Elmhurst College Physics 101 MSI Field Trip -- Earl C. Swallow

Elmhurst College

Physics 101 - Physical Science

Spring Term, 2008

Earl C. Swallow

Museum of Science and Industry Visit and Report
(a do-it-yourself field trip)

At some time during the semester, you are to visit the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago and write a brief report. The written report should include the following elements (in addition to your name, etc.):

the date of your visit;
the names of any current PHY-101 students who went with you on the visit as well as identification of anyone else who went along;
the name and location of one exhibit which you found particularly interesting and which involves phenomena or ideas discussed in this course;
a brief description of the exhibit and an analysis of it in terms of some of the concepts presented in this course.

Some important technical details are as follows:

General Information - Your visit will be more fun if you get together with some of your classmates and make it into a group activity. The Museum is located at South 57^th Street and Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. The site where Enrico Fermi and co-workers initiated the first controlled nuclear chain reaction is just a few blocks west of the Museum: between 56^th and 57^th Streets on Ellis Avenue. A Henry Moore statue [2] now stands at the site on the University of Chicago campus. It's worth a stop while you're in that area. You can find necessary directions, etc. on the Web.

Audience - Write the report for a fellow student who has not seen the exhibit you selected.

Due Date - The report is due at least one week before the last day of class.

Preparation - Reports should be typed, double spaced. Proper spelling, punctuation, grammar, etc. are expected. Use of a word processor is encouraged because this makes the identification and subsequent correction of errors much easier.

Length - The length of the report is not a crucial consideration, but students are often "up tight" about it. A bit of thought indicates that this kind of report requires several paragraphs (roughly 3 to 6) or about 2 pages.

Purpose - The visit should serve to make you more aware of one of the many cultural resources which exist in the Chicago area. The report helps assure me that you (probably) made the visit and gave at least one part of the Museum some thought. It is also good practice at reporting and analyzing your experiences, something that is extremely useful in science and in almost any other area of study or professional activity.