Curved 4-D Spacetime for grade 9 Astronomy (and grade 12 physics)

" General relativity is much harder than special relativity. However, for the beginner, general relativity is much easier to explore. It has a gentler learning curve and there are a variety of concrete materials to illustrate the nature of curved space. Key concepts can be appreciated by young students and can be an extremely inspiring topic for grade-9 astronomy. Workshop participants will play with stretchy spacetime fabric and orbiting marbles to understand gravity’s strange ability to exert forces without touching. The behavior of masking tape and bowls will be examined to understand why Einstein became famous after the solar eclipse of 1919 and how gravitational lenses work. You will use balloons to explore the non-Euclidean geometry of Albert Amoeba, to explain the gravitational-red shift of galaxies, the cosmic microwave background and the Big Bang . Finally, you will be shown how to make a black hole and learn why Einstein rejected them. Activities are aimed at a grade-9 level, assuming no physics background from the participants. However, activities are also relevant for senior physics students - just add a few equations and when students study gravitational fields they can contrast Einstein’s model with Newton’s.

General Relavitity for Grade 9

General Relativity for Teachers

More resources for Modern Physics are available on my website: http://roberta.tevlin.ca/

Roberta has been teaching physics in Toronto for 25 years. She is rather fanatical about modern physics and Physics Education Research and spends her spare time looking for ways to combine them to make high school physics more exciting and inviting. She has given workshops to this end around special relativity, general relativity, particle physics quantum uncertainty and entanglement. She is a consultant for the Perimeter Institute of Theoretical and the coordinator of PI’s Teacher Network. In her spare spare time she plays New Orleans jazz at Grossman’s Tavern in Toronto.