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Physics teacher makes subject real

Posted on Jan 05, 2008

By Pamela McLoughlin
Reprinted from New Haven Register, December 27, 2007

 

MILFORD -- Most adults probably wouldn’t know how to escape if their car plunged off a bridge and into deep water. But anyone who has taken physics at Lauralton Hall with teacher Theresa Napolitano would know exactly how to handle it: Get in the back seat, wait for the driver’s side to fill with water, then open the door.

It won’t be a problem then because the pressure will be equalized. That’s just one example of how Napolitano uses practical scenarios, most of them more likely to be experienced than a plunge off a bridge, to teach physics.

 

Napolitano wants to make it real for students, partly because it’s such an effective way to learn, but also so they can apply the information to everyday life.


“They understand Newton’s law,” Napolitano said. “We tell them that’s why you wear a seat belt.”


Napolitano’s subject and style fits right in with the all-girl Catholic high school’s renewed dedication to helping women pursue non-traditional careers, some of them in science, said school spokeswoman Cindy Wolfe Boynton.


Recent renovations at the school doubled the size of three science labs; the $2.2 million project also included the first phase of three that are part of a multi-year capital improvement program.

 

Napolitano said she loves it when students have occasion to use what they learn and then tell her about it--whether properly applying brake pressure in bad weather or swerving off the road if it looks like a car is going to hit them.


The girls have learned it’s safer to hit something stationary than something moving.


“Knowledge is power for them,” she said.

 

Senior Meggie Blozzon, 17, of Monroe, loves the class. “It kind of gives you a life-case scenario,” Meggie said.


Napolitano teaches her students a lot about accident investigation because it offers many solid principles in physics and it’s something that applies to their lives because most of those who have the course are already drivers.


One of the first items visitors notice on a classroom counter is a drag sled made of a brick covered in cloth and attached to a spring scale. On the same counter are two copies of the New Haven Register with page one stories on the concerns over teen driving, including Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s call to action.

 

The drag sled is an age-old accident investigation tool used to measure the speed of a vehicle at the time of braking. That counter has seen ice, snow and wet leaves so the drag test could be done on different surfaces.


As part of a recent assignment, the girls had to mail a Pringle to Napolitano in a standard white envelope, with the goal of it not breaking by creating an effective inside package to protect the chip.

 

“It’s more interesting learning about this kind of stuff,” said Jenny Fitzmaurice, 16, a junior from Milford.

 

 

 



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