Maine East physics teacher and former students published in academic journal
Maine East Physics teacher Dr. David Schultz and two Maine East graduates were published in the September 2024 edition of “The Physics Teacher” academic journal.
Schultz and his coauthors Sarah Phan (currently studying at Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Malcolm Allen (currently studying at the University of Illinois Chicago), submitted the article that described a project that involved the construction and use of a radio telescope to measure signals from hydrogen clouds in our galaxy. The purpose was to estimate the rotational speed of the Milky Way Galaxy.
The two-year project was conducted by the Maine East Astronomy Club. The project provided students with a hands-on learning opportunity and a way to increase student engagement in STEM research.
“This started off as a COVID project because the Astronomy Club students could work together safely to construct the telescope,” Schultz said. “Over time, the students learned about handling large data sets, programming in PYTHON, making connections to current ‘big questions’ in physics, and communicating their results to others. In addition, we all had fun! We are very grateful for the funding we received from the Maine Township High School Foundation to fund this project.”
Anyone interested in reading the full article can find it at the following link, which also contains the manuscript version: bit.ly/eastastronomy
In addition to the recently published article, students presented a poster at the spring meeting of the Chicago Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers in April of 2023 and assisted with a presentation to the Chicago Astronomical Society at its July 2023 meeting.
The submission of the article included the following from Schultz and his former students.
“Providing students with a hands-on opportunity to learn about one of the biggest physics mysteries in our time is a great way to spark engagement. In a two-year project, our high school astronomy club built a radio telescope and used it to measure Doppler-shifted radio signals from within the plane of the Milky Way galaxy. We analyzed this data to reaffirm that the orbital velocity of matter around the galactic center remains relatively constant as one travels radially outward. This replicates one of the early pieces of evidence that led astronomers to hypothesize the existence of dark matter.”
“The Physics Teacher” is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the American Association of Physics Teachers. The publication is dedicated to strengthening the introductory teaching of physics. Schultz, Phan, and Allen’s article was submitted for publication and evaluated by other experts in the field before being accepted for publication.