Science Education

Hayward's "D Street" fault creep, curb offset evidence erased

December 7, 2009

Sadly, improvements in city streets can wipe out geologic evidence. D Street has been a great field trip stop to see earthquake fault creep, and appears in many guidebooks and web sites. But in 1997, Hayward repaved the road, including the sidewalks (they all needed it). When they repaved it, they straightened all the curb [...]

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Handout for using the TI 83 / 84 calculator in a science classroom.

October 23, 2009

I have updated my Analyzing data using your TI-83 or TI-84 calculator handout. New features include: Using the Table features to have the calculator solve for variables. Using Draw to calculate the slope of the tangent to a curved line. Standard letter size (8.5x11 inches) for easier printing. You can download a copy here: TI-graphing-calculator-tips-for-science.pdf. [...]

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New East Span Bay Bridge earthquake simulation video

October 15, 2009

Sorry, I couldn't get the video below to not autostart. Click the Pause button to stop it if you don't want it to run.

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Loma Prieta 20 year anniversary

October 14, 2009

This Saturday (October 17, 2009) marks the 20th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake. Everyone who was in the Santa Cruz/SF Bay Area has their story of where they were, and KQED's Forum call-in program had a great hour yesterday. It's been long enough ago that for my students (juniors and seniors in high school) [...]

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Generic science class data table

September 30, 2009

In my physic classes, we do a lot of labs. Students are encouraged to create their own data tables, but many aren't so "linearly" inclined, and have difficulty creating neat tables. I created a generic data table they can use on any lab. Design of the data table Most of our labs require three measurements [...]

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"Progressive" thermostats to save energy

September 12, 2009

Sitting in my cold, air-conditioned classroom the last week, while it was 85-95ºF outside, a design for a new thermostat came to me. Currently, thermostats cool (or heat) a building to a desired temperature. My new design would create a floating target temperature, that moves up and down as the outside temperature changes. The goal [...]

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Great "raw" video footage from typhoon in China

August 9, 2009

The video below is just "raw" footage from CBS News. There is no narration, just a collection of images. I really enjoy this format, you can focus on the images and not on what the newscaster is saying. Powerful. Typhoon Slams China Sun Aug 09 11:26:08 PDT 2009 "CBS News RAW": Millions evacuated the area [...]

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A concept map for the Modeling cycle

August 6, 2009

At the AAPT meeting in Ann Arbor, I presented a poster on concept mapping in physics classes. An idea that arose there was the creation of a concept map of the ASU Modeling Cycle, so I created one. Take a look and let me know what you think. I'll probably make adjustments to it when [...]

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Concept Mapping in the High School Physics Classroom

July 29, 2009

Below is the content of my poster presentation from the American Association of Physics Teachers national meeting in Ann Arbor, MI. (I'll be adding graphs from surveys shortly.) Concept Mapping in Physics AAPT Summer Meeting; July 28, 2009 Lee Trampleasure Carondelet High School Concord, CA Concept Mapping in Physics Concept mapping is the creation of [...]

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Target shoot: Ball on ramp, conservation of energy

July 21, 2009

Many physics teachers do a "target shoot" lab for conservation of energy. The basics of the lab is that students roll a ball down a curved ramp and predict where it will land. By calculating the change in gravitational energy from the top to the bottom of the ramp ("Phase A" in the sketch), students [...]

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