East Bay Physics Alliance February 6, 1995 Minutes for January 9 meeting hosted by U.C Hayward Physics Department ______________________________________________________________________ Present: Michael Barnett, Rob Benn, Al Franz, Charlie Harper, Rodger Johnson, Fred Kral, Osita Emmanuel Oneyador, Karen Street, Peter Vajk, Gary Weston and Storn White. ___ Advice to Readers: ????? indicates areas where we know we need help. Other areas are left for you to discover. ___ Several teachers (including one from the junior high), lab employees, and Cal State hosts met on an extremely rainy Monday (the southerners had no way of getting there because of the flood) for a combined show and tell meeting and discussion of what kind of alliance group to make. For a while we ate and discussed what teachers would like. Communication ranked very high on our list: a way of putting our requests, such as does anyone have a ... or does anyone have equipment to demonstrate ... or how would you teach ... or I have a neat way to teach ... We decided to let the lab/college people set up some system by which we can communicate over internet: a bulletin board or newsgroup or whatever seemed best. We learned that the Oakland School system has about 100 teachers of all subjects on the Internet. Charlie Harper offered his fax (888-4803) as a means of communication for those without access to the internet; he would put out any questions/requests/ideas that are faxed to him. Two teachers, Peter Vajk and Karen Street, volunteered to respond to questions/requests while it's getting started, confident that more teachers will be involved with time. No one from the labs agreed to volunteer initially, but we're sure that won't be a problem???? Teachers in the Hayward area have a major resource: grad students and professors from CSU, Hayward have volunteered to give talks and demonstrations at local schools. Additionally, Hayward has a regular lecture on Friday afternoons (3:30 to 4:30 pm) that they encourage teachers and students to attend. Possible themes for future East Bay Physics Alliance meetings: (1) meet at a school to explain the what-fors of the unused 3/4 of the equipment, (2) visits - local contacts ?????, (3) use the Hayward labs to do experiments, (4) you fill in the ____. We had a tour of the labs and equipment center. Hayward has an equipment loan program, and will sometimes help repair your equipment. Call the Service Center at 881-3405 and talk to Herbert Soo Hoo (Herb) or the physics office at 881-3401 and talk to Charlie Harper or his secretary Nellie. After the setting up stuff, we got down to the serious stuff of show and tell. The next meeting is scheduled for March 23, 7:00pm to 9:00pm at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. Separate announcement will be made. It will include giveaways of UV detectors and an introduction to the internet. Main contact person is Howard Matis, hsmatis@lbl.gov, or phone 510-486-5031. Karen Street will host a simple dinner in Berkeley for all teachers/scientists on Friday, March 3 (preferable) or February 27 or 28 if at least two people RSVP that they are interested by February 24. Bring something to share if you want. ___ After the meeting, we have been investigating whether teachers can get internet accounts at the universities and national labs. This investigation is in progress and there is promise that such internet access is or will be available soon. ___ Summary of some Bay Area Resources __________________________________ o East Bay Physics Alliance: - World Wide Web page, Dial in URL = http://design.lbl.gov/education/education-home.html This page includes minutes and announcements, help on the Internet, pointers to Physics resources and sample Netnew discussion groups. - Electronic Mailing list. This is set up at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory to reach all interested physics teachers and physicists via email: physics-alliance@lbl.gov. The standard way to add new people is for them to send mail to physics-alliance-request@lbl.gov with the subject 'subscribe'. When they want off, use unsubscribe. NOTE the "-request" in that address! o U.C. Hayward Physics Department: - Service Center, Call 510-881-3405 (Herb), includes Equipment loan program and possibility to bring class to the U.C. Hayward labs. - Office, Call 510-881-3401 (Chairman Charlie Parker, Secretary Nellie). - Fax to Email transcription service, Call 510-888-4803 (Fax). Will send your faxed questions out to the electronic mailing list. - Physics seminars, Friday Afternoons, 3:30pm to 4:30pm (refreshments at 3:15pm), Cal State Hayward, North Science, Room 221. Future topics: Feb 3: Nano-scale Hydrodynamics in Disk Drives; Feb 10: Beauty in Particle Physics; Feb 17: Nonlinear Optimization. For a complete schedule, call 510-881-3401. - Internet Access service available. Talk to the computer coordinator in your district, or call Charlie or Nellie at 510-881-3401. o SEABA Journal - Distributed by The Science Education Academy of the Bay Area to teachers at elementary schools and secondary schools. Contact district science coordinator or call SEABA at 415-241-2730. Fall 1994 issue features lots on the Internet. o Center for Particle Astrophysics, U.C. Berkeley: - Repair Service????? - Internet Access????? o Lawrence Livermore Laboratory: - Internet Access?????