roberta Tevlin, teacher Danforth CTI, editor OAPT Newsletter roberta.tevlin@tdsb.on.ca
Edited by Tim Langford

Are you getting frustrated reading answers that ramble on and don’t make much sense? Does it look like your students are writing everything they know about the topic in the hope that some part of it answers the question? Writing with the 4 Cs is a teaching technique to improve writing and thinking.

Simplifying Instructions to Unleash the Power of Memory

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-02-11T23:01:45-05:00

by Tim Langford
tim.langford@tdsb.on.ca

Last month I attended a “train the trainer” workshop for TWI: Training Within Industry. Industry is a different world than education. However, as I took in the information that our instructor offered, my mind naturally gravitated to how these lessons apply to what I know best, the teaching of physics. This is a short article that attempts to link one best practice from industry to what you and I do daily in the physics classroom.

Assessment for Learning: The Check Up

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-01-20T06:32:09-05:00

Ryan Thompson, OAPT Treasurer, Physics Teacher Newmarket HS
superryanthompson@gmail.com

When the Growing Success document came out in Ontario, the terms “Assessment as, for and of learning” were introduced. Even after teaching for 13 years, I still have to pause and stare into space as I try to differentiate between the three types. Time dilation is easier than that!

I believe in timely feedback and having direct involvement in each student’s success but I am also managing a schedule that is very limited on time (time dilation again!). As a result, I try to do what I can in the classroom.

This article will be about one technique that helps me reconcile the Growing Success document’s expectations, my own philosophy of teaching and limited time in the school day. This tool is called The Check Up and it helps the teacher get quick feedback about your past lesson.

Why is STEM Important to Physics?

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2017-01-12T20:34:58-05:00

Dave Doucette, OAPT Vice-President
doucettefamily@sympatico.ca

Lisa Lim-Cole OAPT Past President
l.limcole@gmail.com

A recent OAPT Newsletter article from John Caranci laments the fact that over the past decade, despite an increase in the total number of Ontario grade 12 physics credits, the percentage of females has remained at around 31%. John insightfully suggests looking at elementary education and we agree. But to better understand the challenge we need to have a good understanding of the shifting landscape in elementary education. The inquiry-based learning approach which anchors the curriculum is now being stressed by a newcomer to the field: STEM education. The good news is that STEM and inquiry are totally complementary — and both require habits of mind exemplified by physics instruction. If we work together to support K-8 educators in successfully marrying inquiry with STEM education, we are likely to see far more students selecting secondary physics course, including more females. A worthy goal!

Bringing the Wonder of Discovery Back into the Classroom

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-12-24T15:37:27-05:00

Christine Hudecki, Teacher Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic High School
Christine.hudecki@wellingtoncdsb.ca

The grade 11 and 12 physics curriculum, I find, is heavy with concepts and formulas. Every day or every other day a new idea is presented, different formulas introduced and a fresh set of problems need to be solved. One of the reasons I liked science and enjoy teaching science is that it is a ‘doing’ subject. It has the potential to get students out of textbooks and in front of equipment. They can learn skills and exercise their problem solving abilities.

In effort to put more ‘doing’ into the grade 12 Light unit, I looked at the polarization lessons. There are some strange things that happen with polarizing filters and most often I would have the students play with the filters after we learned the concept of polarization. It occurred to me that I should flip this order.

Introducing an Interdisciplinary Course (IDC) at Your School

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-12-17T15:37:27-05:00

Steve Fotheringham, OAPT Exhibit Hall Coordinator, Teacher Oakville Trafalgar High School
fotheringhas@hdsb.ca

Have you ever looked at your schools’ course offerings and noticed that some need is not being met? Perhaps the course selection for your applied-level learner is uninspired or there are no elective courses that encourage students to apply their imagination or creativity. Perhaps, what you are looking for does not exist on the list of courses in Ontario.

I’ve had this thought many times and have since had the privilege of introducing two new courses to my school — “Engineering Design” and “Leadership”. Both made use of the incredibly flexible IDC course code.

The purpose of this article is to share with you a few of the lessons (in no particular order) that I have learned along the way which in turn may help you introduce a new course in your school.

Rockets: A Beginners Guide Part 3

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-12-11T15:37:26-05:00

John Berrigan, Teacher Oakville Trafalger H.S.
berriganj@hdsb.ca

In the previous article we found the main factors that determine the thrust of a rocket engine. We rearranged the formula and determined the Impulse of the formula for rockets. With Elon Musk discussing his Mars rocket last week, http://www.spacex.com/mars, now is a good time to discuss how Impulse can be used to eventually determine the efficiency of a rocket engine.

Call for Workshop Proposals for the 2017 OAPT Conference

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-12-05T15:37:26-05:00

This year’s conference is being held at York University from May 11 - 13 and is sponsored by the Lassonde School of Engineering. The theme this year is Affective Physics, Harnessing Passion to Power Physics.

We are now accepting proposals for workshops. If you are interested in presenting, please fill in a proposal at https://goo.gl/forms/D39iNoOEcON6TmEZ2 The deadline for submitting is Jan. 16, 2017.

Are you unsure of why the affective domain is important in physics education? You might want to read this short introduction.

Affective Physics

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-11-28T15:37:26-05:00

Roberta Tevlin, OAPT Newsletter Editor, Teacher Danforth CTI
roberta.tevlin@tdsb.on.ca
Edited by Tim Langford

The theme of the 2017 OAPT conference is Affective Physics. This theme signals our recognition that physics teachers need to pay more attention to the emotional domain of learning. There is a growing realization that feelings have a huge influence on student motivation, engagement, deep learning and choice of study. It may also be a key to influencing more women to choose STEM.

Gender in Ontario Physics Classrooms

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-11-19T15:37:26-05:00

John Caranci, Lecturer in Physics and Chemistry Teaching, C.T.L., Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto
john.caranci@utoronto.ca

What does the gender balance in high school physics look like in Ontario? According to the Ontario Ministry of Education, 7,590 women earned a grade-12 physics credit in 2005/6 and nine years later there were 9,252. That is a 24% increase! At first glance it looks great. However, the increase for men was close to the same and from 2005 to 2015 the percentage of grade 12 credits in physics earned by women has remained steady at 31 ± 1 %. The good news is that while school population has decreased, the number of physics credits has risen from 23,542 to 25,589. The bad news is that the gender imbalance has not changed.

GIFs in the Classroom

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-11-11T15:37:25-05:00

Eric Haller, OCT
rickyhaller@hotmail.com

It’s autumn, and maybe you’re looking for a new way to impress your physics students this semester. I find it easy to amaze my class by using various forms of technology in my lessons. Often our students don’t realize how tech savvy physicists need to be, picturing us using chalkboards to give lectures and not using supercomputers at CERN or developing video games which use physics simulations. Ok maybe I’ve never been to CERN or made a video game, but I can make my own GIFs. In this article I’m going to show you some GIFs you can use in your lessons, and also teach you how to make your own GIFs.

Doing a 180 on the issue of cell phones

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-10-31T15:37:25-04:00

Christine Hudecki , Teacher Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic High School
christine.hudecki@wellingtoncdsb.ca

“Phones are a distraction”. “Teens don’t have the self-discipline to have a phone in class”. “It’s best to 100% ban the cell phones from the classroom”.

That was my attitude for many years. Ten years ago when I started teaching high school, there were only 1 or 2 students in each class with a mobile phone. Now it’s 1 or 2 students in each class that do not have a phone. Ten years ago cellular phones could make voice calls and send text messages. Now standard software and free apps enable students to do a wide range of useful activities: take pictures, record voices, capture short videos, set up a calendar, plan/manage their time, set up reminders and alarms, create to-do lists, do math calculations, check current events and of course, snapchat and Instagram their friends. I decided to start my new school year with the goal of frequently integrating the use of smart phones into my grade 10 science and grade 11 physics lessons in meaningful ways.

Rockets: A Beginners Guide Part 2

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-10-02T15:37:25-04:00

John Berrigan, Teacher Oakville Trafalger H.S.
berriganj@hdsb.ca

In the previous article we learnt how to find the largest possible delta-V that a rocket can experience. In this article, we are going to find the thrust of a rocket by using the fundamentals of conservation of momentum. This will be similar to what we did in the last article, however this time we will use variables instead specific masses and velocities. Furthermore, the cart is now a rocket, as this is rocket science!

Cheap and Safe Solar Observing for Grade 9 Astronomy

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-09-18T15:37:25-04:00

Roberta Tevlin, OAPT Newsletter Editor, Teacher Danforth CTI
roberta.tevlin@tdsb.on.ca
Edited by Tim Langford

It is difficult to get students to make astronomical observations when you live in a large city with lots of light pollution. However, there is one object that all of your students have seen, but probably not observed carefully — the Sun! I start my grade 9 astronomy unit by having my students observe the shadows formed by Sun.

PER Corner: Fixing the Gender Imbalance in Physics

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-09-11T15:37:24-04:00

Chris Meyer, OAPT VP teaching and learning, Assistant Curriculum Leader York Mills C. I.
chris_meyer1@sympatico.ca

I have a problem in my physics classes: by grade 12, only one third of the class is female. I used to think of this as a fact of life, or something beyond my power to change, but now I am sure that is wrong. Too many girls are missing out on some of the best training in critical thinking available in high school. Research suggests why: girls experience physics education differently than boys do. By understanding these differences, I am modifying my classroom to create an environment that supports girls and encourages their future participation in physics.

A Browser-Based No-Fuss Gravitation Simulator

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-09-02T15:37:24-04:00

Michel Enns, Teacher Runnymede CI
Michel.enns@tdsb.on.ca

I have been frustrated with gravitation simulators over the years because they stop working when the computers are updated. To avoid this, I have made one that is browser-based and will run on any device. You can find it at www3.sympatico.ca/michael.enns. One non-standard thing that it can do is simulate the formation of a solar system with a thousand random masses.

The NEW OAPT Newsletter and You

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-07-01T15:37:24-04:00

Roberta Tevlin, OAPT Newsletter Editor, Teacher Danforth CTI
roberta.tevlin@tdsb.on.ca

In the spring of 2015, Robert Prior brought the newsletter into its new responsive and accessible format and in August Roberta Tevlin signed on as editor. In the last ten months, there have been 37 articles from 18 different authors as well as many timely announcements. Thank you to all our wonderful authors. There is no Newsletter without you!

You probably missed a lot of these articles during the busy teaching year. It is easy to catch up on these as part of your summer reading.

Rockets: A Beginners Guide Part 1

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-06-29T15:37:24-04:00

John Berrigan, Teacher Oakville Trafalger H.S.
berriganj@hdsb.ca

Interest in rockets is skyrocketing due to the recent successes of SpaceX and Blue Origin, two private companies developing spaceflight. This is an ideal time to introduce students to the physics behind rockets which are an exciting illustration of the conservation of momentum and relative motion.

Notes from the CAP Congress June 12-17, 2016

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-06-28T15:37:23-04:00

Richard Taylor, Merivale High School, Ottawa, CAP Representative
richard@teya.ca

Physics is happening in Canada, and this year the place to see it all is Ottawa. I was at the annual Congress of the Canadian Association of Physicists. Recognizing the importance of inspiring young people, there was a special day for high school teachers on June 14. Next year the CAP Congress will be at Queen’s University in Kingston from May 29 to June 2. Don’t miss it!

Demonstrating Polarized Interference

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-06-10T15:37:23-04:00

Roberta Tevlin, OAPT Editor, Teacher Danforth CTI
Rolly Meisel, OAPT Photographer
roberta.tevlin@rdsb.on.ca

The interference of light is a very important concept in senior high school physics and has been for a long time. The polarization of light used to be a minor topic but has become more and more important over the last couple of decades because of its use in LCD screens and 3-D movies and because it is possible to get a cheap class set of polarized filters. This article describes a demonstration that combines polarization and interference.

Diffraction and Resolution

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-06-04T15:37:21-04:00

Phillip Freeman, Teacher, Richmond Secondary School, Richmond, B.C., Executive Member at Large BCAPT
freeman@sphericalcows.net

The diffraction of light limits the resolution of optical systems. This is relevant in a number of real world cases, from the reason you can’t actually zoom in infinitely to read the license plate of the get-away car on the crime drama, to the limit to how small an insect a bat can ‘see’ with echolocation to the current plans for the Event Horizon Telescope. It is possible to observe single slit diffraction and resolution directly with very simple equipment.

Building a Michelson Interferometer, Part II

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-05-20T15:37:21-04:00

Richard Taylor, Merivale High School, Ottawa
(see also mrtaylorspace.wordpress.com)
richard@teya.ca

In the last episode, I had received the main parts of a Michelson Interferometer (the mirrors) and had roughly set them up using Lego stands. In the past couple of weeks I have been working on making a more stable and adjustable platform for this interferometer.

REVIEW: Three Short Videos of the Double Slit Experiment

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-05-07T15:37:20-04:00

Roberta Tevlin, OAPT Editor, Teacher Danforth CTI
roberta.tevlin@tdsb.on.ca

The double-slit experiment is one of the strongest pieces of evidence for the wave nature of light and it is also the best place to start to explore the key concepts of quantum physics. By this point, most teachers in Ontario are familiar with the great, free teaching resource from The Perimeter Institute of Theoretical called The Challenge of Quantum Reality. If you haven’t got yours yet, you should! Three short, on-line videos are now available as an addition to the resource.

Group Work Tests for Context-Rich Problems

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-04-29T15:37:20-04:00

Chris Meyer, OAPT VP Teaching and Learning, Assistant Curriculum Leader York Mills C. I.
Christopher.meyer@tdsb.on.ca

The group work test is an assessment strategy that promotes higher-order thinking skills for solving context-rich problems. With this format, teachers are able to pose challenging, nuanced questions on a test, while providing the support weaker students need to get started and show their understanding. The test begins with a group discussion phase, when students are given a “number-free” version of the problem. This phase allows students to digest the story-like problem, explore solution ideas and alleviate some test anxiety. After ten to fifteen minutes of discussion, students inform the instructor of their readiness for the individual part of the test. What follows next is a pedagogical phase change from lively group discussion to quiet individual work¹. The group work test is a natural continuation of the group work in our daily physics classes and helps reinforce the importance of collaboration. This method has met with success at York Mills Collegiate Institute, in Toronto, Ontario, where it has been used consistently for unit tests and the final exam of the grade 12 university preparation physics course.

Building a Michelson Interferometer

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-04-22T15:37:20-04:00

Richard Taylor, Merivale High School, Ottawa
(see also mrtaylorspace.wordpress.com)
richard@teya.ca

My school has had a Michelson Interferometer for many years, and I always show it to my grade 12 students to help explain the Michelson-Morley experiment - the one that showed that the speed of light does not depend on the motion of the observer. I showed this interferometer to some other Physics teachers on the February 2016 PD day in Ottawa. They were very interested and wanted to show their students. So I thought I would find out if I could build a similar and very inexpensive interferometer.

REVIEW: Why This is Science not Fiction

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-04-15T15:37:19-04:00

Tom Eagan, Teacher St. Thomas Aquinas HS
teagan@smcdsb.ca

I have found a channel called The Skeptics Guide to the Universe and it is excellent in so many areas. Generally, I am biased towards talks on physics but this show is entertaining, informative and practical on multiple science levels.

There are two main parts of the show I use in my classroom and they are Forgotten Superheroes of Science and the Science or Fiction challenge. I would like to share how my use of Science or Fiction has helped me develop authentic scientific inquiry versus memorizing facts for a test.

Assessment: The Silent Killer of Learning

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-04-01T15:37:19-04:00

John Caranci, teacher Faculty of Education University of Toronto
John.caranci@utoronto.ca

Eric Mazur runs the undergraduate physics program at Harvard University. He began on a road to learn how his students learn. He first removed lecture as a teaching option in his undergraduate courses. He developed Peer Instruction as well as a plan to reform education. He uses PBL (problem-based learning), and Peer Instruction, and other engagement pedagogies in his class instead of lecturing.

Great Annual Opportunity at the Canadian Light Source in Saskatoon

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-03-25T15:37:19-04:00

Saara Naudts, OAPT Contest Editor, Physics Teacher North Park SS
Sara.naudts@peelsb.com

Each December, teachers from across Canada have an opportunity to experience what goes on at one of Canada’s biggest research facilities. After an easy application process, including a generous amount of available funding and very helpful communication with Tracy Walker the CLS outreach coordinator; I and several other teachers flew out to Saskatoon to visit the synchrotron December 5-7, 2015.

Let Your Grade 12 Students Leave High School Thinking Modern Physics is Fun…

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-03-12T15:37:19-05:00

Sandy Evans, Northview Heights Secondary School
Sandy.evans@tdsb.on.ca

I used to have our Grade 12 Physics students write a research paper on a Modern Physics topic; however this year I decided to let them do something more creative. They ended up really having fun with the assignment and it was A LOT more fun to mark than 50 essays. They were told about this assignment and their Rube Goldberg Build assignment at the beginning of the semester but the Modern Physics Creative Piece was not due until one week before exams.

Helping Teacher Candidates

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-02-26T15:37:18-05:00

John Caranci, teacher Faculty of Education University of Toronto
John.Caranci@utoronto.ca

Usually I brief teacher candidates on what to expect when they go out to practicum. During the discussion I found that the candidates have a different perspective than experienced teachers like us. This year’s candidates have already completed a four-month practicum in November. Their experiences very widely but there were a few threads that I will mention.

Review: Eureka Talks: University of Ottawa

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-02-26T15:37:18-05:00

Richard Taylor, CAP Councillor for Affiliates, Teacher Merivale High School, Ottawa
Richard@teya.ca

The University of Ottawa’s Physics Department has initiated a lecture series they call “Eureka Talks”. The first of these talks was given Saturday January 30, 2016 by Sir John Pendry of Imperial College, London, on the topic of metamaterials and invisibility.

Sadly, I must inform you that Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak is still not available. Even worse, if Harry was invisible, he wouldn't be able to see anything — he’d be in total darkness, with all the light rays bent around him and none going into his eyes!

Relative Motion Demo: The River Question

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-02-20T15:37:17-05:00

Ryan Thompson, OAPT Treasurer, Physics Teacher, Newmarket HS
superryanthompson@gmail.com

I purchased this little magnetic moon rover at Masterminds for $6 a few years ago because I thought it was cool. I didn’t have any specific ideas on how to utilize it until a few years later when I was teaching the famous river question to students. You know how it goes: Alice is crossing a river that has a velocity with respect to the shore of 4 m/s [East] and Alice swims with a velocity of 3 m/s [South] with respect to the water. If the river is 60 m wide, how long does it take Alice to get to the other side? The concept that is hard for students to reconcile is that even though Alice is being pushed to the right from the shores frame of reference, the amount of time to get to the other side is independent of the river’s velocity. This is when I had a Eureka moment. I grabbed the moon rover and put it on our whiteboard. I then wound it up and let it go south, just like Alice would.

Gravity Waves: The Fast Track to the Best Resources

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-02-17T15:37:17-05:00

Margaret Scora, Mhona Russell, James Ball and Roberta Tevlin

The announcement that LIGO has detected gravity waves may have you scrambling to answer your student’s questions. This news connects to many topics in high school physics including waves and vibrations, interference of light, changing models of science and the analysis of data - especially the problem of signal to noise ratios. Many teaching resources have been suggested (listed at the bottom) and these have been examined to select which are the most useful for high school physics teachers. The selected videos are well-scaffolded and paced. They make good use of animations, physical models and analogies and showed a wide diversity in the people interviewed. Demos and activities were selected which require minimal prep time and cost for the teacher and which provide active-learning experiences for the student.

Physics On Ice: A Field Trip on Force and Motion

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-02-06T15:37:17-05:00

Margaret Scora, Teacher at M. Paul Dwyer CHS, Oshawa ON
Margaret.scora@dcdsb.ca

Taking a class to Wonderland™ to investigate force and motion can be an expensive and frustrating adventure. The local ice rink is probably only 15 minutes away for most of us, a lot cheaper, and you can be there and back in less than three hours with a whole lot of new experiences for your students to ponder and discuss.

An Experiment Involving Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-01-29T15:37:16-05:00

James Ball, OAPT Membership Chair, Physics Teacher, John F. Ross C.V.I.
James.Ball@ugdsb.on.ca

The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is a very abstract concept for most high school students and teachers. This lab activity is a simple variation of a single slit diffraction experiment. It clearly shows that defining the location of a photon (by passing it through a slit) increases our uncertainty about its momentum.

Review: Teaching Quantum Technology Workshop at IQC

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-01-23T15:37:16-05:00

Shawn Brooks, Contest Manager, Teacher at University of Toronto Schools
sbrooks@utschools.ca

I attended the Teaching Quantum Technology (TQT) workshop on Dec. 5^th and 6^th and left with 12 activities that I could use right away in my classes. Now, the challenge for me is: how can I fit these activities into my grade 11 or grade 12 physics courses?

My Physics-Teaching Adventure in China

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-01-16T15:37:16-05:00

Eric Haller, Bond Schools International

My name is Eric Haller, and I’ve been teaching students the Ontario physics curriculum in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China for two and a half years now. If you asked me when I was in teacher’s college, “where will you be teaching next year”, I would never have answered it with “China”, yet here I am. The lack of jobs in Ontario (even for us physics teachers) is a major deterrent for staying in Canada. The offer of full-time work abroad, my own classes of students, and a lower cost of living were all enough to convince me to come here. If any of you are interested in going abroad like me, especially new teachers, then I’d like to take this chance to tell you a little bit about some of my own experiences that I’ve had during my time here.

What’s up? The International Space Station!

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-01-08T15:37:15-05:00

Roberta Tevlin, OAPT Newsletter Editor, Teacher Danforth CTI
roberta.tevlin@tdsb.on.ca

Teaching astronomy in the middle of a big city can be very frustrating. Your students can observe the Sun, the Moon, a few stars and sometimes a couple of planets and that’s about it. Not quite! It turns out that you can also see the International Space Station!

Watch your Language

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-01-01T15:37:15-05:00

Tim Langford, Teacher
timlangford08@gmail.com

The problems I mention in this article are not always major, but they seem to have an asymmetrical effect: it is mainly the weaker physics students, in my experience, who are thrown off by confusing or vague terminology or the teacher misspeaking. This anecdotal finding is corroborated by Hammer’s (1989) research with undergraduate physics students. There is also another issue: careless language leads to careless thinking, a type of thinking that will not get the student very far in the study of physics.

Animating Graphs to Animate Discussions about Electrical Energy

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-12-18T15:37:15-05:00

Roberta Tevlin, Teacher at Danforth CTI
roberta.tevlin@tdsb.on.ca

One of the biggest problems facing the world right now is how to generate the electricity that we want without destroying the environment. This is a very complicated problem and we are supposed to help our students understand this issue in all four grades in high school: grade 9 Science (Electricity), grade 10 Science (Climate Change), grade 11 Physics (Energy and Society) and grade 12C Physics (Energy Transformations). This summer I found a great tool to help with this.

Four Cheers for the Holistic Demo

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-12-12T15:37:14-05:00

Gavin Kanowitz, Teacher at AY Jackson SS
gavin.kanowitz@tdsb.on.ca

The ‘Demo’ is one of the most powerful tools that physics teachers have. It can hook the students’ interest right away. If you frame the demo with a pre and post dialogue, it can also ignite their learning.

There is no hard and fast rule as to when an educator should perform a demo. I prefer using them as an intro to the topic. Other teachers choose to defer to demos as a means of solidifying a key idea at a later stage of concept development. There is certainly no shortage of demos — a quick glance at the OAPT website will alert you to that, but what is often missing in demo descriptions is the pedagogy that surrounds the show.

Feel the energy: a unified framework for teaching energy

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-12-04T15:37:14-05:00

Chris Meyer, OAPT VP teaching and learning, Assistant curriculum leader York Mills C. I.
Christopher.meyer@tdsb.on.ca

A model educator
In science, we create models to help us explain our universe and predict what might happen next. Science is a continuous process of creating, expanding, testing and revising models, which are judged by scientists according to their agreement with observations. As educators, we should choose models that have a reasonable agreement with observations, are conceptually clear, and do not create unnecessary hurdles to future, more sophisticated, models. This task is especially challenging with the topic of energy, a concept that is fundamental to physics and all branches of science. Research into the pedagogy of energy has shown that traditional treatments of energy leave much to be desired.

Review: Seveneves

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-11-28T15:37:14-05:00

Ryan Thompson, OAPT Treasurer, Physics Teacher, Newmarket HS
superryanthompson@gmail.com

All physics teachers should read Neal Stephenson. His latest book is called Seveneves, a tale that spans five millennia. Although the book starts off clunky, the premise of it, the explosion of the moon and how this impacts all life on Earth (very badly), drives the story past an awkward beginning to a point where I couldn’t put the book down. I got excited about finding about how humanity would rise above the technological and political challenges it faced to ensure the survival of our species.

How to use the OAPT Physics Contest

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-11-28T15:37:13-05:00

Roberta Tevlin, OAPT Newsletter Editor, Physics Teacher Danforth CTI
Roberta.tevlin@tdsb.on.ca

Recently, a teacher asked me for advice about how to start running the OAPT physics contest. I asked some teachers to help me answer this question. As well as finding great advice for getting students to write the contest, I also learnt about other contests and how teachers were incorporating past OAPT contest questions into their course all year long.

Using Concept Inventories to Improve Students’ Success

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-11-21T15:37:13-05:00

Saara Naudts, OAPT Contest Editor, Physics Teacher North Park SS
Sara.naudts@peelsb.com

The “Common Sense” Problem
Students arrive to your class equipped with prior knowledge, life experiences, and an understanding of how the world works. They have drawn their own conclusions on how observations can be explained; unfortunately, often their common sense is not correct. While teaching a new topic may be difficult, it is far more challenging trying to undo students’ misconceptions and false ideas about the world. According to Hestenes (2006), most often students simply modify their existing understanding to accommodate the new concepts rather than learn the correct knowledge, which leads to smorgasbord of right terminology, in partially accurate theories, and deeply-rooted misconceptions.

New Statistics Feature for the OAPT Contest

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-11-15T15:37:12-05:00

Shawn Brooks, Contest Manager, Teacher at University of Toronto Schools
sbrooks@utschools.ca

We have always strived to have a range of question difficulty on our OAPT Grade 11 Physics Contest. We now have a new statistics feature, so that teachers will be able to review how well their students did on each question. When you find that your students had a difficult time with a particular question, you could try dividing your students into groups to discuss:

why they agree or disagree with the official answer to the question

how they could re-write the question to make it easier to solve

why so many students picked the wrong answer

Review: ZipGrade App for iOS and Android

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-11-07T15:37:12-05:00

Robert Prior, teacher at Agincourt CI
robert.prior@tdsb.on.ca

Are you tired of marking multiple-choice tests? Put away your overlays and highlighters, download ZipGrade to your smartphone, and not only will you save time — you'll also learn more about what your students are really thinking!

Energy and Motion Connections in a K’Nex™ Catapult

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-10-30T15:37:12-04:00

Margaret Scora, Teacher at Monsignor Paul Dwyer CHS
mscora@sympatico.ca

It is very important to have our students engaged in the classroom in order for deep learning to occur. Your students need opportunities to use their creative spark and build on their 21st century learning skills. Peter Benson’s TED talk does a great job of presenting how important this is.

Ideas for projects proliferate but many of these are time-consuming, expensive and beyond the skills of an average student and the tools of an average physics classroom. However, your students can build a catapult with K’Nex™ in just one class with virtually no prep and no trips to the wood shop.

System and Free Body Diagrams

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-10-25T15:37:11-04:00

Eric Haller, Physics Teacher, Bond Schools International
rickyhaller@hotmail.com

When asked to draw a force diagram for some simple situation, most students emerging from any level of introductory physics course are likely to draw objects which look like a porcupine shot by an Indian hunting party—the number and direction of pointed entities being essentially stochastic.

Arnold Arons (1979)

My name is Eric Haller. I’m a new teacher and I am currently at the start of my third year teaching in China. Even though I live so far away, I was able to make it to the physics camp in Sudbury two summers ago. There I got a book called FIVE EASY LESSONS: Strategies for Successful Physics Teaching by Randall D. Knight, which I highly recommend. In this book, Knight talks about many different ways we can improve how we teach physics, a few of which I’ve actually tried out with my students. I want to share with you one of the successes I’ve had with those strategies, here is how I teach my students to draw system and free body diagrams.

York University: Teaching Astronomy through Hands-On Activities Summer 2015

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-10-24T15:37:11-04:00

Ryan Thompson, OAPT Treasurer, Physics Teacher, Newmarket HS
superryanthompson@gmail.com

On July 8 and 9th I attended a two day workshop at York University. The purpose of the workshop was to bring astronomy professors and graduate students together with teachers and showcase three modules that the organizers had developed for the teachers to discuss, play with and refine for use in the classroom. The organizers were from a variety of institutions, not just York but everyone was committed to increasing interest in astronomy in students and also their capability for understanding the science around this fascinating topic.

Review: The Martian

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-10-07T15:37:09-04:00

James Ball, OAPT Membership Chair, Physics Teacher, John F. Ross C.V.I.
James.Ball@ugdsb.on.ca

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 luminous gaseous bodies

The Martian is a very entertaining movie, which will appeal to a wide audience. As a physics/science/science teacher I found it to be particularly enjoyable.

I’m going to review it according to the science, technology, engineering and math that it presents (yup that’s STEM).

Pointers about Laser Safety

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-09-25T15:37:08-04:00

Roberta Tevlin, OAPT Newsletter Editor, Physics Teacher Danforth CTI
Roberta.tevlin@tdsb.on.ca

There is a lot of confusion about which lasers we can and should use in our classrooms. Lasers are classified by power, spread of beam and a variety of other properties. The lower the Class, the safer they are.

A Numbers Game: the Significant Digits Racket

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-08-30T15:37:07-04:00

Chris Meyer, OAPT VP teaching and learning, Assistant curriculum leader York Mills C. I.
Christopher.meyer@tdsb.on.ca

OK, let’s begin by admitting that we are all playing a numbers game. Or, at least, we make our students play this game where they bet their marks on correctly figuring out the last digit to write down in their answers. (The classic numbers game is an illegal betting pool where people try to guess the last few digits of some “random” number like a stock price listing.) To make it sporting, we teach our students rules for identifying the significant digits in a given number and rules for deciding how many digits to keep after a calculation. Now, you likely know what happens next. For the rest of the year we are plagued by noisome questions during lessons and tests: “How many significant digits does this have?” “Is this two or three?” “Mr. Meyer, you started with 1000 and your final answer was 17.5 m/s ...” Sound familiar?

The best physics teaching resource you didn’t know about

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-08-30T15:37:07-04:00

Roberta Tevlin, Danforth Collegiate, Past President of OAPT, Editor of OAPT Newsletter
roberta@tevlin.ca

One of the most valuable resources for Ontario physics teachers is now available on the OAPT website. It is a set of videos showing the grade 11U and 12U physics courses as taught by Chris Meyer - our V.P. of Teaching and Learning. Each video is a single lesson (edited to 15-30 minutes) and is accompanied by a student worksheet and a short description of the pedagogy and physics presented.

Instant Feedback Quizzes

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-04-15T15:37:06-04:00

Chris Meyer, York Mills, C. I., Toronto
christopher.meyer@tdsb.on.ca

We have added a self-evaluation stage to the quizzes in our grade 11 physics course, turning the quizzes into a valuable learning experience for our students (assessment for learning). Students begin by answering the quiz questions in a traditional fashion, finishing with a quick reflection about any difficulties they might have had. Next, students bring their quizzes to the front of the class where there are multiple copies of the solution and coloured pens to be used for marking. They make additions or corrections to their work, gaining immediate feedback, and submit the marked-up quiz.

Barges: STEM Competitions for grades 9 to 12

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-03-23T15:37:06-04:00

Roberta Tevlin, Danforth Collegiate, Past President of OAPT

Competitions are a great way to motivate students, to provide a rich learning experience and incorporate the STEM disciplines and problem-solving approach. Unfortunately, it can be hard to find competitions that are appropriate. They need to be challenging but not impossible. They must use cheap materials and tools and should not require significant building skills. If possible, they should require precision in measurement and calculations. One competition that does all of these; and not only that, it has curriculum connections ranging from grade 9 Science to grade 12 Calculus, is “Barges”.

Videos of Nonlinear Self-organizing Phenomena

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2011-01-01T15:37:05-05:00

Stephen Morris, Department of Physics, University of Toronto
smorris@physics.utoronto.ca

Many of the ordered structures that we see in the natural world are self-organized in the sense that they emerge spontaneously from the normal operation of the underlying laws of physics, but in a way which is not at all obvious from those laws, and with some regular order which is not due to external guiding forces. Ripples on the sand at the beach (Fig. 1) are an example; somehow the action of the turbulent waves on the individual grains conspires to form the ripples, a highly organized patterned state. The wavelength of the ripples is not at all obvious in the basic physics of water-sand interaction.

GPS Meets Einstein

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2011-01-01T15:36:56-05:00

Damian Pope, Senior Manager of Outreach Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
dpope@perimeterinstitute.ca

Column Editor’s Note: The author of this article presented a fascinating talk about this topic at the 2010 OAPT Conference. Via the weblink provided in the article, readers can obtain access to a very useful student activity that demonstrates the importance of relativity in the operation of GPS.

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is one of the twentieth century’s greatest engineering marvels. Today, it’s the backbone of billions of dollars of economic activity. It’s used by a vast array of occupations including farmers, construction workers, doctors and even professional athletes. And all this comes on top of the more familiar personal applications like satellite navigation in cars and for hiking.

As well as being immensely practical, the GPS also involves some pretty cool physics — even, strangely enough, Einstein’s theory of relativity.

Can You See Sound?

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2010-04-01T15:36:55-04:00

Bonnie Lasby, Physical and Engineering Science Dean’s Office University of Guelph
blasby@uoguelph.ca

This demonstration is a nice way to show that sound is vibration of molecules. The picture below shows the equipment required for this demonstration. The setup consists of an amplifier attached to an input device (laptop, iPod, mp3 player, etc) and a set of small speakers (described below) as well as a bar clamp and red and green laser pointers.

Making Speakers

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2009-11-01T15:36:55-05:00

Bonnie Lasby Physical and Engineering Science Dean’s Office University of Guelph
blasby@uoguelph.ca

I prefer to do this as an activity as opposed to a demonstration, and have found that it works very well for students in Grades 7 to 12 visiting the University. I start with a discussion about sound and then compare a speaker to the human ear. In the discussion on speakers, I also talk about magnets and how they work, and I explain the difference between permanent magnets and electromagnets. After this discussion, I explain how to make speakers using a plastic cup, a magnet, and a coil of wire. Each student makes his/her own speaker and then tests it.

An Inexpensive Magnetometer

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2009-07-01T15:36:54-04:00

Dave Doucette (OAPT President) Richmond Hill High School, Richmond Hill, Ontario

Several years ago I was in need of a cheap, easily assembled, sensitive magnetometer. The intent was to design a tool for students to palpably observe the magnetic field around a current carrying conductor. Deflection of a compass needle lacked the ‘wow factor’ I sought. The solution turned out to be beautiful in its simplicity.

Bernoulli’s Principle

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2009-04-01T15:36:54-04:00

Martin Williams, Department of Physics, University of Guelph
martin@physics.uoguelph.ca

In this demonstration, we utilize simple everyday household items to test Bernoulli’s principle and verify the apparent counterintuitive nature of its predictions.

Wire Fire!

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2009-02-01T15:36:53-05:00

Joanne O’Meara, Department of Physics, University of Guelph
omeara@physics.uoguelph.ca

This demonstration is a nice way to illustrate the P = I ²R relationship that is discussed in electric circuits. Figure 1 illustrates the equipment: a Variac transformer takes the wall output of 120 V and generates a variable voltage from 0 to 140 V. This is then sent through a Hammond Manufacturing transformer (167X5), converting down to 5 V output. We use this second transformer in order to increase the current through the wires. The output from the second transformer is connected to three wires in series: approximately 10 cm in length of each of ~18 gauge Nichrome, steel and copper. A piece of folded paper is placed on each wire.

An Ultimate Elevator Ride: Weight and Apparent Weight Demonstration

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2008-11-01T15:36:53-04:00

Marina Milner-Bolotin, Department of Physics, Ryerson University
mmilner@ryerson.ca

We all know that some concepts are harder for students to comprehend than others. The concepts of weight, apparent weight and weightlessness are often stumbling blocks for many of our students. Apparently they are also somewhat confusing for the seasoned scientists and engineers. While visiting the Lyndon B. Johnson NASA Space Centre in Houston, TX, I had a unique opportunity to have lunch at the “Zero-G Diner”¹. Apparently, the Space Centre Houston is located at a special place where Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation does not hold and should be modified.

Total Internal Reflection

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2008-07-01T15:36:52-04:00

Diana Hall, Bell High School, Nepean, Ontario

A fun example of total internal reflection can be created with an aquarium tank or similar transparent container filled with water. Students enjoy wandering around the tank with objects placed around on all sides including above and below. Sometimes you can see what you appear to be looking at and sometimes not. Students are challenged to draw ray diagrams to show why you cannot see certain objects but can unexpectedly see others from certain angles. One example is shown here. It’s definitely a good seed for discussion. Probably a good coffee table display for your parties too.

Air Column End

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2008-04-01T15:36:52-04:00

Diana Hall, Bell High School, Nepean, Ontario

Here’s a really easy way to show students that the pressure at the end of an open-air column doesn’t change exactly at the physical end of the tube. It requires a motion sensor, a tube, and the right-sized insert for the tube. I happen to have a plexiglass tube into which a tub of play-doh fits just nicely.

Simple Centre of Mass Demonstrations

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2008-02-01T15:36:51-05:00

Tetyana Antimirova, Ryerson University
antimiro@ryerson.ca

There are several very simple demonstrations on centre of mass that can be performed with everyday objects. In this article I describe a couple of demonstrations that I do with my students.

Water Rockets

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2007-11-01T15:36:51-04:00

Rolly Meisel
rollym@vaxxine.com

Having students construct and launch a water rocket is an entertaining way to investigate Newton's Third Law of motion. Students can construct the rockets at home for an in-class launching session.

Seeing and Photographing High Speed Events

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2007-07-01T15:36:50-04:00

Martin Fischer, Science Education Branch, Ontario Science Centre
martin.fischer@osc.on.ca

See the shards of a popping balloon, watch water drops suspended in the air or witness glass shattering — all of it seemingly frozen in time. Some of these events last less than one thousandth of a second but you can see them with your own eyes, thanks to the persistence of vision and a homemade sound trigger that releases a camera flash at exactly the right moment.

A Demonstration of the Production of Sound

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2007-04-01T15:36:50-04:00

John Vanderkooy, Distinguished Professor Emeritus Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo

For this demonstration, a small open loudspeaker driver is necessary, driven from a sound source with output power sufficient for a loudspeaker. A ghetto-blaster is convenient if it has an output jack or can be modified to direct the loudspeaker output to an external device. For best results the small driver should be of moderate or better quality. It helps if its compliance is high so that bass notes cause substantial cone motion.

Physics and Music: Harmonics

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2007-02-01T15:36:49-05:00

Diane Nalini de Kerckhove, Department of Physics, University of Guelph

Diane Nalini de Kerckhove is an Assistant Professor in the University of Guelph’s Department of Physics. She is also a singer/songwriter and recently launched her third CD, “Songs of Sweet Fire”, a collection of Shakespeare songs and sonnets set to her original jazz and blues music.

I have never met anyone who doesn’t like music. After teaching the physics of waves at various levels over the years, I’ve come to realize that demos involving music have a wide appeal with students, especially since most of them have studied an instrument at some point or another. Here are two options for exploring harmonics of standing waves.

Demonstration of a Variable Tension in a Pendulum’s String

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2006-11-01T15:36:49-05:00

Marina Milner-Bolotin, Department of Physics and Astronomy University of British Columbia, Vancouver

A very effective demonstration of a variable tension in a swinging pendulum can be performed using very simple equipment.

Induction Puzzle

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2006-09-01T15:36:48-04:00

Leigh Palmer, Simon Fraser University

Here's a demonstration that will make your students think more carefully about the meanings of the terms voltage, electromotive force, and potential difference. A transformer is necessary for the demonstration.

Sound Tube: A Versatile and Inexpensive Physics Demonstration

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2006-04-01T15:36:48-05:00

Debbie Chaves and Bruno Tomberli, Physics Department, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1

A versatile and inexpensive demonstration tool for every physics teacher is the “sound tube,” also known as the whirly, Hummer and corrugahorn. Its puzzling properties span many different physics topics.

The World’s Simplest Motor

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2006-03-01T15:36:47-05:00

John Pitre, University of Toronto

In the December 2004 issue of The Physics Teacher, Christopher Chiaverina described a motor consisting of four components: a battery, a cylindrical rare earth magnet, a small piece of copper wire, and a steel nail. Since I know that many of our members do not have ready access to this journal, I have essentially reproduced his article here.

Demonstration Cart or “Happy Wagon”

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2005-11-01T15:36:47-05:00

Stuart Quick, Department of Physical & Environmental Sciences University of Toronto @ Scarborough

Some teachers might find it awkward and inconvenient to set up demonstrations on lab stands and take them down again in the time at their disposal. Lab stands tend to be weak affairs that wobble with even small loads. Or teachers may find setting up more than one demonstration at a time impractical.

Reversal of Spectral Lines

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2005-07-01T15:36:46-04:00

Dr. Eknath V. Marathé, St. Catharines, Ontario

Spectroscopy has contributed to our knowledge not only of Earth but also of the Sun, interstellar space, distant stars and galaxies. The subject of spectroscopy began in the year 1666 with the discovery by Newton that when the Sun’s rays are allowed to pass through a prism, they produced a band of colours which he called a spectrum. In 1802, William Hyde Wollaston, (1766 – 1828, English chemist and physicist) used a narrow slit as a secondary source of light and observed dark lines in the spectrum of sunlight. Wollaston thought that the dark lines were natural boundaries between various colours of the spectrum.

Rotational Motion and the Chain Saw

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2005-01-01T15:36:46-05:00

John Caranci
physix1@look.ca

This demonstration is used to introduce rotational motion by using the complex motion of a chain-saw chain. You probably have seen many demonstrations over the years but this is one that can be done with the simplest equipment: one elastic band and a sheet of newsprint.

Motion of the Centre of Mass 2

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2004-04-01T15:36:45-05:00

Patrick Whippey, Department of Physics & Astronomy, The University of Western Ontario

Do we really believe Newton’s Laws? This demonstration was born many years ago when a perceptive student challenged the assertion that a body free to move always rotates about its centre of mass. This demonstration requires an air table.

Motion of the Centre of Mass 1

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2004-02-01T15:36:45-05:00

Seeing the Speed of Sound

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2003-12-01T15:36:44-05:00

Diana Hall, Bell High School, Nepean, Ontario

This demonstration allows students to get an idea for how slow sound actually travels.

How to Make a Lighted Throwing Stick to Show that the Centre of Mass is a “Special Place”

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2010-02-01T14:02:17-05:00

Forest Fyfe, Department of Physics and Atmospheric Physics Dalhousie University

This article is reprinted from Physics in Canada, Volume 65, No. 3, pg.141 (2009), with permission of the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP).

Illustrating the concepts of centre of mass and centre-of-mass motion to an introductory physics class can be a challenge to a physics instructor. The topic can be very mathematically complex and is not necessarily intuitively obvious. A device that demonstrates how the centre of mass of an object moves as compared to the motion of a point on the object away from the centre of mass would provide an excellent qualitative illustration of this. At Dalhousie University we have constructed just such a device, our lighted throwing sticks.

The Belt-Hanger

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2010-07-01T13:43:30-04:00

Ernie McFarland University of Guelph
elm@physics.uoguelph.ca

This article first appeared in the OAPT Newsletter in 1987. It is being repeated here for three reasons: the demonstration is a classic, 1987 was a long time ago, and now this demo (and others) can be seen online (use the link at the end of the article).

One category of good physics demonstrations involves the “disorientation” or “disequilibrium” of students. The demonstrations in this category cannot be explained by most students, and thus serve to disorient the students into a state of disequilibrium from which they wish desperately to escape.

Buoyancy and Newton’s Third Law of Motion

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2011-11-01T13:29:50-04:00

Ernie McFarland University of Guelph
elm@physics.uoguelph.ca

This article is excerpted from Physics in Canada, Volume 61, No. 2, (2005), pg. 87-89, with permission of the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP).

In recent years the active engagement of students in physics classes has become increasingly common, especially with the publication of Eric Mazur’s book “Peer Instruction” (Prentice Hall, 1997). A frequently used format is to pose a multiple-choice question, and ask the students to discuss the question in small groups and vote on the possible answers by a show of hands or computerized remote-control technology (“clickers”). This basic approach can be used with a question about the possible outcomes of a lecture demonstration. The instructor shows the demonstration apparatus and states what will be done with it, but does not perform the demonstration nor indicate what the result will be. Students discuss the possible outcomes and vote on them, and then the demonstration is completed to show what actually happens, and the relevant physics is discussed.

Mystery of a Pulled Spool

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2011-07-01T13:03:16-04:00

Tetyana Antimirova, Department of Physics, Ryerson University
antimiro@ryerson.ca

One of the ubiquitous simple physics demos that works equally well for all audiences from small children to the students in the introductory mechanics course is a plastic or wooden spool (or yo-yo) with a string wound around it. A virtually no-cost version of the “demo equipment” is a spool of common household sewing thread. Being curious, I did a Google search on yo-yo, and the search produced about 120,000,000 results!

Pressure vs. Particle Movement — The Dance

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2003-09-01T16:26:25-04:00

Diana Hall, Bell High School, Nepean

When discussing standing waves in air columns most textbooks focus on the movement of particles and show nodes at closed ends and antinodes at open ends. When thinking about the loudness of sound we have to remember that the sound is loud when the pressure difference is the greatest and that sound is a longitudinal wave. This occurs at nodes (where particles move the leave) and not the antinodes (where particles move the most). I use my students to demonstrate this difference.

Superposition Principle-Kicking the Canister

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2003-05-01T16:26:13-04:00

Diana Hall, St. Charles North HS, Illinois

My students have fun predicting which canisters will get knocked down in an interference demonstration. We stretch out a long spring across the classroom floor. We then line up film canisters (or other substitutions) alongside the spring. Students predict which ones will get knocked over and which will be left standing. They must also say why.

The Simple Demonstration of the Photoelectric Effect

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2002-12-01T13:54:13-05:00

Eknath V. Maratha, St. Catharines, Ontario

In 1900, Max Planck worked out a relatively simple energy radiation equation for a black body that described the distribution of radiation accurately over the entire range of frequencies. His equation was based on a crucial assumption: radiant energy is not infinitely subdivisible. Like matter, it exists in “particles.” These particles Planck called quanta, or in the singular, “quantum.” He further suggested that the size of the quantum, also known as “photon,” for any particular form of electromagnetic radiation, was in direct proportion to its frequency. In the visible spectrum, a photon of violet light would therefore contain more energy than a photon of red light. The small constant that is the ratio of the energy of a photon (E) and the frequency(v) of the photon radiation is called Planck’s constant and it is symbolized as h = E/v). It is now recognized as one of the fundamental constants of the universe. Planck’s theory, known as Quantum Theory, was applied by Einstein in explaining the photoelectric effect.

Classroom Demonstration of Spectra

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2002-09-01T10:43:44-04:00

Jim Hunt, Physics Department, University of Guelph
phyjih@physics.uoguelph.ca

The availability of large sheets of plastic replica gratings has greatly increased the ability to show spectra to classroom-sized groups and, in the process, put on a nice light-show.

Acoustical Wheel with Christmas Tree Balls

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2003-02-01T13:54:17-05:00

Christian Ucke, Technical University Munich
cucke@ph.tum.de

Figure 1 was taken from an old German physics textbook¹ dating from 1906. So-called Helmholtz-resonators are fixed on a cross which can rotate easily on a needle bearing. With the right resonance frequency of the Helmholtz-resonators and enough acoustical power from a loudspeaker, this device starts to rotate anticlockwise (view from above).

Demonstrations Just for Fun

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2002-01-01T14:47:41-05:00

Roily Meisel, Ridgeway Crystal Beach High School
rollvm@vaxxine.com

The three demos described here are, to the best of my knowledge, nowhere in the Ontario curriculum, although I stand to be corrected. Sometimes we need to do things because they are interesting and fun, and not solely because they are “on the course”.

Cheap and Easy Sound Demos with Rods and Tubes

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2001-09-01T13:47:36-04:00

Roily Meisel, Ridgeway Crystal Beach High School
rollvm@vaxxine.com

Visible standing waves with a node at each end are fairly easy to demonstrate. You can use a long spring such as a slinky (cheap way), or even order a nice transducer-based demo from one of the scientific supply companies (expensive way). However, I also wanted to demonstrate antinodes at both ends, or even one node and one antinode.

An Electric Guitar Pickup

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2001-01-01T18:30:37-05:00

Peter Scovil, Waterford, ON
petescov@enoreo.on.ca

I like music, and enjoy playing the guitar, so the following demo caught my eye (or ear?). It was in the Jan. '95 issue of The Physics Teacher (p.58) by G.R. Davies of South Africa. It is a good example of electromagnetic induction that is easy for students to understand.

Balancing on the Edge and Inexpensive Accelerometers

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2000-03-01T18:05:32-05:00

Diana Hall, Bell High School, Nepean
Diana_Hall@ocdsb.edu.on.ca

Diana Hall presents two simple demonstrations.

Two-Minute Impromptu Demos

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2000-01-01T15:14:09-05:00

Ed van den Berg and Rosea van den Berg, University of San Carlos, Talamban Campus, Cebu City, Philippines
edberg@durian.usc.edu.ph

This article was excerpted (with the authors’s permission) from a longer article in The Physics Teacher (Sept. 1998, p.356-8).

What can we do to have clear and exciting lessons without a great amount of demonstration apparatus and hours of preparation each day? We present here a collection of small and quick demos that require no equipment beyond what is present in a classroom (chalk, chairs, students, books, paper, backpacks and their contents). Some are to prove something, but most are to illustrate, visualize, or simulate. These basic and well-tried ideas will stimulate students and revive the instructor who has spent a late night checking student papers. Have fun!

Two Sound Demonstrations

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1999-06-01T20:49:08-04:00

James L. Hunt Physics Department, University of Guelph
phyjlh@physics.uoguelph.ca

The following two sound demonstrations have the virtue of being inexpensive; in fact the first one costs the teacher nothing. Although I have seen the first referred to somewhere, I do not recall seeing the second. Both demonstrations rely on the human ear's remarkable ability to distinguish changes in pitch.

D-Ball

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1999-07-01T06:10:30-04:00

Diana Hall, Bell High School, Nepean, Ontario
Diana_Hall@ocdsb.edu.on.ca

This is a very popular game I have played with my OAC physics class. It incorporates the concepts of conservation of energy and projectile motion.

Ball and Ramp Races

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1999-03-01T20:18:16-05:00

John Childs, Grenville Christian College, Brockville
jchilds@grenvillecc.ca

This is a good exercise to use after you’ve done kinematics, dynamics, and energy. We all talk about the kinetic and potential energy of roller coasters and their speeds, and the demonstration will let your students apply their critical thinking skills to this kind of situation. Be sure to have your students examine the setup and predict the outcome, before you run the demo. The question is: “Which ball gets to the end of the ramp first?”

The Neon Lamp Flasher

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1998-12-01T07:58:26-05:00

John Childs, Grenville Christian College, Brockville
jchilds@grenvillecc.ca

This simple little homemade device can provide a very effective demonstration of AC current, it’s fun, and it’s cheap! All you need is a little neon lamp, a resistor and an AC cord. Solder one leg of the neon lamp in series with a 10K, 1/2 watt resistor, and then attach to the AC cord. Heat shrink tubing is excellent insulation for this construction, otherwise use carefully applied electrical tape. Be sure to insulate throughly, you have AC power here.

An Inexpensive Vibrator for Standing Waves

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1998-09-01T07:22:46-04:00

Peter Scovil, Waterford District High School,
petescov@enoreo.on.ca

At the OAPT Conference this past June at the University of Waterloo, I gave a short demonstration of a vibrator I built from a Radio Shack speaker. It allowed me to produce longitudinal as well as transverse standing waves. This is based on an idea from one of the AAPT conference workshops.

Lenz’s Law with Plumbing Pipes

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1998-06-01T19:33:02-04:00

John M. Pitre, Department of Physics, University of Toronto
pitre@faraday.physics.utoronto.ca

In the January 1997 issue of The Physics Teacher, two articles appeared detailing the use of rare earth magnets to demonstrate Lenz’s Law in the classroom. The principle involved is that a permanent magnet falling through a tubular conductor will induce a current in the conductor and hence a magnetic field which will oppose the magnetic field of the permanent magnet and thus slow its rate of fall. This article gives variations of the methods discussed in those papers.

A Multi-Purpose Instrument

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1998-03-01T15:56:35-05:00

Tomasz Dindorf and Wojciech Dindorf
Donaufelderstr. 252/24, 1220 Wien, Austria

(Editor's note: This article is reproduced, with permission, from a delightful little book, "The Sun on the Floor -Physics experiments that can be performed at home." This 68-page book describes 58 experiments that can be accomplished with simple apparatus. There are many drawings and photographs to illustrate the experiments. A single copy of the book can be ordered for only $10 U.S. from the authors at the address above, and 20 copies can be obtained for $100 U.S.)

Dumb Tricks with Metre Sticks

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1997-10-01T19:03:05-04:00

John Wylie, Toronto French School
jwylie@tfs.on.ca

Here are two tricks, sorry, demonstrations that you can store away for when you have a few minutes to kill and all you have available is a metre stick, or when you just feel the need to show off in front of impressionable young students. They both are opportunities to prove that a knowledge of physics is better than being young and co-ordinated.

A Crazy Cantilever

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1998-01-01T18:17:12-05:00

George Vanderkuur, WICED Centre, TDSB
georvand@enoreo.on.ca

Bricks, books, or metre sticks are all you need for this neat demonstration. As illustrated, the top brick projects by half its length and subsequent bricks project 1/4, 1/6, 1/8, et. Brick lengths. After n bricks, the cantilever will project a distance of d = 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/6 + … + 1/(2n). This may be simplified to d = 1/2 (1 + 1/2 + 1/3 + … + 1/n). For four bricks, the projected distance is 1.04 brick lengths, and for n = 5, the distance is 1.14 brick lengths (so that the top brick is clearly out beyond the edge of the table).

The Levitron

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1997-06-01T16:34:48-04:00

Alan Hirsch, Port Credit SS, Mississauga

What physics toy have you seen that can attract the attention of every passerby in a mall during the December shopping rush? And what toy can you expect your physics students to exclaim “hey, cool” when they see it? The answer to each of these questions is the same: The Levitron: The Amazing Antigravity Top.

OAPT-OTF Physics Camp is back!!!

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-05-28T17:13:15-04:00

July 6 – 8, 2016
London, Ontario
Presented by James Ball, Saara Naudts, Roberta Tevlin
OAPT Physics Teachers

This summer’s physics camp will be three days packed full of physics, pedagogy and professional friendship. The good news is that the OTF will pay for your overnight accommodation, meals and travel expenses. Your only cost is a $50 registration fee, and this is refunded once you complete the course. Registration is only open until June 24 and we usually fill up well before the deadline, so register ASAP.

Two Kinds of Polaroid Glasses

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1997-03-01T07:00:10-05:00

John Pitre, Department of Physics, University of Toronto
pitre@faraday.physics.utoronto.ca

When polarized light is discussed, polarizing plastic sheet filters are always mentioned. During manufacture, this material which contains
long chain molecules is mechanically stretched into sheets resulting in the alignment of the molecules. Electrons can travel along the axis of the molecules but cannot jump from molecule to molecule. When light is incident on a polaroid sheet, the component of the electric field which is parallel to the axis of the long chain molecules causes the electrons to move, and that component is absorbed; the component which is perpendicular to the axis of the molecules is unaffected. Thus, polaroid sheets have a preferred direction, or transmission axis, which is perpendicular to the axis of the long chain molecules.

Demonstrations with a Tesla Coil

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1997-01-01T06:34:26-05:00

Roland Meisel, Ridgeway Crystal Beach High School
rollym@iaw.on.ca

A Tesla coil circuit generally consists of some sort of step-up transformer along with a tuned oscillator. The B-10 coil sold by Cenco Scientific is a compact device which produces 40-50 kV at frequencies of 3-4 MHz. The schematic diagram shows an inductance connected to an AC circuit. As the AC goes through its cycle, the inductance builds up a high reverse potential (similar to the arcing at the commutator of an electric motor) which can exceed the breakdown resistance of the spark gap in the oscillator circuit. When this happens, the resistance across the gap drops effectively to zero, and causes the tuned circuit to “ring” electrically, much like hitting a tuning fork. A high-voltage high-frequency AC potential is induced at the tip. This is the “simple” explanation which high school students can usually follow. For those who wish to see the differential equations describing what is going on, may I suggest an advanced book on electrical physics!

OTF Webinar: Exploring the “E” in STEM

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-05-07T07:30:43-04:00

May 31, 2016, 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Presented by: Lisa Lim Cole Dave Doucette
Ontario Association of Physics Teachers

This webinar examines how the “E” in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) aligns with the inquiry process in the Science, Science & Technology, and Mathematics curriculae. This session will connect both the engineering design process to hands-on, minds-on curricular activities and the engineering innovation mindset to serving individuals, society and our environment. Building structures is just a beginning. Inspired students will build a future.

Audience: K-12

Young Women in Engineering Symposium

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-05-07T07:23:06-04:00

Micah Stickel
Associate Professor, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, University of Toronto
Email: cfy@ecf.utoronto.ca, m.stickel@utoronto.ca

We are planning a fall campus event designed to increase the number of young women entering STEM professions in Ontario, and we need your help! We are reaching out to Physics educators to identify top female Grade 11 Physics students to take part in our third annual Young Women in Engineering Symposium.

This free Symposium will feature:
• A keynote address from a leading female scientist or engineer
• Hands-on workshops
• An Engineering myth-busters panel
• A luncheon with current engineering female students

Please share the application link below with up to three of your top Grade 11 female students (note that students must be entering their Grade 12 year in September 2016 and be planning on taking Grade 12 Physics):

http://uoft.me/YoungWomenEngineeringSymposium

Students interested in participating in the Symposium are asked to complete their application by Wednesday, June 22. Due to limited space, we may not be able to accommodate all applicants, and so we will confirm their participation through email by the end of July.

Thank you very much for your help with this initiative. Please don’t hesitate to contact me or Kate Nguyen (kate.nguyen@ecf.utoronto.ca) if you have any questions.

Demystifying STEM

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-05-07T07:13:20-04:00

The next STEM Talk, “Demystifying STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Math” will be held on Wednesday May 25, 2016 at 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm at the Durham District School Board! It’s FREE! It’s OPEN TO ALL!

Join us as Mark Abbott speaks about STEM Career Pathways!

One-Minute Experiments

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1996-09-01T19:18:32-04:00

Patrick Whippey, Department of Physics, University of Western Ontario
pwhippey@julian.uwo.ca

Something wonderful happened in my Physics 21 class just before Christmas last year. There was excitement, wonder, great mutual support, and just plain fun as one hundred and twelve students demonstrated 52 experiments in 52 minutes.

Gold Wedding Ring — Monkey and the Pulley

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1996-03-01T17:58:01-05:00

Murray D. Kucherawy, A.B. Lucas S.S., London

Effective classroom demonstrations often require tinkering with temperamental equipment. With the permission of the editor, I would like to share a “thought demonstration” that requires no equipment, but which still makes a surprising point.

Bernoulli Lost His Marbles

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1996-01-01T19:19:16-05:00

Al Bartlett, University of Colorado

Fill a one-litre graduated cylinder with water; the cylinder should be about 5 to 8 cm in diameter and 30 to 40 cm tall. Take an ordinary glass marble and try to drop the marble into the water in such a way that the marble will fall all the way to the bottom without first hitting the side of the cylinder. The marble makes an audible click every time it hits the glass wall.

The Sailboat Problem

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1996-06-01T07:31:24-04:00

Eknath V. Marathe, Consultant, STS Education

The sailboat provides one of the most interesting illustrations of vector resolution.

Big Ben — Lenz’s Law and the Cow

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1995-11-01T18:49:13-05:00

John Childs, Grenville Christian College, Brockville

Two demonstrations from John Childs.

The Prisoner

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1995-06-01T08:54:41-04:00

John Childs, Grenville Christian College, Brockville

This is an exciting force vector demonstration, which is guaranteed to create some pandemonium in your classroom! It can be done just as a visual demonstration, or as the introduction to a stimulating and challenging problem to get everyone in the class working. Your better grade-12 students can pursue the solution to a considerable length.

Flying Time

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1995-09-01T09:46:58-04:00

Dave Erb, Red Lake District High School

This is a demonstration of centrifugal force.

Flipping for Physics

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1994-06-01T17:22:08-04:00

John Wylie, The Toronto French School

Here is a good demonstration that can be used in its simplest form to show stable and unstable equilibria or, in a more advanced version, to illustrate some finer points about moments of inertia and angular motion. The material needed could not be simpler. You need a board. There are no special requirements here except that the board be rectangular and have three distinctly different dimensions. In a pinch, I have used a good-sized physics text book held closed by a strong elastic. Most brief cases work and if students feel lucky, they can try out their calculators.

From Marks to Habits: What is a “90’s” Student?

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-03-04T19:22:02-05:00

Chris Meyer, York Mills C. I., VP Teaching and Learning, OAPT
Christopher.meyer@tdsb.on.ca

Have you had a conversation with a student that went something like this?

Student: “I need a 90% in physics in order to get into engineering at ...”
Teacher (outer voice): “Well, I’ve noticed that your homework is often incomplete.”
Teacher (inner voice): “!!?!?”
Student: “I know. I’m going to work really hard now.”
Teacher (outer voice): “You need to catch up with all the material you had difficulty with back in grade 11, especially forces and motion.”
Teacher (inner voice): “Buddy, you slacked off all through grade 11. You have no idea how tough this will be .... In two months there’s going to be tears.”
Student: “OK. Thanks, bye!”

Gravitational Wave Resources from Perimeter Institute

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-02-11T17:59:04-05:00

Greg Dick, Educational Outreach Manager, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
contact@perimeterinstitute.ca

No longer a rumour, scientists at Caltech, MIT, VIRGO and the LIGO Scientific Collaboration have confirmed that gravitational waves have been detected! The discovery of these ripples in the fabric of spacetime could revolutionize our ability to understand the workings of the universe.

Perimeter Institute is offering you several ways to share this pivotal moment in scientific history with your students:

Share the excitement through classroom lessons plans and supplementary information specifically developed to help your students understand gravitational waves and the impact this discovery will have on their scientific future.

Join us for a live webcast at 1:00pm EST as PI researchers provide an accessible discussion of the meaning and implications of LIGO’s announcement. You can access the webcast live at http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/now-streaming shortly before 1:00pm, or on-demand through the Perimeter Institute website by the end of today.

Enjoy additional news items and the latest Slice of PI about gravitational waves on Perimeter’s website.

Today, a new window has been opened on our universe. We look forward to celebrating with you.

2016 OAPT Conference: Capturing Diverse Perspectives in STEM

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-02-07T15:56:36-05:00

The OAPT annual conference will be held at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario on May 12-14, 2016.

Registration is NOW OPEN!

The Ontario Association of Physics Teachers works to support science teaching and learning. Physics is a large component of K-12 Science Curriculum. Professional dialogue, tools and opportunities for networking from a wide variety of perspectives is critical in developing strong partnerships that will enhance learning in the classroom. A wide variety of exhibitors will also be present at the conference.

A Northern Teacher Subsidy is also available for the following School Board Districts: Algoma, Cochrane, Kenora, Manitoulin, Nipissing, Parry Sound, Rainy River, Sudbury, Thunder Bay, and Timiskaming.

Any teachers from the above school boards can apply for funding to cover the cost of travel, accommodation and conference registration at: http://goo.gl/forms/wxesejxdVy. An OAPT Executive Member will be in touch with you once you have applied to confirm your financial support.

Lasers: A Solution looking for a Problem

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-03-19T11:06:50-04:00

Roberta Tevlin, OAPT Editor, Teacher Danforth CTI
Roberta.tevlin@tdsb.on.ca
Edited by Margaret Scora

Lasers are quantum light sources and they are everywhere. But what is quantum about them? The PhET simulation is a great tool to give students a feel for the quantum process called stimulated emission.

BBC Reith Lecture: Stephen Hawking on Black Holes

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-01-31T14:34:23-05:00

Professor Hawking takes us through the history of scientific thinking about black holes, and explains how they have posed tough challenges to conventional understanding of the laws which govern the universe. He also poses (and more importantly, explains) the question: Do black holes have no hair?

Listen to the lectures on the BBC.

Adding Colours

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1995-03-01T19:27:54-05:00

Alan Hirsch, Port Credit Secondary School

Having taught senior high school physics for more than 20 years, I had thought the chances of a student discovering something I hadn't seen before while performing a typical physics experiment were remote. Thus, when OAC student Karen Whiskin was performing measurements on the wavelengths of various colours of light and yelled out, "Hey sir, come and look at this!", I was not expecting to see anything new. To my surprise and joy, Karen's discovery was also a discovery for me. Using a single diffraction grating, Karen had observed the addition of light colours and had recognized that secondary light colours were being formed from primary light colours.

Electric Hotdog

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1995-01-01T19:27:47-05:00

Roland Meisel, Ridgeway Crystal Beach High School
rolameis@village.ca

A current can be run through a hotdog in order to cook it. There are commercial hotdog cookers that make use of this principle. I use it near the end of the unit on resistance in the Grade 12 Physics course.

Reflections

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1994-09-01T07:41:46-04:00

George Vanderkuur, Malvern Collegiate, Toronto

A laser, chalk dust and right-angle corner made of mirror tiles show the retro-reflection of light from a corner cube mirror. (Safety note: use a low-power laser beam and take care to avoid directing the beam into the audience.) Students will also enjoy looking into the mirror and observing that the image of their face (or open eye) is always in the corner. Try this with one eye closed.

Classrooms Driven by Questions: A 21st Century Approach to Learning

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-02-12T19:33:51-05:00

Glen Wagner, Teacher-in-Residence Perimeter Institute

“How are black holes created and do they die? What proof is there for the Big Bang? Will the Big Bang ever stop? Is ‘absolute nothing’ possible?” These are just a few of the many questions my students have asked and attempted to answer during their unit on modern physics. As teachers, I think we all like the idea that our students should be curious, to ask questions about things that interest them, things they really wonder about. Yet, most of our teaching practices rarely embed curiosity-driven questions formed by our students as a part of a strategic process toward learning.

Huge Pendulum, Centre of Mass, and Magnetic Force

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1994-03-01T11:24:41-05:00

John Earnshaw, Trent University

The author presents three demonstrations: a large pendulum, the centre of mass of a person, and the magnetic force on a beam of electrons.

Optics, Density, Holography, and Curve-Fitting

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1993-10-01T09:21:07-04:00

Dianne Ness, Humberside C.I.

Four demonstrations from Dianne Ness.

Colour Mixing the Economical Way

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1994-01-01T20:43:20-05:00

Bill Konrad, Chatham Kent Secondary School

I am sure that, in the schools of Ontario, the range of equipment presently in place to demonstrate colour mixing varies all the way from ray boxes with colour filters to expensive projectors specifically designed for that topic. Many of these may be effective but frequently one finds that the resulting colour is not exactly what theory predicts. For example, a blue light, a green light, and a red light projected onto the same area of a white screen may produce a “yellow” white or a “greyish” white. The demonstration described below gives excellent results and, in keeping with current budget constraints, is very economical. To carry it out, proceed as follows.

EUREKA Talk: Metamaterials & the Science of Invisibility

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-01-14T20:20:42-05:00

Saturday January 30, 2016; 10:30 AM
Room 2005, Faculty of Social Sciences Building, University of Ottawa
Presented by Professor Sir John Pendry

The University of Ottawa Department of Physics is excited to launch a new series of public events to bring cutting edge physics to the Ottawa community. These events are targeted at high school students and their families.

The inaugural Eureka Talk will be on Saturday January 30 at 10:30am in the Faculty of Social Sciences Building (room 2005) at uOttawa. Professor Sir John Pendry will speak on the science of invisibility cloaks, which he described for the first time. We will then have a moderated discussion with Sir John about what it is like to be a practicing physicist, including such topics as decisions he made that went well and perhaps ones that he regrets.

The Classroom Wave

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1993-02-01T08:33:50-05:00

Bonnie Edwards, Our Lady of Lourdes High School, Guelph

How about a physics demonstration with hundreds of moving parts that never needs to be fixed and doesn't require storage space? Hard to believe? Try doing THE WAVE in your grade 12 physics classes.

Standing Waves — The Can that Comes Back

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1992-10-01T22:11:42-04:00

Pauline Plooard, Fenelon Falls Secondary School

Two quick demonstrations from Pauline Plooard.

Particle Physics Crossword Solution

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2016-01-01T13:01:59-05:00

The solution to last week’s physics-themed crossword puzzle. How well did you do?

Perimeter Workshop: Black Holes

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-12-31T11:23:14-05:00

Host: James Ball
Wednesday January 20th 2016
Room 209 John F. Ross C.V.I. 21 Meyer Drive Guelph, Ontario N1E 4H1
4:00 – 6:00

Come and check out Perimeter's latest resource of black holes. There will be activities that are suitable for the grade 9 universe unit as well as both the grade 11 and 12 physics courses. Please R.S.V.P. to James Ball (james.ball@ugdsb.on.ca) if you are planning on attending.

Not-so-Simple Harmonic Oscillator

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1992-06-01T13:47:56-04:00

John Wylie, The Toronto French School

Two years ago when I was in The Netherlands for the International Physics Olympiad, the Soviet team-leader, Sergey Krotov¹, demonstrated a remarkable toy, crafted to the highest standards by the technical staff at Moscow State University. It consisted of a series of simple pendulums of varying lengths which, when swung together, formed very beautiful patterns. I built one of my own which works just as well, using only bits and pieces that I found in my high school physics lab.

Particle Physics Crossword

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-12-25T00:01:00-05:00

The holidays are a time to relax with friends and family. In the spirit of holiday fun, the OAPT brings you a physics-themed crossword puzzle, filled with cryptic clues and bad puns.

DDSB STEM Talk in the New Year!

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-12-18T13:36:15-05:00

Wednesday January 20, 2016; 7:00 – 8:00
Room 1011, Durham District School Board (400 Taunton Road East. Whitby)
Presented by Jen Rowsell and Sarah Langer

The Biology of Camel Spiders and Arachnid Fieldwork Adventures

Forensic Entomology: HowInsects Can Help Solve Crimes

Parallax and Images

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1992-03-01T20:08:04-05:00

T.J. Elgin Wolfe, Faculty of Education, University of Toronto

Parallax is the apparent motion of one object with reference to a second object caused by a change in position of the viewer. Involve the class in the following way to introduce this concept.

A Not-so-Serious Parallel Circuit

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1992-01-01T14:01:03-05:00

Peter Zuech, Mother Teresa S.S., Scarborough

This idea was born while watching the Tonight Show. A popular entertainer demonstrated a wooden board upon which four coloured light bulbs in sockets were mounted along with a corresponding set of four coloured switches. No matter how the bulbs were rearranged in the sockets, the blue switch turned the blue bulb on and off, the red switch operated the red bulb, and so on. Johnny examined the bulbs, found them to be “normal” and was convinced that it was magic. Unable to determine how the four-bulb unit operated, we designed a simpler two-bulb version for use as a discrepant event in current electricity. Our unit used two white bulbs but coloured ones could be used as in the original unit. The only skills required to construct the unit are an ability to solder and the willingness to tinker a little.

Northern Ontario Teacher Subsidy for the OAPT Conference

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-12-12T14:00:59-05:00

We are excited to announce funding support to Northern Ontario Teachers to attend the OAPT conference at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario on May 12-14, 2016!

The Northern Ontario teacher Subsidy will cover the cost of travel, accommodations, registration, and supply coverage! Don’t miss out!

Fill out the form at: http://goo.gl/forms/qnZ8Jc6uoe

The Definition of Northern Ontario can be found here: http://nohfc.ca/en/about-us/northern-ontario-districts

Contact Lisa Lim-Cole for more information: lisa.cole@ddsb.ca

TAPT Postponed: Physics Games — Phun with Physics

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-12-04T20:54:57-05:00

The TAPT session Physics Games — Phun with Physics has been postponed until after Christmas. We will make another announcement when the new date is confirmed.

The World’s Simplest Speaker

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1991-03-01T15:44:26-05:00

Frank Allan, Science Co-ordinator, Ottawa Board of Education

The world’s simplest speaker can be constructed in a matter of seconds.

Undergraduate School on Experimental Quantum Information Processing (USEQIP)

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-11-22T11:47:18-05:00

May 30-June 10, 2016

Start the summer with a two-week introduction to the theoretical and experimental study of quantum information processing which includes 30 hours in the labs. You will get the opportunity to interact with students from around world, work with graduate students, postdocs and IQC faculty. This program is fully funded — including your accommodations and food. You can also apply for travel bursaries.

Watch this quick video to get a feel for the full experience.

Undergraduate Research Award - all summer
Join us at IQC for the summer through an Undergraduate Research Award and work with one of our researchers – experimentalist or theorist. Not only will you enhance your research experience and prepare for your graduate studies and research career, but you get the chance to attend IQC seminars, lectures, and student talks. This is a unique opportunity to interact with an interdisciplinary research community.

Apply before January 11!
You can choose to only apply to attend USEQIP, to only apply for an Undergraduate Research Award, or apply for both.

If you want to apply to both, click the USEQIP button. Complete the application and check the appropriate box for the Undergraduate Research Award.*

If you only want to apply for USEQIP, click the USEQIP button. Complete the application but do NOT check the box for the Undergraduate Research Award.

If you only want to apply for the Undergraduate Research Award, click the URA button and complete the application

Virtual Image Formed by a Plane Mirror

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1991-12-01T10:12:50-05:00

T.J. Elgin Wolfe, University of Toronto

An interesting demonstration that makes use of the location of the virtual image formed by a plane mirror can be done with a black cloth, a small candle (about 2 cm in height), a dull dark opaque shield about 3.5 cm tall and bent at right angles, a large pane of thin window glass, two retort stands, 4 adjustable clamps, a 400 mL beaker, and coloured water. To highlight the beaker in the dim light, outline the outer edges (as viewed by the class) with masking tape.

The World’s Simplest Motor

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1990-12-01T08:46:24-05:00

Robert Ehrlich, Physics Department, George Mason University

The world's simplest motor can be constructed in less than five minutes.

TAPT: Physics Games — Phun with Physics

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-11-21T14:08:59-05:00

NOTE: session postponed until after Christmas. Will be reposted when date confirmed.

Tuesday December 8, 2015; snacks 4:00, session 4:30 – 6:00
Staff Room, Agincourt CI (2621 Midland Avenue. Toronto)
Presented by Kathy DeNoble and Robert Prior

Games can be an excellent way to reinforce student learning. In this session, we will play three different games designed for kinematics, and discuss how they fit into the curriculum.

KineCards: A card game that builds position-time and velocity-time graphs of an object's motion. Players must play matching D-T and V-T segments while competing to end at different positions.

The Amazing Rally: An orienteering game that sends students around the school following a trail of clues. Players must draw and follow a vector diagram while maintaining a schedule, neither too fast nor too slow.

Space Battles: A 2D space miniatures game. Players pilot spaceships which use realistic vector acceleration and movement. Advanced options add combat and relative velocity.

Although this TAPT session focuses (naturally) on physics, we will also have non-physics games on display for those of you teaching other science courses.

As usual, we will have snacks and socializing time from 4:00 – 4:30. Please email Robert (robert.prior@tdsb.on.ca) to let him know that you are coming so we can be sure to have enough food. See you there!

FAST Motion Studios - Physics Field Trip

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-11-21T11:12:07-05:00

Over the past 18 months the OAPT has been working with Paul Rapovski, CEO of FAST Motion Studios (2 Denison Rd W, Toronto) to develop an experiential field trip for high school physics students. The intent is to reveal the variety of career pathways in the recession-proof business of entertainment production — movies, television and gaming. We successfully tested our model in September with a focus group of physics teachers — including a complement from the OAPT team. This field trip program was revealed at the recent STAO conference and we are extending the offer to our members.

To this end there are three attachments:

Field Trip teacher's package: contains flyer, instructions and student waiver form.

Field trip flyer, alone: for distribution to students, parents, admin etc.

FAST STEM connection: outlines the rich STEM base of the motion picture, television and gaming industry (general info)

Please feel free to pass these along to colleagues. The first step is to identify potential date(s) for the field trip and connect with me to confirm (dave@fastmotionstudios.com). As well, contact me if you require more information.

Thank you for your time and attention to this unique and exciting initiative.

Making Sound Waves Visible

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1990-10-01T10:09:28-04:00

Bill Konrad, Kent County Board of Education

The demonstration described below was demonstrated at the OAPT conference in London in June 1989. Since there was a fair bit of interest in the details of construction of the apparatus, I thought this column would provide a convenient opportunity to give the specifications. Essentially, a speaker at one end of the closed air column is used to set up a standing wave of sound inside the column. Natural gas enters the device through two copper tubes. The gas is lit and burns at numerous holes drilled across the top of the duct. Due to differences in pressure at the nodes and loops of the standing wave inside the air column, the flames that are generated vary in height giving a visual outline of the wave inside.

Upcoming STEM Talk at the Durham District School Board on November 25 at 7:00 pm!

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-11-17T19:37:11-05:00

Please share it with educators, students, parents, community members and any STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) enthusiasts! It is a free event and all are welcome to attend! Mark your calendar! Hope to see you there!

Durham District School Board
400 Taunton Rd E.
Whitby, ON L1R 2K6
(905) 666-6384
Toll Free: 1-800-339-6913, Ext. 6384
Email: cole_lisa@durham.edu.on.ca

Keeping Alive the Sense of Wonder … Counter-Intuition

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1990-05-01T18:43:46-04:00

Doug Cunningham, Science Head, Bruce Peninsula District School

“…The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds…”

Anatole France 1921 Nobel Prize, Literature

I have always been interested in finding demonstrations that provoke and awaken the natural curiosity of students. Demonstrations that provide unexpected results, or appear on the surface to violate common sense, are particularly effective vehicles for motivation. These demonstrations or experiments are known as counter-intuitive.

Sand and Soup

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1990-03-01T18:27:56-05:00

Patrick Whippey, Department of Physics, University of Western Ontario

Two intriguing demonstrations from Patrick Whippey.

The D.C. Motor

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1989-12-01T18:33:22-05:00

Peter Scovil, Waterford District High School

Have you had difficulties explaining to students the complexities of the D.C. motor?

Bloody Ballistics

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1989-10-01T08:14:06-04:00

George Vanderkuur, Ontario Science Centre

The heart is a mechanical pump that is used to move an incompressible fluid (i.e., blood) through a very elastic closed network of tubes. With each cycle of the “pump,” the whole system expands and contracts.

Electrostatics with Ping Pong Balls

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1989-05-01T12:16:55-04:00

Gyula Lorincz, University of Toronto

Many of our old favourite electrostatics demonstrations can be improved using ping pong balls painted with graphite to replace pith balls. In particular, a simple but very sensitive electrostatic torsion balance can be used to demonstrate both the attraction of opposite charges and the repulsion of like charges.

James Ball wins the Irwin Talesnick Award for Excellence in Teaching

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-10-19T16:59:49-04:00

A physics teacher from Guelph’s John F. Ross CVI has won a prestigious award, recognizing excellence in the teaching of science.

James Ball will be awarded the Irwin Talesnick Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Science by the Science Teachers’ Association of Ontario (STAO) this November at the STAO’s annual conference. Among the many requirements of the recipient of the STAO award are unique and extraordinary accomplishments in teaching science to students in the province. Ball’s colleagues and students attest to his dedication and passion both in and out of the classroom.

CBC Interview: Nobel Prize and Physics Teaching

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-10-17T21:48:33-04:00

Today the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Canadian physicist Arthur McDonald for his work on neutrino oscillations. Chris Meyer heard about it while driving to work, and talked about it with his first period class, but little did he suspect that before noon he would be interviewed by CBC Newsworld!

Call for Proposals and Exhibitors for the 2016 OAPT Conference

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-10-09T17:24:39-04:00

This year’s OAPT conference will be held at Wilfird Laurier University, Waterloo form May 12-14 and the theme is Capturing Diverse Perspectives in STEM. See the flyer for more information about the conference.

We are now accepting proposals for workshops up until Nov. 30, 2015. If you are interested in presenting please fill in a proposal at http://goo.gl/forms/F3naNAQMuH

If you are interested in reserving a table in the exhibitor space, please fill in the exhibitor information form at http://goo.gl/forms/8BXlsHlPsl

Goethe-Institut Toronto & UWaterloo Engineering Competition

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-10-08T16:56:10-04:00

Waterloo Engineering has partnered with the Goethe Institut to run a new engineering competition this November for girls in grades 10-11 (WE GO Design).

WE Go.DEsign is a two day Engineering Design and Research Competition for women in grade 10 and 11 presented by the Goethe-Institut. The Grand Prize will be a language, engineering and culture trip to Germany during Summer 2016! There are two elements to the competition, a Research Symposium and a Design Challenge. Each element will be judged by Goethe Institut and University of Waterloo faculty and staff, with prizes awarded in each element.

For more information, visit the website:
https://uwaterloo.ca/engineering/wegodesign

Overhead Projector Wave Simulator

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1989-03-01T20:49:24-05:00

Bill Konrad, Kent County Board of Education

The demonstration described in this column is one I learned as a teacher in summer school at the beginning of my teaching career. It is one that I have found to be very useful in teaching a number of concepts related to waves.

Workshop: Perimeter Institute presents Hands on Wave Particle Duality

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-10-02T16:35:06-04:00

Hosts: Stephanie Barich and Jeannette Rensink (Pickering High School), Damian Pope and Glenn Wagner (Perimeter Institute)
Contact: Stephanie Barich, barich_stephanie@durham.edu.on.ca

Date: October 9, 2015
Time: 8:30 am - 11:00 am or 12:30 pm - 3:00 pm
Location: 180 Church Street North, Ajax, ON

Come explore the Challenge of Quantum Reality, a classroom resource designed by educators in collaboration with Perimeter Institute researchers to introduce senior physics students to the wonder and power of quantum physics. Experience the electron double-slit experiment as you participate in a hands-on classroom activity that will introduce the fundamental concepts involved in wave-particle duality.

Field Trip: The Physics of Movie Stunts

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-09-27T17:37:44-04:00

Fly through the air with the greatest of ease! Stage epic martial arts battles or use your super powers to save the universe! Find out how they really do these amazing stunts in Hollywood movies! At FAST Motion Studios your students can design their action movie sequence, act it out on camera, and analyze the physics!

Know any students who might want to try that kind of thing? Thought so!

The Electrostatic Precipitator

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1988-09-01T19:49:18-04:00

Roland Meisel, Ridgeway-Crystal Beach High School

An electrostatic precipitator can be assembled in less than half an hour using parts commonly found around the science department in a high school. I have used it as a demonstration in classes ranging from grade 10 general science to grade 13 physics. In addition, it has spawned several senior science projects using it as an investigative tool.

UoW: Teaching Quantum Technology workshop

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-09-19T09:34:34-04:00

Learn how to include quantum technology in your curriculum

Apply for the Teaching Quantum Technology workshop (TQT) before October 30

Would you like to deepen your understanding of quantum mechanics and how to convey its beauty and societal importance to your students? The Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) has a free workshop on quantum mechanics and technology that will provide you with lesson plans and affordable, ready-to-go activities to take back to your classroom. On December 5 and 6th you will participate in hands-on activities, attend a few lectures and enjoy enrichment activities, as well as take part in roundtable discussions on how to incorporate what you’ve learned into your curriculum.

You will leave this workshop with:

The ability to teach quantum mechanics beyond the basics and discuss cutting-edge advances in the field

Lesson plans and other affordable, ready-to-go activities for you to take back to your classroom

Discussion points about how quantum mechanics can transform society

Space is limited, so apply now for TQT, December 5-6.

If you wish to be added to the mailing list to automatically receive updates about TQT as well as our high school students program, please sign up here giving us the consent to add you to the list.

TAPT: Playing with the New Physics Practicals Room at U of T

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-09-19T09:31:48-04:00

Host: Jason Harlow
Monday Nov. 9
U of T McLennan Physical Labs, 255 Huron St. Toronto
Room 126
4:00 – 6:00 (Refreshments 4-4:30)

At this session, you will get a chance to visit our new “Practicals” room where our physics majors do their weekly activities. I’ll be sharing my experiences teaching physics by having university students work through activities in teams of 3 or 4 – rather than the lectures that you probably experienced. You will get to play – just as the students do – with three physics toys. Using “Poppers”, you will work through an inquiry-based lesson based on the different forms of energy and how energy can be transformed from one form to another. Next you will try out our good quality yo-yos and work through a lesson based on friction, work and torque. Finally, you will use a Cartesian Diver, to explore pressure, volume and buoyancy force. There will be lot of time for questions and discussions of how to make the high school-university transition smoother for our students.

As usual, we will have snacks and socializing time from 4:00 – 4:30. Please email Chris (christopher.meyer@tdsb.on.ca) to let him know that you are coming so we can be sure to have enough food. See you there!

TAPT: Mastering Static Electricity

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-09-10T19:25:42-04:00

Host: Chris Meyer
Wed. Sept 30
York Mills CI, 490 York Mills Rd., Rm 112
4:00 – 6:00 (Refreshments 4-4:30)

Does static electricity have you perplexed? Boost your confidence and improve your understanding of this fascinating and shocking (couldn't resist) topic, which is the foundation for our understanding of current electricity. Join Chris Meyer at York Mills C. I. for an after school session of hands-on exploration. You will work through an inquiry-based lesson on the fundamentals of static electricity and build your understanding of how charges behave in solid matter. The lesson helps target common student (and teacher!) misconceptions and will be of particular interest to teachers of grade 9 science and grade 12 physics who would like to polish their skills. The session will also give you lots of ideas for activities to use with your students. Grab a colleague to bring along! As usual, we will have snacks and socializing time from 4:00 – 4:30. Please email Chris (christopher.meyer@tdsb.on.ca) to let him know that you are coming so we can be sure to have enough food. See you there!

Science Teachers’ Association of Ontario (STAO) 2015 Conference

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-09-06T07:55:54-04:00

Date: November 12th-14th, 2015
Location: International Plaza Hotel, 655 Dixon Rd., Toronto

The STAO2015 conference offers many sessions for Secondary school educators. Highlights of the conference include:

inquiry-based science activities, including technology-enhanced learning ideas

STAO's 125th celebration with cake and hands-on activities from Mad Science

Guest speaker, Bob McDonald from CBC's Quirks and Quarks, on Saturday, November 14th

over 50 daily sessions focused on the science and technology classroom

The STAO conference itself, along with numerous poster sessions that will inspire you

Please visit stao.ca for more information!

Welcome Back!

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-09-05T11:42:11-04:00

The 2015/2016 school year is starting up and as you start to think about the courses you will be teaching and the work you will do with your students, I encourage you to connect with us as we work together to support physics teaching in Ontario. The OAPT Conference will be held on May 12 – 14, 2016 at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario. The conference will provide active learning workshops, collaborative networking opportunities and exploration of current trends in scientific and technological research. This year, the OAPT conference will focus on Diversity in Physics and STEM.

OAPT continues to support physics education at STAO. Workshops will be presented for Grade 7-10 science programs and the OAPT will be present in the exhibit hall. Let your fellow science teachers know!

I also invite you to join the OAPT team. We would love to have you join us as we prepare for this school year. Currently, we are seeking volunteers to help with the organization of the conference, writing articles for the newsletter, preparation of the Grade 11 Physics Contest and graphic design aspects of public communications for OAPT. If you are interested in joining us, contact me at: cole_lisa@durham.edu.on.ca

Looking forward to another great year!
Lisa Lim-Cole, President

Real Image Demonstration

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1988-04-01T17:32:17-05:00

Don Murphy, Sydenham High School

Many demonstrations can be made not just interesting but truly memorable by “setting up” the students a bit beforehand. A rather well-known demonstration involves a real flowerpot and a flower suspended upside down inside a box placed 2 focal lengths in front of a large concave mirror. The viewer sees an illusion of the flower being on top of the box but the image disappears when the viewer approaches too close. The apparatus on hand at our school for a similar demo is illustrated below, but in this case a real image of a light bulb is formed.

The Thermobile and Icemobile

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1988-02-01T11:36:04-05:00

Peter Levan, Lockerby Composite School, Sudbury

At last year’s conference in Sudbury, Al Hirsch demonstrated his icemobile¹ and I mentioned the action of a thermobile¹. Some people were interested in more explanation and information on these little toys and the physics behind them.

The Bistable Diver

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1987-09-01T19:27:01-04:00

Jim Hunt, Guelph Physics Department

This marks the first appearance of this column, which has been prompted by the great popularity of the demonstration sessions at our annual conference. This first column is adapted from an article in the Guelph Daily Mercury, by Jim Hunt of the Guelph Physics Department.

A fun toy which teaches a lot about hydrostatics and Archimedes’ principle can be made from some very simple items. You will need 1) a large transparent dishwashing detergent plastic bottle (see A in Fig.) with a plastic valve cap, and most importantly, with an oval cross section; 2) a cap from a ball point pen; 3) a few small paper clips.

University of Toronto Science Summer Camp

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-04-12T16:18:14-04:00

Applications are now open for “Science Unlimited Summer Camp” at the University of Toronto! A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for high school students to participate in a week of Physics, Astronomy, Earth Sciences, Computer Sciences, Math and Chemistry workshops.

For more information and to register, visit: https://scienceunlimited.utoronto.ca/home/

Early Bird Deadline to Apply: April 30, 2015 Regular Deadline to Apply: June 15, 2015

OAPT Conference Approaching

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-04-05T17:52:24-04:00

The OAPT Conference is quickly approaching!

Join us at the University of Guelph on May 7-9! Let's explore the exciting world of science and build a network of science and physics educators from K-12 to post-secondary!

Registration is open!

http://www.oapt.ca/conference/Current/register.html

Keynote by Jay Ingram!
Active learning workshop by experienced teachers!
Discussion panels!
Update from University of Guelph researchers!

JOIN US!

Why take part in a Physics Contest?

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-03-24T16:52:20-04:00

Shawn Brooks, UTS (University of Toronto Schools)

While they are in high school, I encourage all of my students to try their hand at a physics contest — at least once.

However, it must always be seen as a voluntary enrichment activity, as like any adjudicated performance, a contest creates anxiety. To help my student cope with this I share the following advice. First, you can choose your level of preparedness. You can simply show up and write it, or you can prepare, if you wish to. It is up to you. Second, if you are not completely satisfied with your results, you do not need to tell anybody your score. Conversely, take pride in your score if you do well (just don’t forget there was some luck involved). Third, the OAPT contest is linked directly to SPH3U curriculum. It has questions from the 5 units (Kinematics, Forces, etc.) and is a great review for the exam. And, any preparation students undertake in preparation for their final exam will counter the effects of anxiety later on.

I would like to encourage you to think about offering the OAPT contest to your students this year. It is free. It takes 60 minutes of class time and it might be the last physics contest they ever write!

Falling Faster Than ‘g’

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 1988-11-01T17:00:00-05:00

T. Dean Gaily, University of Western Ontario

A simple lecture demonstration to illustrate that some objects do ‘fall’ with an acceleration greater than 9.8 m/s² is constructed from two pieces of 2.5 cm × 15 cm lumber approximately 1 m in length (1” × 6” × 39”), hinged together at one end. A small marble placed in a notch at or near the end of the “falling” board can be made to fall slower than the board and land in the cup strategically placed on the falling board.

Welcome to the New OAPT Newsletter

Ontario Association of Physics Teachers — 2015-03-23T15:00:00-04:00

Lisa Lim-Cole, President of OAPT

The 2014/2015 academic year has been an exciting one with many new initiatives for the OAPT. The OAPT website has a new look and the upcoming conference hosted by the University of Guelph Department of Physics promises to be another opportunity to obtain inspiration for physics/science teaching and network with educators across Ontario (K-12 to Postsecondary). Additionally, the Newsletter team continues to find ways to improve our OAPT publication.

Several years ago we shifted from a quarterly print newsletter to an electronic publication, which in addition to being environmentally conscious, allowed us to include colour images, and a greater variety of articles. The latest rendering of the newsletter offers the same articles, but with greater immediacy as you will no longer have to wait quarterly for your fix of physics! Articles will be published at newsletter.oapt.ca, and archived by date of publication. Categories and tags will enable you to quickly find articles of interest to you; and, the complete set of past issues are readily available. As we move to a more dynamic platform to share upcoming events, news and resources, we encourage all of you to contribute to the Newsletter!