Session 20

Generating Solutions for Electricity

One of the biggest issues today is how to generate the electricity we want without destroying the environment. It is an important curriculum topic from grade 9 Electricity up to grade 12C Physics. This problem can easily seem overwhelming to students and teachers. In this workshop, teachers will explore how they can use geared motors, capacitors, LED’s and solar panels to develop a deeper understanding of the difficulties and the possible solutions to this problem through in hands-on and minds-on inquiry. (Economical sources of these materials will be provided.) Teachers will also be introduced to animated graphs and how these can be used to animate discussion and understanding of what is happening world-wide in energy production.

Biography

Roberta has been teaching physics in Toronto for 25 years. She is rather fanatical about modern physics and Physics Education Research and spends her spare time looking for ways to combine them to make high school physics more exciting and inviting. She has given workshops to this end around special relativity, general relativity, particle physics quantum uncertainty and entanglement. In her spare spare time she plays New Orleans jazz at Grossman’s Tavern in Toronto.