April 30, 2005: SLAPT High School Physics Competition & Web-Based Empirical Observation Exercises Workshop
The Physics Department of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (http://www.siue.edu) will sponsor the Twentieth Annual SLAPT High School Physics Competition to be held on our campus on Saturday, April 30, 2005. There will also be a SLAPT workshop occurring during the exam. Led by Phil Fraudorf, the primary focus of the workshop will be on web-based empirical observation exercises, like the one for intro chemistry at UM-StL this semester http://www.umsl.edu/~fraundor/nanowrld/live3Dmodels/chemapp.htm, to make figures in textbooks come to life with exploration, reporting, and peer-review exercises based on real-world challenges for web-connected teachers and students. This may also give us some ideas for informal nanoscience exhibits at the SLSC.
This contest itself, open to all high school students, will be have two different exams. Students can only take one of the tests. The first exam will be only mechanics and consist of 50 multiple-choice questions. The cash prizes for this exam will be: First Prize of $100, Second Prize of $50, and Third Prize of $25. We will present Certificates of Honorable Mention to the next highest scoring twenty percent of the contestants, and we will award certificates to the top three scoring schools.
The second exam will consist of 50 multiple choice questions with one or two tiebreaker problems, and will include both qualitative and quantitative questions. The numbers of questions covering the various topics will be: mechanics (18), waves (5), sound (3), fluids (1), thermodynamics (4), electricity and magnetism (11), optics (5), and modern physics (3). The cash prizes for this exam will be: First Prize of $150, Second Prize of $75, and Third Prize of $25. We will present Certificates of Honorable Mention to the next highest scoring twenty percent of the contestants, and we will award certificates to the top three scoring schools.
For both exams we will again allow calculators of all types. It is the responsibility of the teacher to ensure that all calculator memories are cleared. We will supply the values of physical constants, but no equations. The students are not allowed to bring a formula sheet. Each contestant may keep a copy of the test, but we will not return the graded answer sheets. We will send a list of all winners to teachers with students participating in the competition along with statistics on the test results. Individual scores will be kept confidential, except that we will report the score of each contestant to his or her teacher.
The tests will run from 9:00 AM until 11:00 AM followed by
a 1-1/2 hour lunch break and an award ceremony lasting from 12:30
until 1:00 PM. Students should arrive at 8:40 am. The test and
awards ceremony will take place in the Science Building on SIUE's
campus in the first floor auditorium (SL1105). Parking is free
in Lot A, which is directly north of the science building. A map
of nearby restaurants will be provided.
To register, please send an email to tfoster@siue.edu
with your full contact information and a list of student names
(and which test they will be taking) by April 27, 2005. There
will be no fee for entering the competition. We will be able to
accommodate 200 students.