looking for some west au teachers/star lovers

[bingsze]

hi all,

I am a newbie here, I am teaching physics in hong kong, I want to do some experiments with my 11 grade students, I wonder there are/is any physics teachers here, or any star groups would like to help them in carrying the expts.

I would like to measure the radius of earth, and also see if we can measure the sun-earth distance during the transir of venus in 2012.

The reason of this expt is to enlight the students, and I think australia is a very macth place to hong kong since we share the same longitude!!:)

[Blue Skies]

You might be best contacting STAWA (http://www.stawa.net/), the Science Teacher's Association of WA, or AstronomyWA (http://www.astronomywa.net.au/), which has contacts with science teachers specialising in astronomy.

[bingsze]

thanks!!

[batema]

Hi Wong,

You might want to check out these three websites dealing with Eratosthenese who measured the circumference of the earth in approx 300bc. One of my physics students did an experiment testing the accuracy of ancient measuring techniques and this is one he did.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eratosthenes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eratosthenes)
http://www.juliantrubin.com/bigten/eratosthenes.html (http://www.juliantrubin.com/bigten/eratosthenes.html)
http://www.physics2005.org/projects/eratosthenes/TeachersGuide.pdf
Good luck and have fun.
Mark

[bingsze]

thanks Mark,

this is exactly what I want to do with my students. The reason of doing these expt is, when teaching them gravitation, all the distances are given. They will ask how these data come from, and I think this is the most interesting part of the lesson instead of applying fomulaes.

I wish to find a school in west aust. to work together, hope that there r some physics/astro teachers would come together and have fun!! but I know nobody here, and that is why I ask this question.

The transition of venus is coming, so, if there is anyone love this idea,

JUST JOIN THE PARTY HERE!!!

I hope someone can understand the meaning of this game, and show the students the real fun of physics is!!

thank you Mark.