TPT WebSights column draft for December, 2005:
This academic year, WebSights will feature reviews of select sites presenting
physics teaching strategies, as well as shorter announcements of sites of
interest to physics teachers. All
sites are copyright by the authors.
This column is available as a clickable web page at <http://PhysicsEd.BuffaloState.Edu/pubs/WebSights/>.
If you have successfully
used a site to teach physics that you feel is outstanding and appropriate for WebSights, please email me the URL and describe how you use it
to teach. The best site monthly
will receive a T-shirt. <macisadl@buffalostate.edu>.
Pendulum Waves: Compelling
Videos
A new video site showing a
pendulum waves has been established at Arizona Atate University celebrating a
new hallway demo was recently submitted to WebSights. <http://pirt.asu.edu/news%20Pendulum%20Wave.asp> shows
this fascinating phenomenon coupling vision and interpretation with simple
harmonic motion. The original
pendulum waves video is still at Harvard University at <http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~scidemos/videos.html>
Intelligent Design and
Creationism in Astronomy and Physics: Teaching Science under fire
The 7th
Edition of the Astronomy
Education Review (AER; see the
November WebSites column) contains
a section devoted to addressing adherents of "Intelligent Design",
including articles titled:
-
Dealing with Disbelieving Students on Issues of Evolutionary Processes and Long
Time Scales
-
The Challenge of Creationism and Intelligent Design: An Introduction
- AAS Statement on the
Teaching of Evolution
...to which I should add the
AAPT Statements on the Teaching of Evolution and Cosmology, and What is Science,
available at <http://www.aapt.org/Policy/>.
In addition to the What is
Science policy adopted by the AAPT,
the APS has statements concerning the 1999 decision of the Kansas State
Board of Education, and a Statement
on Creationism. I suppose a statement on "Intelligent Design" should
be forthcoming.
Finally, the
NSTA actively lobbies in this area, and publishes a position on the teaching
of evolution at <http://www.nsta.org/position>, together with teacher
resources
Bob Park's What's New
Bob Park's pithily acerbic
weekly internet column What's New <http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu> is devoted to "helping
the public
distinguish genuine scientific advances from foolish and fraudulent
claims." Past chair of the
Physics Department of the University of Maryland, Park's online column has kept
readers informed and amused by his commentary on the interplay of physics with
politics, scientific fraud and misrepresentation for over eighteen years.
Dan MacIsaac <danmac@att.net>