Dear Folks,

I just wanted to add some information about the Feb 7 workshop for the St. Louis Area Physics Teachers. The topic of the workshop is Physlets. A physlet is a computer applet that has a physics animation. These physlets are found on many physics cites on the web. The beauty of them is that they are free downloads from the web.

At the workshop we will give you a CD that has a large collection of Physlets from Davidson College (the originators) and other schools. We will also give you two books, Physlets by Wolfgang Christian and Mario Belloni and Physlet Physics by the same authors.

The first half of the workshop (7:30-11:00) will be dedicated to the process of downloading, copying and running physlets on your computer. We will then practice writing student use instructions. The second part of the workshop (12:00-3:00) will be dedicated to trying simple modifications to tailor a physlet for your own use. Lunch will be on your own and there are multiple restaurants close to Central. We will begin the second session promptly.

The cost is $21 if you pay for yourself and $39 if your school pays. Please email me that you are coming but bring your money with you. I will have receipts that morning if you will tell me you need them. There is a limit of 20 people for this workshop.

Now the bad news! Mac folks, I apologize but I have not been able to get the physlets working well on Macs. I had our district technology people working on it but still no success. So the platform will be PC. We will be using the editor called Front Page.

Now the disclaimer! I am not the best techie out there. This stuff is somewhat addictive and I have had fun working with the physlets. I have written a few for my classes based on the Qualitative Questions by Gibb and my students seem to like them as a way to learn. It really is within the average computer user's ability to do this workshop (I thoroughly believe some folks will get it and take off). I have asked Linda Kralina to partner me on this workshop. We attended the TYC workshop together and we have worked hard to put together a doable program for you.

Again if you want to come, please email me.

The directions to Parkway Central High School are:

Get to I270 in West County. Go west on Ladue road until you reach Woods Mill Rd. Turn right or north on Woods Mill. The next light is the entrance, on the left, to the school. Unfortunately there is a big debate tournament that day so park where you can find a spot and enter the front of the school. There will be signs to direct you to my classroom (1006).

The address is 369 N. Woods Mill Rd. Chesterfield. You can call me at 314-415-5957. You can email me at vmichael@pkwy.k12.mo.us.

Hope to see you there.
Val Michael