As part of one of our projects, Jenn- you remember Jenn, she's the crafty one. Anyway, Jenn has been collecting fun easy to use everyday examples that can be part of 1st and 2nd year engineering and physics courses-- read what she has to say:

For anyone who has ever gotten splashed by a wet dog shaking off, you’ll want to read the lesson plan by Andrew Dickerson (Georgia Tech). Concepts from Dynamics and Physics are covered in Wet Dog Shake, complete with cute animal pictures.

Are you a foodie or a fan of Top Chef? Impress everyone with the Thermodynamics concepts behind Cooking with Microwaves (by Dr. Peter Wong from Tufts University) and Sous Vide Cooking (by Naveen Sinha from Harvard University).

Help your students learn how much power they’re really using with Powering the Everyday Home, a Circuits example by Dr. Tim Healy (Santa Clara University).

With all of the snow in New England this winter, we could really use the lesson learned in Dr. Chun Wu’s Chemisty example: Why Does Snow Melts Ice? Dr. Wu is a faculty member at Mount Marty College.

Are you a film buff? Then check out one of the 8 lesson plans contributed by Dr. Chad Young (Nicholls State University), from his Einstein in Hollywood project. They cover content from Physics, Dynamics, and Fluids and all feature links to video clips. The examples feature Bugs Bunny, Winnie the Pooh, Superman, Mini Coopers, an X-15, a figure skater, and a young woman playing basketball.

The Aerodynamics of Kites, an example for Fluids and Physics, is from the NASA Glenn Research Center’s Educational Programs Office and will make you want to…well, you can probably guess!

Try to increase your chances of getting on American Idol by learning all about the physics of a Guitar with this lesson plan by Dr. Sam Hokin, author of The Physics of Everyday Stuff.

Dr. David Benson, from Kettering University, recently contributed 4 Fluids and Thermodynamics examples. Check out his lesson plans on playing with Water Guns, Liquid Motion Toys, and Springs along with an example that used Egg Cartons to demonstrate Specific Heat Capacity.

Since the ENGAGE website first launched last year we’ve been busy adding more Everyday Examples.

There are now 36 lesson plans available for immediate download plus 81 ideas that you can develop into Everyday Examples. Everyday Examples are organized by course area and we currently have 18 courses listed:

Chemistry
Circuits
Control Systems
Differential Equations
Dynamics
Elasticity and Plasticity
Engineering Design
Engineering Graphics
Fluids
Introduction to Engineering
Manufacturing
Material Failure
Mechanics
Physics
Properties of Materials
Statics
Stress and Strain
Thermodynamics

Don’t forget, if you’d like to submit an Everyday Example for courses in Engineering, Physics, Chemistry, Calculus, or Differential Equations, contact Jenn, aka Dr. Jennifer Weisman, (jweisman@campbell-kibler.com).