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Welcome, Teachers!

My blog provides helpful resources to others who teach Physics to English Language Learners with limited resources.

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Physics & Engineering: Resonance

9/28/2013

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When we were studying resonance, we watched the entire episode of mythbusters breaking glass. If you don't have netflix, you can get a short clip here: Mythbusters: Adam Savage on Breaking Glass. At first I watched only the clip with one class and the entire episode with the non-regents class and I learned that the students were able to pick up on a lot more. Our share out of notes is posted here in the "Student Blog" section. If we write our collective notes on the board, then students are able to see the appropriate terms for something that they otherwise might have forgotten. For example, a student asked, "How did they know the frequency?" To which a student responded, "They tapped the glass to find the sound." I added to this by also mentioning the machine that they used, which was called an "Oscilloscope." This further prompted another student to say, "Oh, we used those in a summer program that I was in at Cornell. They used them to see the waves on a screen."

Title: Mythbusters Collection 3, Episode 11: Breaking Glass. 

Run Time: 43 minutes, but this episode contains two myths. If you scroll through the second myth, the myth about Breaking Glass is only about 20 minutes. 

Closed Captioning: Yes, if streamed through Netflix.


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Image credit: Tacoma Narrows Bridge Project
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Engineers from Tacoma Narrows Bridge Project working on a model to test in a wind tunnel.
Lastly, we also saw a video of the famous Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington.

The great thing is that this video has narration according to the times. Most films were silent previous to 1930 and you will notice that although this film was made in 1940, it doesn't have the sounds of the bridge. It only has the narrator voiced over the video. 

A student asked to see what the bridge looks like now. I found some articles that show what engineering work had to go into the designing of the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge: Tacoma Narrows Bridge Project. 

You can even get all of the stats from the Washington Department of Transportation (DoT): SR - 16 - Tacoma Narrows Just the Facts.

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Image credit: Tacoma Narrows Bridge Project
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Physics: Website for Forces and Bridges

8/4/2013

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"Building BIG: All About Bridges"-PBS

This is a great student resource for learning about bridges. Bridges are definitely an easy way to include the diversity of your students since they have all had to cross one bridge or another in their lifetime. Bridges can be vastly personal as they can be a memento from something small like a daily trip on a footbridge that they had to cross on the way to school in their home country or a memento from something huge like crossing a scary rope bridge across a roaring river. Bridges can even be metaphorical. 

The materials can range from the very simple to the very complex. Bridges are awe-inspiring and with increases in technology, we keep creating amazing feats of engineering. 


This website starts with the basic types of bridges and offers a little bit of information about each type. 
You can even find data on the following real-life bridges: Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, Brooklyn Bridge  Charles River Bridge  Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, Firth of Forth Bridge  Garabit Viaduct, George P. Coleman Bridge  Golden Gate Bridge  Iron Bridge, New River Gorge Bridge, Sunshine Skyway Bridge, Tacoma Narrows Bridge, and the Tower Bridge.

Here is a sample of what the fact sheet looks like for the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge:
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Then it has a section that it calls the "Forces Lab" where it creates a visual representation of different bridge vocabulary. The visuals are interactive:
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It even includes a link under each vocabulary word to "see it in real life":
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    Kelly Garcia teaches physics in New York City to Latino students using a humourous and hands-on approach. She manages to circumvent the boredom of test-prep with thoughtful and creative projects.

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