This just in: Council Bluffs kids 'tear shit up' at APS World Year of Physics-2005

COLLEGE PARK, Maryland — The American Physical
Society is pleased to announce that a science
class at the St. Albert Catholic Schools in Council
Bluffs, Iowa has won the grand prize in the
Society's PhysicsQuest contest.

PhysicsQuest is a World Year of Physics 2005
educational outreach project that celebrates
the centennial of Albert Einstein's 'miraculous
year' of discoveries in 1905.

Teacher Julie Mooney will travel with her
winning students to Princeton, N.J., to participate
in a treasure hunt on the grounds the Institute
for Advanced Study, where a set of prizes is to
be revealed 50 years after Einstein's death in
1955.

The World Year of Physics 2005 marks the 100-
year anniversary of three of Einstein's biggest
discoveries, including the Theory of Special
Relativity (and the resulting famous equation
E=mc^2), and is also the 75th anniversary of
the founding of the Institute for Advanced
Study.

"We are shocked, so excited, so thrilled,"
said Mooney. "I am in awe of Einstein. It
is unbelievable that that my students will
get to walk on the grounds where he did his
work."

Her students were likewise startled and joyful
upon learning they had won the grand prize trip.
"I'm really excited. It doesn't seem real," said
15-year Danielle Cain.

Seconding this feeling was 15-year old Amanda
Burkey. "When I started the experiment, I didn't
think we would win," she said. "So when I found
out I was just in complete shock."

Mooney and class were among the 1,362 teachers and
their combined total of over 69,000 students from
all 50 states who signed up for the PhysicsQuest
project. They were subsequently chosen for the
grand prize through a random drawing of the classes
that successfully completed the contest.

The PhysicsQuest project is a set of four experiments
designed to illustrate basic physics principles
including pendulum motion, shapes of bubbles, laser
light diffraction, and magnetism. It is organized
as a treasure hunt to find the exact spot -- using
a map of the Institute for Advanced Study's 800 acre
grounds -- and time the prizes are to be revealed.

Mooney has taught math and science for 14 years
starting out in Denver, Colorado and then in Iowa,
and she hopes to incorporate the background material
into her curriculum next year.

"You would not believe how much we are looking forward
the trip," Mooney said. "I've never been out East and
I don't think many of my students have been, either."

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