05 September 2000 Bill Colson (Morgan Park HS)
treated us to a classic bit: Tom Lehrer's New Math  [http://www.math.rochester.edu/people/faculty/rarm/smsg.html] playing out of a neat pair of speakers and radio-recorder-player. Entertaining and somewhat informative perspective.

10 December 2002: Lee Slick  [Morgan Park HS, Physics]      Physics Carols
Finally, Lee led us in singing of festive Physics Carols. Lee passed around sheets containing the following Physics Carols: (1)Gravity; (2) Photo Cells, (3) Nodal Lines (tune of Jingle Bells); (4) Oh Physics Book (tune of Oh Christmas Tree); (5) Frosty the Photon (tune of Frosty the Snowman); (6) Here in Static Equilibrium (tune of Winter Wonderland; (7) Deck the Physics Lab and (8) Deck the Halls (tune of Deck the Halls); (9) The 12 Days of Physics  and (10) The Twelve Days of Newton (tune of The 12 Days of Christmas); (11) The First Nodal (tune of The First Noël); (12) Oh Physics Problem Set of Mine (tune of O Little Town of Bethlehem); (13) God Rest Ye Merry Physicists and (14) God Rest Ye Merry Physics Profs (tune of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen); and finally, (14) We Three Quarks (tune of We Three Kings). For additional Physics Carols see these websites:  [http://www.haverford.edu/physics-astro/songs/carols/carols.htm], [http://www.mrflint.com/features/winter/physcarols.html] and [http://www.quasar.ualberta.ca/edse456/apt/activity/physicscarol.htm].  Comment by PJ:  Chemistry Carols also exist:  see [http://people.bu.edu/metalman/chemistry_xmas_carols.html/].

15 November 2005: Bill Blunk (Joliet Central HS, retired)             Original Tom Lehrer Songs
Using his laptop Bill played  some of Tom Lehrer's math songs from an original 1951 wire recording.  These songs can be obtained from these websites:

• Original Tapes:  http://www.archive.org/details/lehrer
• Tom Lehrer's Chemical Elements:  http://members.aol.com/quentncree/lehrer/elements.htm and http://www.privatehand.com/flash/elements.html
• Physical Revue:  http://www.physicssongs.org

Thanks, Bill.

13 September 2005: Bill Colson (Morgan Park HS, physics)        Science Songs
Bill gave us a great link to funny songs with themes from physics or chemistry, on the Haverford College website:  http://www.haverford.edu/physics-astro/songs/. 05 March 2002: Roy Coleman (Morgan Park HS Physics)  

• Millikan Eggs can be obtained from the Oriental Trading Company:  http://www.orientaltrading.com/.
  
• He showed some Balloon Race Cars [blow up the balloon on the car, put the vehicle on a smooth horizontal surface, release it, and just watch it go!] are available in the most recent Johnson Smith Company Catalog:  Telephone Number:  1-800-8430762.  Website: http://johnsonsmith.com.
  Or, you can make your own Balloon Rocket Car: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/teachers/rockets/act2.html

13 September 2005: Bill Blunk (Joliet, retired)        More Science Songs
Bill spent the summer near Glacier National Park and visited with Richard (Dick) Schwab, a professor at UC Davis, an expert on Gutenberg Bibles. Dick's roommate at Harvard University was Tom Lehrer! In 1951 the physics class put on a review session which in fact was a revue of great songs written by them. Go to The Physical Revue  website:  http://www.haverford.edu/physics-astro/songs/lehrer/physrev.htm. We couldn't (as Bill had planned) get to the web site and play some of that stuff for us. He was able to play us Snell's Law -- Macarena Style, as obtained from the website http://www.haverford.edu/physics-astro/songs/macsnell_music.htm.  It concerns Willebrord Snell (1580-1626), who is credited with discovering Snell's Law of Refraction.  For details concerning Snell see the St Andrews University website http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Snell.html, from which the following has been excerpted:

"... Although he discovered the law of refraction, a basis of modern geometric optics, in 1621, he did not publish it and only in 1703 did it become known when Huygens [http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Huygens.html] published Snell's result in Dioptrica. Snell also discovered the sine law. ..."

15 November 2005: Khara Criswell (Juarez Community Academy)          Music
Khara brought a small boom box and a long list of "Songs for the Science Classroom", such as "Ring of Fire" by Johnny Cash. Every time Khara does a lab she brings in a CD mix with music/songs that relate to the experiment (e.g., in chemistry, physics, etc.). For "Black Magic Woman" by Santana, Khara has an activity in which there is a mix of chemicals that turn from white to black and finally to purple. Khara recommended these websites:

Chemistry Songs: http://www.delta.edu/slime/chemsongs.html and http://www.delta.edu/slime/chemsongs.html
Physics Songs:  http://www.haverford.edu/physics/songs/