The Los Angeles Physics Teachers Alliance Group, LAPTAG, was created several years ago so that universities and colleges could interact strongly with high schools in order to further the educational process. The organization has approximately 60 members in 32 institutions.
Assistant Professor Stephan Haas from the USC Department of Physics and Astronomy has recently become involved with LAPTAG, in order to raise the general awareness of physics and indirectly benefit the community. The group's Saturday bi-monthly meetings are attended by 30 to 40 teachers with some students also present. Professor Haas would love to expand the program. His chief objective is to have more local schools participating. "If I can reach one enthusiastic kid, the program has succeeded," he believes. However, he realizes that many high schools today have more pressing issues than concentrating on their physics departments. He stated, "I must be realistic in setting these goals. Right now, I must plan on ways to augment the program, perhaps one-on-one meetings and tours with teachers invited to our campus and also personally contacting some of our local schools."
One goal of the program is to get in touch with students at a young age, to stir their enthusiasm in physics. One way in which LAPTAG approaches the issue is to involve high school students and their instructors in exciting research projects. The experiments tie all participating institutions together and allows for strong, continual interaction among the participants.
One recent experiment involved stimulating an earthquake by setting off a controlled explosion and timing the delay and propagation of waves, then measuring the delay with high precision measuring devices.
The professors are available to go to high schools where they will bring demonstrations and also lecture the class. In the past, Professors Feinberg, Bickers and Däppen have had classes come to the USC Physics Department to tour the lab facilities. Eventually, Professor Haas would like to have a regular schedule of visiting physics classes touring our Departments facilities.
You may visit the program's web site located at coke.physics.ucla.edu/laptag/index.html for more information.
Department of Physics & Astronomy / USC Physics & Astronomy Newsletters /