Secondary Teacher Interacting with Materials Professors Strikes Gold
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Secondary Teacher Interacting with Materials Professors Strikes Gold James Ringlein As a secondary school teacher interested in introducing materials science to my students, I have been given the opportunity to work with two outstanding professors who served as my mentors. This work, over the past seven summers, has led to innovative teaching approaches, published articles, and presentations at science museums and university seminars.
Introduction to Materials Research I: Modeling of High School Physics Mark Robbins is a professor of physics at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and served as my first mentor during the summer of 2000, introducing me to the world of research-quality simulations. I spent eight weeks with Mark and his graduate students modeling gaseous systems and the frictional characteristics between two surfaces sliding across each other. At the outset, I used the same software that Mark’s group used to investigate the degree of fit a gas system exhibited in relation to the van der Waals equation of state. I also gained an understanding of frictional forces and their atomic origins from simulation work. These experiments led me to propose modeling similar systems using software I was already familiar with, namely Interactive Physics™. The idea was to create simulations that would illustrate the physics exhibited in these research quality programs while making the end result accessible to high school and college level teachers and students. This work was our focus over the next four summers, culminating in three published articles, the first two in specific publications for teachers. In The Science Teacher (September 2003), my article “The Tablecloth Trick: Take II,” focused on the often misunderstood application of friction to the famous magic trick and physics demonstration. My second article, “Interactive Instruction on Ideal and Real Gases,” published in The Physics Teacher (February 2004), focused on the process of teaching students about the assumptions of the ideal gas law and the behavior of real gases with a series of simple simulations. Later that year, Mark and I co-authored an article for the American Journal of Physics (July 2004), “Under standing and Illustrating the Atomic Origins of Friction,” which combined a lucid explanation of modern friction principles with simulations that illustrate each point. This introduction to materials research prepared me for a later experience in which I was ready to invite some of my
students to join me in a new research project with collaborators at a local college.
Introduction to Materials Research II: Experimental Studies of Nanoporous Gold Beginning in the summer of 2005, I worked in the laboratory of Jonah Erlebacher, professor of materials science and engineering at JHU. Our goal was to develop my knowledge of nanoporous gold (NPG) and possibly develop educational applications for the high school classroom based on the experience. We spent the majority of the first twoweek session learning how to create, handle, and analyze the performance o
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