PROJECTS
FOR THE HONOR PHYSICS I CLASS
Physics Review
Mr. Pagani, S.
All these articles will be submitted to the
teacher in these three different formats: 1) printed on letter size paper, 2)
in a word processing format like Word or Rich Text Format, and 3) as a Power
Point Presentation.
Every article (or project) must have:
- A cover page with an attractive title, date,
student's name, student's number, class, teacher, type of project (ex. Project
C-7), and period number.
- A small introductory paragraph with a summary
of what the article is about.
- A page with a table of content. All the subtitles
or sections of the paper must be orderly listed there with the corresponding
page numbers.
- Pictures and/or graphs (properly labeled) that
illustrate and help explain the content of the article.
- Name of the discoverer(s)/inventor(s)/scientist(s)
involved in the article.
- Background of the scientist(s).
- Other work made by the scientist(s).
- Name of the discovery/invention/event.
- How it was discovered/developed/invented.
- How it works including pictures, diagrams, and
graphs.
- How can it be applied and which are the major
applications.
- How the applications work. (Use graphics and
graphs to support this part).
- Benefits and consequences of all the applications.
- An analysis made by the student including comparison/contrast
with similar discoveries/inventions/applications (if it applies).
- The student's comments at an evaluation level
about this discovery/invention/application and the implications of it.
- Some predictions.
- An interview about the
topic (if applicable and pertinent).
- A well designed advertising
campaign to help reduce the problem. For example: If you want to reduce the
Global Warming problem, you will plan your TV commercial (story board), Radio
Jingle and Voice Over, posters, and school education campaigns in order to
persuade people to actively participate in the reduction and/or elimination
of this serious problem.
- All the different sections of
the paper separated by one space and all will have subtitles.
- The references cited
according to an established format (visit the website: http://www.library.wisc.edu/libraries/Memorial/citing.htm#APA
and use the APA Style)
- Suggested Internet
addresses to visit about the topic.
- People or organizations to contact about the
topic including name, address, phone number, fax number, e-mail, and webpages
- The paper must have a minimum of 8-10 pages
letter size, single spaced and a font not bigger than 12. The margins (top,
bottom, right, and left) must be a maximum of 1 inch each.
- Every paper represents only one article. This
means that if your paper (article) is for the section "Recent Discoveries",
it must be a paper about only one recent discovery. If it is for the
section "Interesting Inventions", then it must be about only
one invention. If it is about "Women in Physics", then, it must
be about only one woman in Physics. It must specify what was her invention,
contribution, or discovery, and then go over all the requirements mentioned
above about that particular invention, contribution or discovery that she
made. This is a Physics class, and a Physics newspaper, then, the content
must always provide physics knowledge, and principles to the reader. This
applies to any other paper (article) of any section mentioned below. It is
going to be about: only one person appertaining to a minority
group for section 4, only one invention (and the physics principles
behind it) that helps preserve the environment for section 5, only
one physics related professional (example: Sound Engineer) for section
6, only one way in which Physics or any other related science
using physics principles has developed something useful in medicine (for example:
electron microscope, or MRI) for section 7, only one source
of energy for section 8, only one device for section 9, only
one book for section 12, only one particular research
in physics for section 13, only one experiment for section
14, only one spacecraft or space station for section 15, and,
of course, only one device for section 16.
- The paper of the people presenting topic number
nine (9) will include one page with a quiz, and another page with the answer
key at the very end of the paper.
- The Power Point presentations
must start with a cover slide with an attractive title, date, student's name,
student's number, class, teacher, and period number. The second slide must
be an index slide indicating all the subtitles or parts of the presentation.
From slide three on, the slides must be outlines with the content of the different
parts of the paper. These slides must contain graphs, graphics, tables, diagrams
and pictures supporting the outline. A slide presentation is supposed to be
a strong visual support to guide, facilitate, illustrate and complete the
talk of the presenter. The ending slides must include conclusions, predictions,
suggestions or possible solutions. After, follows the slide with suggested
websites and sources of information on the topic. For instance: Departments,
Institutions, organizations, etc. Finally, follows the slide with the references
used for the paper and the presentation. The references must follow the APA
style in this website: http://www.library.wisc.edu/libraries/Memorial/citing.htm#APA
After, if you desire to do it, you may include a slide with a quote or
a message that summarizes a truth implicit in the content of the paper, and
therefore, the presentation. The ones presenting for section number nine (9)
will include a slide with the quiz and another slide with the answer key at
the very end.
- The diskette should have
only two files: One for the paper (in Word or rtf format) and one for the
presentation. No other files are supposed to be in there. Do not make separate
files for references, or for the quiz. Follow the instructions given above.
Save the files under a name composed by your last name followed by the topic
of the paper. For example: Global Warming by Mr. Pagani could be called something
like Paganiglobwarm. It is not necessary to name the two files differently
because they are already being saved specifying the format used (doc for Microsoft
Word Document or rtf for rich text format document, and ppt for Microsoft
Power Point Presentation). Always keep a copy in your hard drive (drive C:)
and another in a diskette (drive A:). This way, if something happens to the
diskette submitted, you always have a back-up copy of it. The files will appear
in drive a:/ and c:/ like Paganiglobwarm.doc or Paganiglobwarm.rtf (for the
text one), and Paganiglobwarm.ppt
- Pieces of text that evidently
show that they have been copied and pasted from the Internet will reduce the
grade of the project. The project must have your own input. Your opinion,
comments, interviews, analysis, comparisons, analogies, constructive criticism,
evaluations, inferences, predictions, suggested solutions, conclusions, and
advertising campaign are more important than the rest of the article which
is basically informational and it is a compendium of different pieces of text
coming from different sources.
- The student must
verify and double check if the floppy disk or CD has the requested content
in it. The best way to do it is opening the files in a different computer.
The file must have the right format and they must be functional.
SECTIONS OF THE NEWSPAPER
- Recent Discoveries: This section will
be about recent discoveries in Physics or any other applied science that mostly
uses physics principles.
- Interesting Inventions: This section
will be about inventions based on the use of Physics principles. They may
use some chemical principles but in combination with physics principles.
- Women in Physics: This section will be
about women who have played an important role in Physics or any other applied
science that uses Physics principles.
- Minorities in Physics: This section will
be about people appertaining to minority groups in the US or their ethnic
groups overseas that have played an important role in the Physics field or
any other applied science that uses Physics principles.
- Physics for a better world: This section
will be about ways in which Physics principles have been applied to help preserve
the environment.
- A Day in the life of a …: This section
will be about a career in Physics or any other applied science related to
Physics. It will specify all of the following: starting salary, average salary,
top salary, minimum education requirements, job duties, responsibilities,
benefits, schedule, list of major employers, list of all the job opportunities,
list of renown employees, list of colleges or universities that offer studies
in that profession (specify all the ones in Florida), competition in the profession,
available opportunities, compare/contrast this profession with other similar
professions, state and national need for professionals of this type, future
perspective for professionals of this type, major inconveniences of the profession,
interest and attitude needed to succeed in that profession, interview to a
professional in this career that will include: what an average day in his/her
life looks like, reasons why he/she selected this profession, major satisfactions,
complaints, suggestions to the high school student interested in pursuing
this career, etc.
- Health with Physics: this section will
be about different ways in which Physics or any other related science using
physics principles has developed something useful in the medicine field.
- Better sources of energy: this section
will search for different sources of energy that will be less harmful to the
environment (and probably to our pocket too) than the ones in use today for
a particular item, for example, a car or a house. It will specify things like:
costs of using this type of energy, production costs, ways of production,
availability, effectiveness, comparison/contrast with sources of energy in
actual use today, benefits, consequences, limitations, feasibility, examples,
descriptions of how it works including diagrams, pictures, graphs, etc., physics
principles behind it, predictions, analysis, evaluation.
- How does this work?: this section will
be about how different devices (machines, appliances, etc.) work. This
is a mandatory article for all students. This is an article version
of the presentation that each student will make in class. The presentation
in class must be with the help of presentation software like Power Point.
It will include graphs, pictures, tables, diagrams, and/or drawings in it.
It will end up with a 10 to 15 questions Quiz (based on the presentation)
to evaluate the attention and the understanding of the audience. Both, the
word processing file, and the presentations file will include one copy of
the Quiz and the Answer Key. The diskette must also include a copy of the
full Power Point Presentation. Bringing a working model to illustrate is a
plus. This whole project including the presentation (in paper and diskette),
the article (in paper and diskette), the model, and the quiz (in paper too)
will be called PROJECT A and it will be done only once during the school
year. The date to present it will be posted.
- War Technology: this section will be
about all of the details of this part of technology that represents a terrible
menace to our world and us. It will specify: how nuclear weapons were discovered,
the same for other weapons, how they work, which physics principles are involved,
how they evolved, which restrictions do we have to the production and use
of nuclear weapons, which are the international laws and agreements for the
control of these weapons, consequences of their use, which incidents have
happened in the past with this type of weapons, what is happening now, what
do you predict is going to happen, what must be done immediately, how. The
articles will also provide an advertising campaign to stop the problem and/or
induce the good changes that people must make to reduce the problem.
- Global Warming: this section will be
about this world problem that is affecting all of us. It will answer among
many questions to: What is it about, which are the major causes, why, how
can we stop the problem, which physics principles can we use to reduce the
problem, how, when, where, which changes must be done in our way of living,
how would you induce these changes, which predictions do you make about our
future in respect to this problem, what is finally going to happen. It will
include interviews to experts in the field and analysis of the answers. It
will also provide an advertising campaign to stop the problem and/or induce
the good changes that people must make to reduce the problem.
- Sci-fi Reading: This section will be
about interesting books based on Physics or Physics related stories. The articles
will make a full analysis of the books that will go over the most specific
details. The analysis will include comments to every single scientific event
mentioned in the book. It will describe the physics principles involved in
detail. It will specify how true or possible these events are. It will study
the consequences of these events in our world and provide the readers with
possible applications of the book content, predictions, analysis, evaluations,
etc.
- Research in Physics: This section will
be about actual research currently being performed in Physics at NASA, Silicon
Valley, MIT, and any other major University or Physics related Laboratory.
- Hands-on Physics: This section will provide
the reader with all the instructions to put hands-on a physics related experiment
at home. It will explain all the physics principles behind it, applications,
study of at least one device that uses that same principle, etc.
- Space Exploration: This section will
provide at least one full study of a spacecraft, vehicle or device, its history,
purpose, applications, performance, results, future, etc. The articles will
include predictions about what can we expect as goals of the aerospace industry.
- Air Quality: This section will provide
full study about the different ways we damage the quality of the air. The
articles will explain what can be done to reduce this problem. It will describe
the devices based on physics principles to be used for this purpose.
VERY IMPORTANT
- PROJECT A has only one option:
9.
- PROJECT B has different options:
3, 4, 6, and 12.
- PROJECT C has different options:
1, 2, 7, 13, and 14.
- PROJECT D has different options:
5, 8, 10, 11, 15, and 16.
- Other options may be added
during the school year. Check this page for possible updates.
- All students will do a total
of 4 projects (A, B, C, and D) during the school year.
- Every 9-week period the students
will turn in one of a kind. The type of project that the students will work
on for the first term has been chosen at random and assigned in class. The
next projects will follow this order: A-B-C-D-A-B-C. Example: Students that
will work on project type C for the first term, will work on project D for
the second term, then A for the third term, and finally on project B for the
4th term.
- The Power Point Presentation
file should be done following these instructions: Make an outline of your
paper. Prepare a story board indicating which information is going to be shown
in which slide and how (graphs, clip art, text, picture, flow chart, etc.).
Then, convert that story board in a wonderful sequence of very well presented
and organized slides. Add all the features and effects that you want to it.
A series of eight to ten slides should be enough for what is needed. Extra
work is always welcome and rewarded.
- The best articles will be selected,
edited, and finally published on the Internet as the "PHYSICS
REVIEW". The author's name will be published too. Make sure your work is original,
interesting, catching, complete, and impressive. Go for it, Cudas. You will
succeed!
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