Teaching Science

On February 29th, Caltech's Center for Teaching, Learning, and Outreach (CTLO) brought together more than 50 teachers from local K-12 schools and nearly as many volunteers from Caltech, Pasadena City College, and other associated institutions to look at new ways to develop lessons and design experiments that will engage students while also aligning with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) disciplinary core standards. This Community Science Event is the fourth in a series of events that have been organized by CTLO over the last year.

Tuesday's program included a variety of lab demonstrations and activities, including everything from building a vacuum cannon that shoots ping pong balls at speeds up to 500 miles per hour to recreating the innards of a photocopier.

In the picture, Caltech volunteer Luis Goncalves demonstrates electricity and magnetism by using a motor and generator. Two solenoid coils of wire are connected together electrically and then suspended using a spring and a magnet above each coil. When one magnet drops down it induces an electrical current in one coil which then creates a magnetic field in the other coil, causing it to drop and mimic the motion of the first magnet.