Decibel Scale Concept Builder

The Decibel Scale Concept Builder sharpens a learner's understanding of the logarithmic nature of the deciBel scale. Learners are told the deciBel level os Sound Source A and are told that Sound Source B is 10ⁿ time more or less intense. The learner must use this information and an understanding of deciBels in order to determine the deciBel level of Source Source B. There are 36 total questions organized into 12 different Questoin Groups and spread across three difficulty levels. The built-in score-keeping makes this Concept Builder a perfect candidate for a classroom activity.

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Concept-Builders/Waves-and-Sound/Decibel-Scale

Do Cell Phones Cause Brain Tumors?

It's a fair question! And I wouldn't draw a conclusion too quickly. Because if cell phone radiation does cause cancer, a whole lot of us are in trouble. Join Derek Mueller of the Veritasium YouTube channel as he "takes it to the streets" and dissects the various studies and possible means by which this question can be reliably answered. Join Derek at ... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU5XkhUGzBs

And for the teachers among us: why not make plans to present the question to your classes using the Science Reasoning passage present at our website that is titled Cell Phone Radiation. The passage presents both sides of the question to students and challenges them to analyze the arguments and draw some conclusions.

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/reasoning/light

We recommend that you challenge your students to the Reading Passage first and then use the Veritasium video as the follow-up.

Hot Hits at The Physics Classroom

Every Saturday we highlight three resources that have received particularly heavy traffic from website visitors during the past week. This week's winners are …

1.Frequency and Period of a Wave at The Tutorial

The Waves chapter has been showing some rather significant traffic in the past few weeks. Pages such as the Frequency and Period of a Wave have begun to show up among the most popular of pages on our website. Like all our Tutorial pages, concepts are introduced in an easy-to-understand language and supported by informative graphics. The page ends with a Check Your Understanding section that allows learners to conduct a self-assessment.

https://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/waves/Lesson-2/Frequency-and-Period-of-a-Wave

2. Interference Concept Builder

The Wave Interference Concept Builder targets student understanding of what interference is, of the distinction between constructive and destructive interference, and of how the principle of superposition can be used to determine the shape of the resultant wave (or wave sum) that results from the interference of two waves. There are 20 total questions organized into 10 different Question Groups and spread across three different activities. The activities are titled To Construct or To Destruct, The Principle of Superposition, and Sum It Up.

https://www.physicsclassroom.com/Concept-Builders/Waves-and-Sound/Interference

3. Simple Wave Simulator at The Physics Interactives

This week's top Interactive was the Simple Wave Simulator Interactive. This Interactive is part of our Waves and Sound collection. The Interactive allows learners to explore wave mathematics and concepts. The simulator depicts a traveling wave on a rope or a sound wave moving through a column of air. Users can alter the frequency, speed and amplitude of the wave and see immediate changes in the simulation. The distinction between particle motion and wave motion is immediately obvious as learners watch the disturbance move and three "tagged" particles vibrate about a fixed position. The Interactive works well on tablets such as the iPad, on Chromebooks, and on mobile devices.

https://www.physicsclassroom.com/Physics-Interactives/Waves-and-Sound/Simple-Wave-Simulator

Wave Addition Simulation

When two or more waves meet up with each other while moving through the same medium, interference occurs. When you try to observe this phenomenon in real life, the two waves become lost in one another and it becomes difficult to perceive the principles that underlie the phenomenon. But this simulation comes to the rescue, allowing the learner to step through in slow motion and view the individual waves and the resulting shape of the medium. So drop that Slinky for a moment; you can get back to it later. But for now, take some time to explore the Wave Addition simulation and find out what is happening when you and your friend give each end a shake.

The Interactive provides the learner with a rich environment for exploring nearly all things that one might want to know about basic waves and their interference phenomenon. Study quantitative relationships and patterns between wavelength, frequency, speed, and amplitude. Compare longitudinal and transverse waves. Study constructive and destructive interference. Learn how a standing wave is formed. View beat patterns and manipulate them by altering the frequency of the interfering waves. These are just a few of the variety of things that you can do with this virtual wave environment. Launch it and explore.

https://www.physicsclassroom.com/Physics-Interactives/Waves-and-Sound/Wave-Addition

Concept Builders - Version 2 is Now Ready

It was this past Monday that we had an email conversation with a high school teacher from New York. He begged to be included the Beta Testing trials. We told him we were keeping the testing closed because we weren't happy with all the details. He begged and begged again to be included. He didn't need it to be perfect. He just plain needed it. The fact is that we had a lifesaver and he wanted to grab the rope. 

It was that conversation that moved our schedule forward about two weeks. We were always of the opinion that the first thing that the public sees with our Version 2 Concept Builder had to be near perfect. But that was a pre-COVID19 opinion. It was all of a sudden obvious that our Physics teaching and learning communities were in a bit of a crux. To put it simply, we just are not prepared for distance learning. Nor should we be since very few of us have ever done it. So our response at The Physics Classroom was to open the Beta Testing up to the general public. Come one, come all. 

Whomever wants to try it, can try it. Version 2 is not currently perfect. But it does work. And it will work better a week from now than it works today. And it work better two weeks from now that it works a week from now. Because it does work, you are welcome to join us. Just excuse our "pixel dust" along the way because it is a work in progress. The process of joining in requires that a teacher first registers. Head off to our website, download the MS Word document, fill it out, and send it back. You will find everything you need to know at ...

https://www.physicsclassroom.com/Concept-Builders/Version-2

"Just grab the rope. We'll do the pulling."

The World's Loudest Noises

Ever wonder what the loudest sounds are? Wait no longer and find out the answers with this awesome infographic. From 310 deciBels down to 10 deciBels, the infographic provides examples of sounds of varying intensity. Enjoy the infographic at ...

http://www.airconco.com/decibel-scale

And after you've perused that various sound sources, visit our website to learn more about the deciBel scale and its meaning. Learn about deciBels at ...

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/sound/Lesson-2/Intensity-and-the-Decibel-Scale

Electromagnetic Spectrum - The Ultimate Infographic

One of our all-time favorite posts is this post about the EM Spectrum infographic. And from time to time, we repost it here on our social media sites. Nearly every high school physics course has a unit on the topic of light. And a central part of that unit is the behavior of light as a wave - an electromagnetic wave. A centerpiece of this discussion is usually a graphic showing the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum. The entire spectrum is divided into regions with popular names such as X-ray region, ultraviolet region, visible light region, infrared region, microwave region, etc. The most elaborate representation of the spectrum can be found on Flickr at 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/llnl/9403051123/sizes/l/

The infographic portrays the various regions, their wavelengths and frequencies, the characteristics and uses, the source and origin, and so much more. There is enough physics in this graphic to fuel several weeks’ worth of studies.

Finally, if you would like to see the infographic come alive, visit the interactive version of it at the Physics Interactives section of our website.

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Physics-Interactives/Light-and-Color/Electromagnetic-Spectrum

Concept Builders 2.0 - a Distance Learning Solution

Our work on Concept Builders Version 2 has continued over the past couple of weeks. We believe that we very close to completion and will be able to announce an "opening day" date very soon. What we think to be our 'last bucket list" was sent to the web design fim this past Saturday. When the estimated 20 hours of work is completed, we will be ready to open our doors. While the web design firm is working on back end changes and interface issues, our developer will be completing Version 2 upgrades for all remaining Concept Builders. (He also claims that it's time for him to get back to producing more Video Tutorials.)

With the Coronavirus-19 spreading rapidly through the United States, many schools are being forced to transition from face-to-face instruction to distance learning plans. This transition raises plenty of questions regarding how to deliver instruction, provide practice, help students, and assess their learning. We have always believed that Concept Builder provided so much support for students as they approached the middle to the end of the learning cycle of a given topic. As such, we believe that Concept Builders can play a vital role iin your distance learning plans. And now wih Version 2, teachers will be able to create accounts and classes, populate the classes with students by inviting students to join the class, and then creating assignments with point values and due dates. And for students, once they log on to the system, the Concept Builder will post their progress to our servers for teachers to view. It's easy. It's simple. And it's effective.

We are inviting anyone and everyone to try Concept Builders, Version 2. We will be announcing opening day here on Facebook and will begin to develop support for its use on our website. Learn more at ...

https://www.physicsclassroom.com/Concept-Builders

In the meantine, stay in. Stay healthy. And keep your spirits up. We're all going to get to the other side of this COV-19 crisis.

Building a Metacognitive Classroom

Teaching students basic knowledge about the brain’s potential can have a positive impact on their motivation, grit, and achievement. In particular, explicitly teaching them that learning changes the structure and function of their brains can be transformational in building a stronger belief in the value of working hard to master new material. In this article from the Edutopia blog, Donna Wilson and Marcus Conyers discuss how teaching students about neuroplasticity and the brain’s potential can have a positive effect on their self-perceptions and expectations for success in school.

https://www.edutopia.org/article/building-metacognitive-classroom

Hot Hits at The Physics Classroom

Every Saturday we highlight three resources that have received particularly heavy traffic from website visitors during the past week. This week's winners are …

1.Potential Energyat The Tutorial

One of the most visited pages at The Physics Classroom this week was the Potential Energy page found in the Work, Energy, and Power chapter of The Physics Classroom Tutorial. This Tutorial page helps learners to understand the various forms of potential energy and the variables that affect the amount. It is the third page in our 5-page lesson on Work, Energy, and Power. 

https://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/energy/Lesson-1/Potential-Energy

2. Rocking the Boat Concept Builder

The Rocking the Boat Concept Builder presents the learner with a problem about two boats anchored in a harbor and rocking up and down in the presence of waves that are entering the harbor. Given a description of the motion of the two boats, learners must determine the wavelength, frequency, period, amplitude, and speed of the water waves. There are 27 total questions that are organized into nine different Question Groups and spread across three difficulty levels. The three different levels of difficulty are distinguished from one another in terms of the number of problems and the degree of variation from one problem to the next. The built-in score-keeping makes this Concept Builder a perfect candidate for a classroom activity.

https://www.physicsclassroom.com/Concept-Builders/Waves-and-Sound/Wave-Properties

3. Put the Charge in the Goal at The Physics Interactives

Our Static Electricity Interactives received a lot of attention this past week. One of the top Interactives was our Put the Charge in the Goal. This simulation offers students a rigorous mental challenge as they attempt to use electric fields created by test charges in order to guide an electrically charged puck around obstacles and into a goal. A take-off on the Electric Field Hockey simulation, Put the Charge in the Goal includes several levels that differ in terms of the intricacy of the obstacles. Give your students a gamification experience with Put the Charge in the Goal at ...

https://www.physicsclassroom.com/Physics-Interactives/Static-Electricity/Put-the-Charge-in-the-Goal

Children's Science - Build a Flashlight

In this activity from the MysteryScience blog, students are introduced to electricity as a form of energy. In the activity, Build a Flashlight, students investigate how electrical energy requires a circuit and make their own mini flashlights from LEDs, button batteries, and strips of aluminum foil. Along the way, they’ll learn about the anatomy of a battery, begin to see how circuits work, and discover how handy an on-off switch can be.

https://mysteryscience.com/energy/mystery-6/electrical-energy

Wavelength Concept Builder

The Wavelength Concept Builder is a tool that guides a learner through the meaning of wavelength as the length of the repeating pattern towards being able to calculate the wavelength if given a pattern and the length of the pattern. There are three activities included in this Concept Builder. The first activity - Wave Anatomy - provides the learner practice with identifying crests and troughs in a transverse wave pattern and compressions and rarefactions in a longitudinal wave pattern. In the second activity - Counting Waves - learners must determine the number of waves displayed in a transverse wave pattern. In the third activity - Determining Wavelength - learners calculated the wavelength of a wave when provided a transverse wave pattern and the length of the given pattern. Question-specific help is provided for each of the 12 situations. The built-in score-keeping makes this Concept Builder a perfect candidate for a classroom activity.

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Concept-Builders/Waves-and-Sound/Wavelength

Brains vs. Computers

Dr. Robert Ajemian is a Research Scientist at MIT's McGovern Institute for Brain Research. He is also a Professor of Brain and Cognitive Science at MIT and teaches a Computational Neuroscience class titled: Emerging Computation and Distributed Neural Circuits. One of his specialties is the study of the science of mnemonic techniques. In this shortened version of a full-length interview, Dr. Alemian discusses the contrast between the architecture of brains and computers with a focus on the power of the brain to make associative meaning out of concepts. The video has strong (and surprising) implications for today’s educators, particularly with respect to the importance and the role of memory to learning. It’s a must view for all the anti-memorizers among us.

https://youtu.be/_pRQTVcUYfY

Three Great Waves Interactives

Watch it. Interact with it. Change a variable and observe the result. Explore and learn. These are the types of tasks that learners engage in when they're face-to-face with one of our Interactives. These variable-rich environments allow a learner to observe physics principles and draw their own conclusions about the manner In which the physical world operates. Today we feature three such simulations pertaining to the topic of Waves and Sound:

1. Slinky Lab

Grab a particle on a string and start wiggling it back and forth. Watch as the disturbance you create travels from particle to particle. Explore the result of wiggling more or less frequently or with a smaller or larger amplitude. Change the amount of damping effects and other variables. You'll have so much fun with Slinky Lab that you might forget that you're learning physics.

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Physics-Interactives/Waves-and-Sound/Slinky-Lab

2. Wave Simulator

Prepare yourself because you are about to observe a virtual wave machine. You can set it vibrating at any frequency and any amplitude you wish. You can even view it simulating a sound wave. Watch it vibrate in slow motion. Watch it in fast motion. Watch it in real time. And watch the clock because you're going to be so captivated that you might be late for your next class.

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Physics-Interactives/Waves-and-Sound/Simple-Wave-Simulator

3. Standing Wave Maker

If you have ever seen a standing wave demonstration, then you have seen the definition of groovy (excuse the 80s term). And groovy is what you will see when you open this simulation. Make standing waves from several pre-set conditions or set the conditions yourself. View two waves traveling in opposite directions and the standing wave pattern that results from their interference. Don't forget to say Groovy!

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Physics-Interactives/Waves-and-Sound/Standing-Wave-Patterns

Making Low-Friction Dry Ice Pucks

We are always looking for that perfect low-friction surface to demonstrate the relationship between balanced forces and constant speed motion. And more often than not the solution is very expensive and typically 2-meters in length. But now Pivot Interactives has provided a great idea that is cost-effetive: a dry ice puck. Take a peek at their video and give it a try.

https://twitter.com/pivot_is/status/939169402783764480

Checklist for Today's Teachers

Educator and Sketch Note artist Sylvia Duckworth provides us educators with an excellent checklist that serves as a sort of personal checkup of how well we are doing in the classroom. Take some time to read through her list and reflect upon your own practices. Identify one or two areas to strengthen. 

And to view more awesome Sketch Notes like this, visit Sylvia's collection at …

https://www.flickr.com/photos/15664662@N02/

Hot Hits at The Physics Classroom

Every Saturday we highlight three resources that have received particularly heavy traffic from website visitors during the past week. This week's winners are …

1.Momentum Conservation Principle at The Tutorial

One of our top Tutorial pages this week was our page on the Momentum Conservation Principle. This is a second page of a six-page lesson focusing on how to understand and analyze a collision or an explosion. The page begins with a logical presentation of the basis for the law of momentum conservation. It then explains the meaning of momentum conservation using an analogy with money conservation in a financial transaction. The two characteristics of momentum conservation are clearly described: the momentum change of one object is equal and opposite to that of a second object and the total system momentum is the same before and after the collision or explosion. The page combines graphics, tables of numerical data, examples, videos and a Check Your Understanding section to bring learners to a clear understanding of what momentum conservation involves.

https://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/momentum/Lesson-2/Momentum-Conservation-Principle

2. Wavelength Concept Builder

The Wavelength Concept Builder is a tool that guides a learner through the meaning of wavelength as the length of the repeating pattern towards being able to calculate the wavelength if given a pattern and the length of the pattern. There are three activities included in this Concept Builder. The first activity - Wave Anatomy - provides the learner practice with identifying crests and troughs in a transverse wave pattern and compressions and rarefactions in a longitudinal wave pattern. In the second activity - Counting Waves - learners must determine the number of waves displayed in a transverse wave pattern. In the third activity - Determining Wavelength - learners calculated the wavelength of a wave when provided a transverse wave pattern and the length of the given pattern. 

https://www.physicsclassroom.com/Concept-Builders/Waves-and-Sound/Wavelength

3. Collision Carts at The Physics Interactives

This week's top Interactive was the Collision Carts Interactive. This Interactive allows learners to explore the conservation of momentum for collisions and explosions. The pre-collision mass and velocities can be set and the post-collisions velocities can be used to determine the total system momentum. A couple of ready-to-use exercises are available for teachers who wish to use the Interactive with their classes. The Interactive works well on tablets such as the iPad, on Chromebooks, and on mobile devices, making it a perfect tool for the 1:1 classroom.

https://www.physicsclassroom.com/Physics-Interactives/Momentum-and-Collisions/Collision-Carts

Pyrex and Vegetable Oil

Different materials bend light differing amounts. The tendency of a material to refract light is described by its index of refraction value. Materials with higher index of refraction values are more capable of bending light as it passes from air into the material. It ends up that Pyrex glass and vegetable oil each have an index of refraction of 1.47. So what would happen if a Pyrex glass beaker was placed in a larger beaker filled with vegetable oil. Find out at this Astro Camp page. And once you've viewed the demonstration, consider trying it yourself and adding it to your repertoirre of engaging phenomenon to expose your students to.

https://astrocampschool.org/pyrex-glass/

Have you used Desmos - an online graphing calculator - to demonstrate physical principles? You might wish to try The Physics Classroom's Standing Wave Formation Desmos file to demonstrate the formation of standing waves by the superposition of two interfering waves. It's HTML5 - works on tablets such as the iPad, Chromebooks, and smart phones. See

https://www.desmos.com/calculator/65ycbghqli‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

3 Ways Schools Can Be Supportive of Students’ Mental Health

About one in five children in the United States shows signs of a mental health disorder — anything from ADHD to eating disorders to suicide. More than ever, "it takes a village" to raise a healthy child. And make no mistake about it, schools are one part of that village. In this article from the MindShift blog, Meg Anderson describes one model for how schools can come to the aid of children who suffer from mental health struggles.

https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2016/09/20/3-ways-schools-can-be-supportive-of-students-mental-health/

Simple Wave Simulator Interactive

 

The Simple Wave Simulator Interactive provides the learner with a virtual wave machine for exploring the nature of a wave, quantitative relationships between wavelength, frequency and speed, and comparisons between transverse waves such as those traveling through a rope and longitudinal waves such as sound. The Interactive is accompanied by a classroom-ready activity that guides students to an understanding of strategic wave concepts.

https://www.physicsclassroom.com/Physics-Interactives/Waves-and-Sound/Simple-Wave-Simulator

How to Ease Students into Independent Inquiry Projects

When students explore a topic they are truly passionate about, amazing things happen: engagement increases, attendance and work ethic improve, twenty-first-century skills are acquired, classroom energy and collaboration are fostered, and assessment of student understanding becomes more clear and accurate. Yet if a teacher dives too quickly into the deep end of the inquiry pool,  students felt overwhelmed and underprepared for such a personalized approach to learning. And that’s where the reliance upon a hierarchial structure to understanding inquiry comes in. In this article from the MindShift blog, Trevor MacKenzie and Rebecca Bathurst-Hunt discuss how to ease students into inquiry without overwhelming them. Enjoy their insights at …

https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/50620/how-to-ease-students-into-independent-inquiry-projects

3 Ways to Boost Students’ Conceptual Thinking

Learning knowledge and skills is like standing in the middle of a forest, surrounded by trees: It’s easy to spot details but hard to see patterns. For students to think conceptually, they need opportunities to head up to the mountaintop, pause, and take in the entire forest. They need the chance to search for big ideas—to generalize, summarize, and draw conclusions by looking at their learning in a holistic way. By intentionally designing learning activities in which students move between the factual and conceptual levels of thinking, we can help them construct understanding, facilitate transfer, and build their sense of agency. In this article from the Edutopia Blog, Carla Marschall provides three questions to ask when considering how to incorporate conceptual thinking into one's lessons plans. She also discusses three types of activities that promote such thinking.

https://www.edutopia.org/article/3-ways-boost-students-conceptual-thinking