Geoscience & Physics Through Photography

The physics photo project had each student demonstrate a physics rule photographically. Schneider shared, “Each student has their own page of images, and the class page features the top five or six photos, as voted on by the students. One of the first rules of this project is ‘physics first,’ which required the students to set up the picture, instead of just taking a photo and then looking for the physics in it.” Last year, some students took this project beyond the classroom and entered the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) national photo contest, with St. Luke’s Phoebe Kurth ‘20 and Clara Pakman ‘19 being selected as finalists. Schneider added, “This year’s students were hoping to enter into the contest, but due to Coronavirus it’s canceled.”

Geoscience students had to step outside for the photographic exploration of clouds project. As part of the assignment, students recorded in an online “Earth Science Cloud Diary,” adding images and descriptions of cirrostratus, altostratus, nimbostratus, and stratus clouds. Schneider stated, “It involved identifying the types of clouds by major features, and the students got some great shots of the clouds. This project led students into a larger analysis of weather fronts, which the class continues to work on.”