Conveners
Teaching Einsteinian Physics to School Students: Block 1
- David Blair (University of Western Australia)
- Matteo Luca Ruggiero (Politecnico di Torino and INFN, LNL)
Teaching Einsteinian Physics to School Students: Block 2
- David Blair (University of Western Australia)
- Matteo Luca Ruggiero (Politecnico di Torino and INFN, LNL)
Description
This workshop will address all aspects of education and public outreach associated with relativistic astrophysics and associated Einsteinian physics, including the modernisation of school curricula to incorporate modern concepts of spacetime, relativity, quantum physics, the standard model, cosmology, black holes and gravitational waves.
The teaching of relativity usually starts with kinematics: The invariance of the speed of light, clock synchronization, time dilatation and length contraction, the relativity of simultaneity, Lorentz transformation and Minkowski diagram. The change of the reference frame is a central topic. Only afterwards problems of relativistic dynamics are discussed. Such an approach closely follows the...
Mathematical derivations alone do not necessarily lead to physical understanding. A tool that can replace the mathematical treatment of a physical process and at the same time increase physical understanding are interactive computer programs, also known as system dynamics software, such as Stella, Berkeley Madonna, Wensim, Dynasys, Powersim or Coach. Such interactive software solves...
Einstein's theory of space-time curvature and its impressive astrophysical and philosophical consequences, not only since the experimental evidence of gravitational waves and the first image of a black hole, represent milestones in human knowledge, and the presentation of these insights in a popular scientific manner is an important undertaking. How can bizarre concepts such as the curvature...
In general relativity, the paths of light and freely falling particles are described as geodesics in curved spacetime. Sector models allow the construction of these geodesics without having to introduce the usual mathematical apparatus. Virtual sector models, provided by the web-based application ViSeMo, enable students to explore physical phenomena in a given spacetime. Examples include light...
The introduction of Special Relativity inevitably leads to phenomena that contradict everyday experience. Immersive virtual environments provide a laboratory where relativistic effects can be investigated directly and thus, a higher level of understanding for these unfamiliar concepts is achievable.
Using the method of ray tracing, computer graphics applications are able to generate...
In this talk we present how the Newtonian force of gravity of a central field corresponds exactly to the force experienced by a stationary observer in Schwarzschild spacetime. This exercise does not require any approximation nor further assumptions and relies solely in the geometrised Newton's second law.
Here I share my experience in communicating some knowledge from relativistic astrophysics and associated Einsteinian physics in a scientific novel, named Blue Infinity, which I’ve written one year ago. What is special when we try to transmit the scientific truth through fictional characters representing researchers and students working in real scientific centers?
Obsolete scientific concepts are embedded in school primary school education. This means that the large majority of people who do not study specialised physics beyond middle school are barely exposed to modern scientific concepts. Moreover they lack the language of modern science and hence are entirely disenfranchised when it comes to science policy on issues such as climate change, 5G mobile...
The process of choosing appropriate educational content to teach Einsteinian physics in middle school is a challenge for researchers and teachers. The Einstein-First project in Australia is designing and implementing an Einsteinian physics curriculum for schools. My research is designed to trial a learning progression of Einsteinian concepts within an overall curriculum structure for year 7....
Modern science understanding depends on fundamental mathematical areas that go beyond primary school arithmetic. One of Einstein-First's goals is to create seamless learning progressions that begin in early primary school, designed to ensure that everyone develops an intuitive understanding of mathematical concepts and ideas that allow us to comprehend everything from the reality around us to...
The AstroCamp is an academic excellence program in the field of astronomy and physics for students in the last 3 years of pre-university education, i.e. roughly 15-18 year olds. It was created in 2012 and is organized by CAUP and several national and international partners, and now accepts applications from 42 eligible countries. Academic activities include two courses (each with 15h of...
The stellar aberration was discovered by James Bradley in 1727, and the same astronomer discovered the nutation of the Earth's axis in 1737. At the meridian line of S. Maria degli Angeli, the giant Clementine Gnomon, built by Francesco Bianchini (1662-1729) and funded by Cardinal Gianfrancesco Albani (1649-1721), elected pope on 23 november 1700 with the name of Clement XI, the effects of...
In this second contribution to the MG16 on Relativity's teaching, again on the meridian line of S. Maria degli Angeli, I publish the new tables of calibration of this meridian line in order to obtain a single measurement with absolute accuracy of 2-5 arcseconds. The lower limit of 2 arcsec is for winter observations with focal length of nearly 50 meters, while 5 arcsec is reached in summer...
The shadow of a 10 meters wall casted on the soccer field of the Technical Institute Galileo Ferraris in Rome, 41.878415° N, 12.454662° E coordinates WGS84 of the gnomon, is used to perform daily measure with an accuracy within a millimiter.
The gnomon's shadow, measured from the bottom and from the side of the field with a tape meter, in the best sets of measurements, presented rms below 1...
The Meridian Line of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Rome has been realized in 1700-1702 upon the will of Pope Clement XI, since when he was Cardinal, after the project of Francesco Bianchini (1662-1729) to measure with unprecedented accuracy the tropical year and the variation of the obliquity of the ecliptic.
At this Great Gnomon for the first time in the history of astronomy, the seasonal...
The sungrazing comets are a class of comets whose number significantly increased in the last 26 years, since the SOHO coronographes entered in function, at the rithm of about hundred per year.
A review in the gravitational studies on such comets, starting from Newton is presented.
Their orbital parameters suggest their grouping as related to a few parent bodies, and the pionieristic...
