Carleton College Physics and Astronomy

Weekly Bulletin February 23 - February 29, 1996

Monday, February 26 12:30 CTR
PHYSICS / ASTRONOMY TABLE: Meet in Olin 309 at 12:20 p.m. for the walk to the CTR or join us there at 12:30.<
Monday, February 26 3:10 Olin 109
Comps talk by Ed Blair: "Spin Glass"
Monday, February 26 9 to 10 pm Olin 133
DCC Meeting About Italy Physics Program
Wednesday, February 28 3:10 Olin 109
Comps talk by Kisha Delain: "Bright Beacons in the Sky: A Look at Active Galactic Nuclei"
Wednesday, February 28 7:15-10:15 p.m. Goodsell Observatory
Goodsell Observatory Open House (If clear). View the moon.
Friday, March 1 3:30 Mudd 171
Candace Kohl, Carleton Alum and Professor at U. California, San Diego will speak on "From Space to Earth: Effects of Cosmic Rays and Meteorites." Refreshments!
COMMENTS:

1. LAST CHANCE FOR ITALY PHYSICS PROGRAM! OPEN DCC MEETING!: Currently our Department does not offer an off-campus program. At our Department Meeting, last week, we discussed my proposal for the Italy Physics Program and realized that we could not feel completely sure of its relevance to the major and to our students without some feedback from you. I would appreciate it if you could send me, in writing or by e-mail (pdini), your thoughts and opinions on the following topics, plus anything else that you think is relevant:

- Has the trade-off between participating in an off-campus program or taking a physics course that you felt was important to your physics education played any part in your course planning decisions?
- If you have participated in a program, has that put you behind in your physics courses or was it not such a big problem?
I am calling a DCC meeting on the evening of Monday Feb 26, from 9 to 10pm, in Olin 133. I would like to give you a chance to ask me questions about the proposal and to look at it. Cookies and coffee will be served. We need to reach a decision quickly because the Off-Campus Studies Committee is meeting this Term to decide whether to put programs on the calendar in Winter 98, which is the earliest we could schedule this pilot program. By way of forecast, the title of the proposal is "A Cross-Cultural, Interdisciplinary Program for Mathematics, Science, and Environmental Studies in Italy." My objective is to expose the students to a foreign language and to the historical and artistic aspects of a foreign culture in addition to offering core physics, math, environmental geology, and history of science classes. ALL ARE WELCOME, also those of you who will have graduated by then. Your opinions and experiences are very important to help us reach a decision. Regardless of whether you come or not to the meeting, please send me some written feedback. It will make the statistics much easier to assess. Thank you, Paolo.

2. Students: Consider registering for Physics 123, "What Physicists Do," a 1 credit spring term course consisting of five lectures by physicists who describe a variety of interesting physics-related work.

3. Students: Consider registering for "Writing About Science", Biology 296. This special spring term course will be taught by Visiting Professor Ruth Levy Guyer who has been writing about science and teaching students how to write about science for many years. This is a workshop-style course designed for any student interested in learning how to communicate scientific ideas and discoveries more clearly to the general public. It is a 3-credit, first five weeks course.

4. Employment Opportunity for Seniors Sander Glick (`93) works at Project Performance Corporation, a small environmental consulting firm in Washington, DC. He says it's a fast growing company of approximately 50 people who do policy consulting for the Department of Energy's Environmental Management program. Essentially, the program is responsible for the environmental cleanup of nuclear weapons production sites. The company will be recruiting at Carleton on March 5. If interested in working in this area, call Sander at 202-484-0820 or 301-601-1830 (voice mail) with questions or call the Career Center now to set up an interview.

5. Fairly Bright Comet Coming! Comet Hyakutake will put in an appearance over break and the first week of classes. Please inform Joel if you are interested in helping with open houses during either of those times, and he'll ask you to operate a Meade for the public. For more information on the comet and other celestial happenings go to the Web at http://www.skypub.com

6. Astronomers Let Joel know by email if you'd like email notifications of (1) Aurorae; and/or (2) astronomical discoveries reported by the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams.

7. "Girl Power" Needs Mentors for a Day On Saturday, March 30, a group of 25-30 young girls from a program called Girl Power in the Cities will visit Carleton. "Girl Power" is a YWCA program which brings together a group of inner-city girls to work on science, math, and life skills. The Women's Center is looking for approximately fifteen women to be mentors-for-a-day. Each mentor will spend about four hours (noon to four) with a pair of girls. The day's activities include both large group events and individual activities. The girls are incredibly excited about their trip to Carleton. If you're interested in being a mentor, call Sarah Perry at 645-0089 as soon as possible to ensure your place.

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