NJAAPT upcoming events

October Round Table (14 Oct 2026)

Wed, 14 Oct 2026 23:00:00 GMT

Now that we are back in the flow of teaching, come share your successes and get help with your challenges.

Join Zoom Meeting:

Join Link

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87975767617?pwd=MXhlaGlES0NFZUhxTzE5ZkhsVVFaZz09

Meeting ID: 879 7576 7617

Passcode: 408968

Make N' Take - Students Invent Linearization (17 Oct 2026)

Sat, 17 Oct 2026 12:30:00 GMT

Double Make N' Take — Whole Class Labs

What if students encountered the need for linearization before you ever taught them the technique—and perhaps even came up with the idea themselves?

These investigations use flexible, magnetic apparatus to create large, physical whole-class graphs that students can see and manipulate. Each small group makes one part of the measurement and contributes its result to a common graph on the whiteboard. The same materials students use to make their measurements become the physical display of those results. As the groups add their contributions, the relationship emerges in front of the class.

Students then watch as those same pieces of apparatus are moved to a transformed scale—and, in front of their eyes, the curved relationship becomes linear. The need for linearization comes first; the procedure follows.

Teachers will leave with two complete sets of fabricated classroom equipment and 8 new stopwatches. These are flexible, reusable tools with applications extending beyond the two featured investigations to kinematics, oscillations, rolling motion, rotational inertia, graphing, and modeling.

Time 8:30-11:30 - Breakfast will be provided

Join fellow New Jersey physics teachers for a hands-on Double Make N Take. Teachers will build and take home equipment for two complete mechanics investigations, explore both whole-class and traditional lab approaches, and have time to exchange ideas, experiences, and concerns with physics teachers from around the state. Grant support will cover most of the cost of the equipment, so the teacher contribution will be small. Space is limited.

A special focus of both activities will be a whole-class approach to experimental physics. Instead of every lab group repeating the entire experiment, each small group of students contributes one measurement to a common data set. Results are brought to the classroom whiteboard, where the class watches a large graph emerge from its collective measurements. Both sets of equipment can also be used for traditional small-group labs.

Magnetic Pendula — Build the Graph on the Board

Teachers will construct a set of pendula of different lengths. Each pendulum consists of a string with small magnets attached at both ends, allowing it to be mounted directly on a magnetic whiteboard.

In the whole-class investigation, each small group of students is assigned a pendulum of a particular length and measures its period. The whiteboard becomes a large graph, with pendulum length on the horizontal axis and period on the vertical axis.

Each group brings its result to the board and mounts its pendulum at the appropriate location. As the pendula are added, the apparatus itself becomes the graph, and the relationship between pendulum length and period develops visibly from the students' own measurements.

Each teacher will leave with a set of magnetic pendula and a set of stopwatches for classroom use.

Slow Accelerators — Build a Motion Graph as a Class

Teachers will also fabricate a class set of slow accelerators: disks mounted on rods that roll down a track made from a pair of inclined meter sticks.

The large rotational inertia of the disk-and-rod combination greatly reduces its acceleration, making the motion slow enough for students to obtain good measurements using a meter stick and stopwatch.

For the whole-class investigation, all ramps are set to the same angle. Each small group of students is assigned a different distance along the ramp, makes several timing measurements for that distance, and determines an average time.

Each group then brings its distance and average time to the board. As the groups add their results, a complete distance-versus-time curve emerges as a whole-class experiment.

Each teacher will leave with a class set of slow accelerators ready for use with students.

The day will provide plenty of opportunity not only to build and try the equipment, but also to talk with other physics teachers about what is happening in our classrooms, exchange teaching ideas, and make connections with colleagues from around New Jersey.

Two Make N Takes. Two sets of classroom equipment. A day of building, experimenting, and sharing physics with colleagues.

Circular Motion Apparatus Make and Take (14 Nov 2026)

Sat, 14 Nov 2026 14:00:00 GMT

Classic Circular Motion Apparatus Workshop

Time 9:00-12:00 - Breakfast will be provided

Join fellow New Jersey physics teachers for a hands-on workshop, where physics teachers will construct 10 complete Classic Circular Motion Apparatus devices for use in the classroom. Participants will build two devices for each of five different masses, creating five matched pairs that can be used by student laboratory groups. Grant support will cover most of the cost of the equipment, so the teacher contribution will be small. Space is limited.

The Classic Circular Motion Apparatus is designed to allow students to experimentally investigate the relationships among force, mass, radius, and velocity in uniform circular motion. The apparatus uses a rubber stopper, spring scale, string, and measuring equipment to provide a simple, durable, and highly visual way for students to explore centripetal force and develop the mathematical model for uniform circular motion.

Workshop Activities

Participants will:

Construct 10 Classic Circular Motion Apparatus devices.
Prepare five different masses, with two identical devices at each mass.
Assemble and secure the string, mass, and spring-scale components.
Measure and document the mass of each apparatus.
Check the apparatus for consistent operation and appropriate balance.
Test each device.
Label and organize the completed apparatus for immediate classroom use.

Classroom Application

The completed equipment will support investigations of:

Centripetal Force vs. Speed
Radius vs. Speed
Mass vs. Speed

The original laboratory has students vary force while maintaining radius, vary radius while maintaining force, and compare different masses to investigate their effects on circular motion. The students then linearize their data to develop the centripetal force equation.

Creating two devices for each of five masses allows teachers to provide students with devices so that each lab group is able to collect data without waiting for others to finish with an aparatus.

By the end of the workshop, each participant will walk away witha complete classroom set consisting of:

10 Classic Circular Motion Apparatus devices
2 devices × 5 different masses

The finished apparatus will be tested, labeled, and ready for use in a physics laboratory exploring uniform circular motion, centripetal force, mass, radius, and velocity.

2027 NJ Physics Olympics --- North/Central Jersey (23 Jan 2027)

Sat, 23 Jan 2027 13:00:00 GMT

We look forward to your school's participation at this event. The competition is a lot of fun and your students will meet, share experiences, and compete with other students from other high schools in New Jersey.

This is for the NJ Olympics North/Central Jersey at Madison High School (Morris County)

Light morning refreshments will be provided.

This year's events are:

FERMI QUESTIONS: Estimate the order of magnitude of a quantity that is difficult or impossible to measure.
SPAGHETTI MASKING TAPE TOWER: Construct the tallest tower that will support a load of at least 200 grams.
RUBE GOLDBERG MACHINE: Design and build a Rube Goldberg Machine that produces mechanical energy changes in the greatest number of unique objects.
GREATEST ACCELERATION VEHICLE: Construct a four-wheeled vehicle, propelled using only the energy supplied by mouse trap(s), with the greatest average acceleration.
BERNOULLI BALL: Guide a ping-pong ball through loops using a hair dryer in the least amount of time.
LASER TARGET SHOOT - REFRACTION AND REFLECTION: Predict the correct placement of a triangular prism so that it refracts a laser beam off of a mirror and onto a target.

Detailed rules can be found on the website under the "Events / Physics Olympics 2027" section. Link here.

To ask questions about the rules, go to the "Forum" section of the website (Top menu/Forum). Link here.

To receive replies via email from the forum, you must “subscribe” to the forum.

It is the team’s responsibility to periodically check in or inquire about changes and clarifications to the rules.

Note – the deadline for submitting questions about individual events is mid-December (12/15). After that date, questions cannot be addressed due to committee meeting dates/holidays.

Please print Media Release forms for students/parents to sign and bring signed forms to the competition. Winning teams are photographed. Students with release forms will be included in the photographs of winning teams. Forms can be printed out here.

Registration info:

The teacher signing up must be a NJAAPT member. (Go to njaapt.org to join or renew membership).

If you are interested in spectating without bringing students, you can register yourself, with no teams (you must be a NJAAPT member to register).

Each team that you bring must be registered as a Guest--do not forget to register your teams !! (2 teams = 2 guests; a team = 1-6 students).

Early Registration: $35 per team (on or before November 30th).

Regular Registration: $45 per team (after November 30th)

Final registration deadline: January 8th

All teams must be registered and paid in advance.

There will be no on-site registration.

Each registered teacher will receive an email in January asking them to fill out a form with the names of their students in each of their teams. Minor adjustments to the teams must be reported during the morning registration at the competition.

Each team member will receive a wristband according to their team number. Each school may bring up to one non-participating, visiting student per team. Visiting students will receive a 'visitor wrist band'. Students must leave their wristbands on at all times.

Our event is made possible through the dedication of teacher volunteers. We are truly grateful for your time, effort, and commitment. Registered teachers and their co-teachers attending the competition will be asked to judge an event at the competition. There will be a judges' meeting in the week before the competition, via Zoom.

2027 NJ Physics Olympics --- South Jersey (23 Jan 2027)