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Re: ideas for physics projects?

Here's an approach I have found to work quite well:

During the months before the class I contact individuals in our Physics
Plant Department about projects they have to do and that they could use
some help with. This usually generates some good project ideas. Another
approach is to work with professionals in the are and see if their company
has projects students could participate in. We have done this with one of
our grads that worked very well. He would come to campus each week for an
hour or two to meet with students and eventually they took their designs to
the company and made some presentations. My son was one of those that
participated and he is currently working at that company while he completes
his engineering degree. It has been a great learning experience and they
have treated him very well.



At 08:21 PM 9/25/02 -0500, you wrote:

I sometimes give my sophomore engineering physics students lab projects
where they work primarily outside of class in groups to learn some physics
and at the same time engage in hands-on activities which engineering
students tend to really enjoy. I have used, the perhaps overused, mousetrap
engines where they conduct experiments on mousetraps and learn how to
analyze spring-energized rotating objects as well as generate energy
transfer mechanisms for various kinds of cars. Another successful one was
to design a package to keep hamburgers warm at fast food places. They had
to develop material on Newton's law of cooling and other thermodynamics
principles which were not covered in class.

I am looking for new ideas for a student project, and would appreciate any
feedback.

Bob Hunt


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Ivan Rouse, Physics Professor
Physics Department, La Sierra University
4700 Pierce St., Riverside, CA 92515
email: irouse@lasierra.edu
phone: 909-785-2137, FAX 909-785-2215