PROJECTS FOR THE 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:

  1. 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.
  2. A small introductory paragraph with a summary of what the article is about.
  3. 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.
  4. Pictures and/or graphs (properly labeled) that illustrate and help explain the content of the article.
  5. Name of the discoverer(s)/inventor(s)/scientist(s) involved in the article.
  6. Background of the scientist(s).
  7. Other work made by the scientist(s).
  8. Name of the discovery/invention/event.
  9. How it was discovered/developed/invented.
  10. How it works including pictures, diagrams, and graphs.
  11. How can it be applied and which are the major applications.
  12. How the applications work. (Use graphics and graphs to support this part).
  13. Benefits and consequences of all the applications.
  14. An analysis made by the student including comparison/contrast with similar discoveries/inventions/applications (if it applies).
  15. The student's comments at an evaluation level about this discovery/invention/application and the implications of it.
  16. Some predictions.
  17. An interview about the topic (if applicable and pertinent).
  18. 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.
  19. All the different sections of the paper separated by one space and all will have subtitles.
  20. 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)
  21. Suggested Internet addresses to visit about the topic.
  22. People or organizations to contact about the topic including name, address, phone number, fax number, e-mail, and webpages
  23. 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.
  24. 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.
  25. 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.
  26. 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.
  27. 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
  28. 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.
  29. 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

  1. Recent Discoveries: This section will be about recent discoveries in Physics or any other applied science that mostly uses physics principles.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. Physics for a better world: This section will be about ways in which Physics principles have been applied to help preserve the environment.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
  14. 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.
  15. 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.
  16. 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

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