AAPT 2008 Welcome to Edmonton ........................ 4 Summer Meeting Acknowledgments/ Contacts ............... 6 July 19–23, 2008 About Edmonton ................................. 8 Special Events ................................... 10 University of Alberta Exhibitors ......................................... 11 Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Award Winners & Plenaries .............. 14 Bus and Transportation Schedule...... 18 Committee Meetings ......................... 19 Session Grids .................................... 20 Meeting at a Glance ........................... 23 Workshop Abstracts.......................... 27 Commercial Workshops .................... 34 SUNDAY Poster Session ................... 36 MONDAY Sessions ........................... .38 TUESDAY Sessions ........................... 66 WEDNESDAY Sessions ..................... 95 American Association of Physics Teachers Index of Participants ....................... 107 One Physics Ellipse Index of Advertisers ........................ 110 College Park, MD USA 20740-3845 301-209-3300, fax: 301-209-0845 Maps ............................................... 111 [email protected], www.aapt.org Blank PAGE WebAssign ad AAPT:WebAssign ad AAPT 4/10/08 11:00 AM Page 1 “THE PROOF IS IN OUR STUDENTS’ GRADES. WEBASSIGN WORKS.” Michael Paesler Department Head With over a million users and half a billion submissions, WebAssign is the leading online homework and grading solution for math and science. But what makes us most proud of WebAssign is what department heads and chairs like Michael Paesler are saying about its impact on students and faculty. “The greatest advantage is that our students get immediate feedback on their work, and my faculty have more time for teaching and helping their students learn instead of grading innumerable homework papers. My professors recently found that more than 90% of their introductory students success- fully completed every assignment using WebAssign. That’s impressive!” So if you’re wondering why you should consider WebAssign for your students, the answer is simple: WebAssign works. The way you imagined teaching could be.™ 8 0 0 . 9 5 5 . 8 2 7 5 w e b a s s i g n . n e t Introduction Introduction Welcome to Edmonton! Welcome to the AAPT Summer Meeting and to beautiful Edmonton, Alberta. I encourage you to take advantage of the long hours of daylight and explore the city, its museums and parks, as well as experience the Taste of Edmonton Festival. The University of Alberta is celebrating its 100th anniversary. We are grateful for their warm hospitality and look forward to participating in their anniversary activities. Terry Singleton and the entire Physics Department have gone out of their way to make this meeting special. The theme for the 2008 Summer Meeting is “Physics from the Ground Up,” so throughout the meeting, there are workshops, sessions, and plenaries on topics such as geophysics, energy, nanotechnology, and astronomy. The sessions on Physics Education show the strength of AAPT by serving teachers who are interested in teaching across a wide variety of situations. There are sessions on graduate education, upper-level undergraduate education, introductory college physics education, high school education, teacher preparation, and international physics education. As with most Summer Meetings, there are excellent sessions sponsored by the Physics Education Research Community. In fact, deciding which session to attend will be difficult. Finally, I highly recommend the plenary and awards sessions. These should be excellent talks. I am sure we all congratulate the awardees and thank them for all they have contributed to physics education. I hope you have a successful and enjoyable meeting. Remember this meeting would not be possible without the hard work of our Central Office staff. Alex Dickison AAPT President Elect and Program Chair Seminole Community College Sanford, Florida 4 July 19–23, 2008 AAPT house ad AAPT Sustaining Members Special Thanks: Alberti’s Window AAPT extends special appreciation to: ALTAY Scientific Spa Arbor Scientific – Terry Singleton and the University of Carolina Biological Supply Co. Alberta for helping set up and hosting our CPO Science meeting. Daedalon Corporation – The paper sorters: David Cook, Shannon Design Simulation Tech. Inc. Educational Innovations, Inc. Mandel, Rachel Scherr, Terry Singleton, John Wiley & Sons Inc. and Alex Dickison. Johns Hopkins Univ. Center for Talented Youth – AAPT Meetings team: Tiffany Hayes, Ja- Kinetic Books net Lane, Natasha Randall, Annette Cole- Klinger Educational Prod Corp. man, and Melissa Lapps. Math Machines Mosaic ATM Inc. OSAW Industrial Products Private Ltd. PASCO Scientific Physics Academic Software Physics2000.Com Sargent Welch Cenco Physics Spectrum Techniques LLC AAPT Executive Board St Marys University TeachSpin Inc. Lila Adair, President Mary Mogge Tel-Atomic Inc. Piedmont College Vice Chair of Section Representatives Vernier Software Monroe, GA California State Polytechnic University WebAssign Pomona, CA Alexander Dickison, President-Elect WW Norton and Company Seminole Community College Gordon Ramsey Ztek Co. Sanford, FL Four-Year College Representative Loyola University Chicago David M. Cook, Vice President Frankfort, IL Lawrence University Appleton, WI Elizabeth B. Chesick A Speaker Ready Room High School Representative Steven Iona, Secretary 625 Walnut Lane Located in the Natural Resourc- University of Denver Haverford, PA es Engineering Facility (NRE), Denver, CO Dwain M. Desbien Room 2-127, speakers will bring Paul W. Zitzewitz, Treasurer Two-Year College Representative their materials here; hours are University of Michigan–Dearborn Estrella Mountain Comm. College 4–9 p.m. Sunday, and it opens Dearborn, MI Avondale, AZ Monday–Wednesday, 7–8:30 Harvey Leff, Past-President Karl C. Mamola (ex officio) a.m., and 12:15–1:45 p.m. California State Polytechnic University Editor, The Physics Teacher Pomona, CA John Mallinckrodt (ex officio) Alan Gibson Acting Editor, American Journal of Physics Chair of Section Representatives Adams High School Charles Holbrow (ex officio) AAPT Executive Officer AAPT Gift Basket Raffle This year AAPT will hold a raffle to raise funds for the future of physics education. In exchange for a raffle ticket, you will get the opportunity to win great items. A laser pointer, autographed copies of Professor Freeman Dyson’s books on phys- ics, and a full meeting registration for the AAPT/AAAS 2009 winter meeting in Chicago are just some of the items you can win. So, look for the raffle basket and gain wonderful items by supporting our profession. Thank you for Raffle Donations: Professor Freeman Dyson, Educational Innovations, Inc., Innovation Frontier./ Xump.com! 6 July 19–23, 2008 Free Workshop: Physics2000.com Come to the popular Physics2000 workshop where you learn how to include 20th century physics in the basic Introductory Physics course. This is done by starting with special relativity in Week 1, using thought experiments rather than mathematical formalism. For example, you can easily show that, by combining the already familiar Lorentz con- traction with Coulomb’s law, you end up with the Magnetic Force law, Maxwell’s formula for the speed of light and the formula for the magnetic field of a current in a straight wire. Speed of Sound in a Steel pipe Fourier Optics Using MacScope’s stereo input, we find that a The Fourier transform of a slit sound pulse travels down a 10 ft. (3.048m) steel structure is proportional to the pipe in .60 milliseconds. We get about the same diffraction pattern produced by the speed for a compressional pulse in a fine steel slits. (See TPT Sept. 2007.) guitar string. (See TPT, Jan. 2008 and Mar. 2008.) As calculus is the backbone of classical physics, Fourier analysis plays a similar role in understanding quantum mechanics. We wrote the free audio oscilloscope program MacScope II (for Mac & Windows) to make it easy to use Fourier analysis in your introductory physics course. In the workshop we will show you how to use MacScope to mea- sure the speed of sound in a steel pipe, study Fourier optics, and teach the time-energy form of the uncertainty principle. The workshop is more than free—attendees receive complimentary Uncertainty Principle copies of the Physics2000 CD and volumes I & II of Physics2000. Using MacScope’s pulse Fourier transform, we study the harmonic structure of a short pulse. (See TPT, Jan. 2007.) RoomCentra xxx,l Academic Tuesday, Bldg. at 3:00 373, PMTuesday, 2:30 p.m. Welcome to Edmonton – The Festival City Described as one of the most beautiful places on Earth, Edmonton is part of the Alberta Rocky Mountains in western Canada. The city offers a wide variety of places to go and activities to enjoy at any time of the year. Known as Canada’s Festival City (www.festivalcity.ca), Edmon- ton hosts more than 30 festivals annually that celebrate music, food, culture, sports, theater and more! With lots of blue sky and sunshine throughout the seasons, you can take advantage of many outdoor activities in the city. You will also find Edmonton to be a brilliant educational community that plays an essential role in advancing the economic success of Edmonton and Alberta. The University of Alberta’s revolutionary spirit inspires faculty and students to advance knowledge through research, to seek innovation in teaching and learning, and to find new ways to serve the people of Alberta and the world. The univer- sity is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year! Things to do in Edmonton