TPT WebSights column draft for December, 2008:
WebSights features announcements and reviews of select sites of
interest to physics teachers. All
sites are copyright by their authors.
This column is available as a web page at <http://PhysicsEd.BuffaloState.Edu/pubs/WebSights/>.
If you have
successfully used a physics website that you feel is outstanding and
appropriate for WebSights,
please email me the URL and describe how you use it to teach or learn physics.
<macisadl@buffalostate.edu>.
2008
Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Professor
Y. Nambu, Professor M. Kobayashi and Professor T. Maskawa.
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2008/
Awarded
for the mechanism underlying broken symmetry in subatomic physics, predicting
at least three families of quarks.
The Nobel Foundation web
site includes both technical and popularized descriptions of the 1960's work
leading to the award. The
American Physical Society has made
three of Professor Nambu's papers "Free-to-Read" so they can be downloaded without a
subscription. Links to the articles follow:
http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v4/i7/p380_1
http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PR/v122/i1/p345_1
http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PR/v124/i1/p246_1
As well, James Espinoza recommends Nambu's 1985 book "Quarks" as a good presentation of particle
physics at the nontechnical level.
James
Espinosa, Department of Chemistry and Physics at Texas Women's
University; Gene D. Sprouse, Editor in
Chief, and Joseph W. Serene, Treasurer/Publisher,
American Physical Society.
Blogs (Web Logs) for
Physics Teachers by Dr. Stephanie
Chasteen
A blog is a website, usually
put together by someone with a particular passion or interest, to send out
commentary and information to the world at large. ItŐs like the best part of email newsletters. I asked
teachers reading my own science education blog http://www.sciencegeekgirl.wordpress.com
why they read blogs and they suggested
to "...get ideas for curriculum, demos and toys; to stay up to date in
educational research; for inspiration and support; to feel connected to the
physics community; to add a flavor to my instruction that I never had
before." Myself, I read them
for both entertainment and news value.
Blogs provide me with gems that help spark my interest in physics,
despite the daily grind.
Cocktail
party physics and Twisted Physics http://twistedphysics.typepad.com/ http://blogs.discovery.com/twisted_physics/
Written by an established science writer, the long and well-researched
posts at Cocktail Party Physics are fascinating forays into different areas of physics, from wine
to bell casting. Twisted
Physics focuses more on
astrophysics and astronomy.
Built on Facts http://scienceblogs.com/builtonfacts/ is an excellent blog written by a physics
graduate student with detailed posts about higher-level physics. His Sunday Function posts are an informative look at
different mathematical functions in physics.
Bad Astronomy http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/ is written by astronomy and writer Phil
Plait. The frequent-but-short posts at his
blog are the staple of skeptics everywhere. His blog is half astronomy (latest from Cassini, NASA news,
meteorites), and half skeptics (the LHC hoo-ha, claims that the moon landing
was a hoax, the anti-vaccination craze).
Physics Buzz http://physicsbuzz.physicscentral.com/ from Physics Central highlights interesting articles from various
physics blogs and important news in physics.
Swans on Tea http://blogs.scienceforums.net/swansont/ writes frequent short posts, mostly
highlighting interesting physics tidbits from around the web. Lots of YouTube videos that can be helpful for the
classroom.
Dot physics http://blog.dotphys.net/ is written by a physics professor, and
includes a lot of great physics content, activities, and geeky commentary on
Myth Busters and
laser pointers. Definitely worth a
look.
PERticles http://perticles.blogspot.com/ highlights the latest articles from physics education
research (PER).
Cosmic
Variance http://cosmicvariance.com/ is written by a group of physicists and
astrophysicists. This popular blog
features a wide array of topics including science, culture and academia.
Uncertain Principles http://scienceblogs.com/principles/ also written by a physics professor,
mostly about physics, politics, and pop culture.
Think Twice http://ianbeatty.com/blog/ written by a physics education researcher, includes posts about
learning and teaching in general, and physics in particular.
Other Blog Resources
- Science
Blogs http://scienceblogs.com/ is a collection of high-quality blogs
about science sponsored by SEED magazine. Not
all blogs on science are at Science Blogs, but many are. Check out their daily digest too.
- How to subscribe to a blog You
donŐt have to check the website every time – you can have new posts sent
to you automatically (this is what most of us do). See http://email.about.com/cs/rss/a/rss_spam_free.htm for instructions.
- More physics-related blogs than you can shake a quark at: http://cosmicvariance.com/links/#pblogs
- Science blogs written by women (including physics blogs by
women): http://scienceblogs.com/sciencewoman/blogrolls.php
- Top 100 Education blogs: http://oedb.org/library/features/top-100-education-blogs
Contributed by Stephanie Chasteen, whose science/education blog is at
http://sciencegeekgirl.wordpress.com