Hurwitt Wins Research Position
She signs her electronic mail, "THE TREE HUGGER." Since long before she came to Sonoma State University from Berkeley High School, Siana Hurwitt has wanted to do something to help the environment. She started out majoring in environmental studies, but after a couple of years switched to physics for a stronger scientific background. An excellent student and the winner of two scholarships, Siana will spend the summer doing research in the physics department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. She declined a similar offer from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She says that her laboratory courses and working in the stockroom with Steve Anderson helped give her the confidence to apply to national summer programs. She has discussed the Rensselaer program with Mario Marckwordt ('94), who was a participant two summers ago, and she is looking forward to research that will make her an even stronger candidate for graduate programs in environmental engineering or science when she graduates in December.

The Physics of Toys
The conceptual physics laboratory, Physics 102, is a one-unit lab for non-science majors with previous or concurrent enrollment in the conceptual physics or astronomy courses. Students who are not science-oriented take it to satisfy a general education requirement. This fall they will investigate the physics of toys.
To support the new course Professor Saeid Rahimi was awarded one of nine Academic Innovation grants at SSU. The award provides him with both time and funds for supplies. According to Dr. Rahimi the course will be an important one for those students who will become elementary and high school teachers, and it will be an asset to parents and future parents who wish to teach some concepts of physics to their children through play.
The main purpose of the new course will be to induce interest and active participation in discussing physics principles among students not known for their interest in science.
Dr. Rahimi reports that the "equipment" for the lab will be chosen from hundreds of toys on the market. Most people, regardless of their age or level of intelligence, easily relate to toys. While some toys are easy to describe, the principles of operation of others are illusive even to technically and scientifically-oriented people. An attractive feature of this course is the fact that the students will play with toys while learning physics.
Students will connect abstract science concepts with enjoyment of the everyday physical world, and will learn that doing science is fun. Each week there will be twelve identical sets of equipment available for the class. Additionally, students will be encouraged to bring their own special toys that are relevant to the topics of any particular week for discussion and sharing.
Consider for example, the operation of the "perpetual spinning top" that can be found in novelty toy shops for about $20. The unit consists of a small metallic top that continues spinning on the top surface of a "black box" once set in motion. To the untrained eye, this is a truly amazing phenomenon. The top itself is made of a magnetic material. When set in motion, it induces an electric current in a coil inside the box. The coil is connected to the input of a transistor which switches on upon sensing the induced current. The newly established current in the transistor circuit will in turn create an oscillating magnetic field that interacts with the spinning magnet, thus forcing it to continue its motion.
It is expected that the majority of the students will not be able to explain the principle of operation of this toy on their own. However, after thinking about the problem for some time, they will be willing to find out about the solution to the puzzle and they will learn a little about electromagnetic induction, magnetic interactions, transistors and electronic circuits. They will take the boxes apart and learn about various components of the toy. The instructor will then demonstrate the same ideas with more traditional physics equipment.