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Donations
pablo@laserpablo.com
The
Physics Department is actively seeking donations to
the Physics Projects Fund to improve the quality of
the physics educational programs and to provide
enrichment opportunities for the students here at
San Mateo High School and for the benefit of
physics teachers of Northern California as well
(via PTSOS). Whether you donate to San Mateo High
School or PTSOS, all donations are tax-deductible
as both organizations are non-profit tax-exempt
organizations and 501.(c)(3)
qualified.
I
am currently seeking support for the
following projects.
Prospective donors please contact me for
further information or if you
have any
questions. Thanks in advance for your
generosity and
support.
Paul
Robinson -
pablo@laserpablo.com
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HD
LCD Projector ($1000)
This will enable to me to take maximum advantage of
the 10 foot projection screen in my room for
crystal-clear videos at an economical
price.
CENCO
E/M Apparatus ($3,000)
 This
classic e/m apparatus (pictured right) captures the
best features of the old device, while
incorporating new technology to improve
performance, safety and longevity. The apparatus
consists of a specially designed vacuum tube
supported at the center of a pair of large
Helmholtz coils. Within this tube an electron gun,
surrounded by a coaxial anode containing a single
axial slit and composed of a filament parallel to
the axis of the coils, produces a narrow beam of
electrons, the paths of which are rendered visible
by mercury vapor in the tube. (More
details here.)
WebAssign
($15 per student)
WebAssign is an online homework system that is
collated to the textbook. Students find out
instantly if their answers are correct; emphasis is
on learning because students get multiple chances
to submit their answers. The questions are
algorithm based--that is, each student gets a
unique numerical solution to the same problem. This
discourages and suppresses cheating and copying,
which is so prevalent amongst student homework.
Cost is $15 year per student. Donations are
currently being accepted. Please make checks out to
Physics Projects Fund.
AP
Physics Textbooks ($1200)
Required for a class set for classroom use; this
would enable students to leave their texts at home
thereby increasing the lifetime and the necessity
of carrying this heavy textbook in their
backpacks.
Probeware
($2500)
Required hardware to utilize the computers as
laboratory instruments.
Computers
($10,000)
The iMacs in our classroom are 10 years old and
barely run OSX and are so outdated they wont' run
Interactive Physics software that was donated to
our program. The new generation iMacs are Unix
based and have the chief advantage of running
either Mac or PC platform software.
Bridge
Analysis System ($2500)
Required to do quantitative work analyzing truss
systems. I do an entire unit on the history and
physics of the Golden Gate Bridge, The Bay Bridge,
and the Millau Viaduct (in France). Currently my
unit is primarily video based. Acquisition of this
state of the art analysis system would enable
quantitative analysis. The system requires a
computer and software.
Physics
Teacher SOS (PTSOS)
Operated the auspices of the Northern
California/Nevada Section of the American
Association of Physics Teachers, the PTSOS program
was developed to address the needs of new and new
to teaching physics teacher. I train and in-service
both new and experienced physics teachers. Along
with Dan Burns of Los Gatos High School and
Stephanie Finander of Woodside High School, I
conduct three day-long workshops during the school
year. The Brown Foundation generously donates for
the goodies/physics equipment we demonstrate to the
participants and then give to them. As is the case
of donating to the Physics Projects Fund, all
donations are fully tax-deductible, as NCN-AAPT is
a 501.(c)(3) corporation.
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Thanks
to the following organizations
and individuals for giving so
generously in support of our
program.
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 Thanks
to the kind people at Aquan
Sports (www.aquansports.com/Aquan_Sports/)
for their generous support. Aquan
Sports specializes in all
water-oriented sports including
scuba diving, kyacking, surfing,
kite boarding--you name
it!
  Thanks
to parent donations, all
physics students are currently
using WebAssign (www.webassign.net)--a
state of the art online homework
system. Students actually took
part of their final exam last
semester using this
algorythm-based system (which
means every student gets a
different numerical version of
the same problem). Students love
it because they find out whether
their answer is correct instantly
and I give them multiple chances
to submit an answer.
We
owe a big round of applause to
Sargent-Welch Company, a
division of VWR
International
(www.cencophysics.com)
who very generously donated over
$20,000 worth of surplus physics
equipment to the Physics Teacher
SOS program. The PTSOS program
(www.ptsos.org)
was created to specifically
support the new and new to
teaching physics teacher and
holds 3 day-long workshops held
in my classroom. The next
workshop is Saturday, January
31st, and promises to be pretty
 exciting
as teachers will get some big
surprises called "goodies" to
take home with them.
Thanks to the fine folks at
Alliance Gas
(www.alliancegas.com)
for providing liquid nitrogen to
our physics community.
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 Thanks
go to Troxell
Communications, Inc.
(www.trox.com)
for donating a Lumens
digital document camera
to PTSOS. This is really
an impressive piece of
equipment. Overhead
projectors have come a
long way baby!
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 I'd
like to thank the fine folks at
Pasco Scientific Co.
(www.pasco.com)
for their generous support of
PTSOS. They are showcasing their
new state of the art Bridge
Structures System and their Spark
Science Learning Systems at the
PTSOS Workshop at San Mateo High
School on January 31st,
2009.
 I
am grateful to Sportvision
(www.sportvision.com)
for generously configuring one of
the multiple radar systems for me
so that my students can conduct
research on the motion of
projectiles - most but not
exclusively baseballs. This
semester I have two students
conducting independent research
on the physics of baseball. This
radar system is so powerful it
will not only accurately measure
the speed of the ball several
hundred times on it's flight
towards home plate, it will also
measure bat speed. You can even
detect the pitcher's
motion--impressive! It currently
works with a tower PC that uses
Windows NT, making it a bit
awkward to use at the baseball
diamond. We are currently
attempting to find an old laptop
that has an ISA slot that will
operate Windows NT making it
easier and more flexible to use.
I very much appreciate the
efforts of Ken Milnes and Marv
White of Sportvision for making
this possible exciting
opportunity available to me and
my students.
Sportvision, based in Mountain
View, CA, is the developer of the
"first-down line" and other
high-tech video products that
enhance view sports viewing on TV
including ESPN 's "Game Day" on
and Pitch FX - a high speed video
tracking system installed in
every ball park in the major
leagues that records every pitch
thrown in MLB. This enables teams
and the public to retrieve and
analyze every pitch thrown in the
major league baseball. They are
currently developing "Hit FX"
will do very much the same kind
of thing for hitting. Hit's FX is
due to be launched sometime this
summer.
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