Fall 2017 Published by the American Association of Physics Teachers As a Service to AAPT Sections
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Fall 2017 Published by the American Association of Physics Teachers as a service to AAPT Sections Alabama Section declared President for 2017-18, Tammy Simmons. A new Vice President, Mark Rupright, were elected. A The Annual Meeting was held at Huntingdon College new Section Representative, Tommi Holsenbeck, was in the Bellingrath Building on Saturday, February elected. The Annual Meeting will be in North Alabama 4, 2017. The meeting was called to order by Jaime next school year and planned by Tammy Simmons. Demick, the 2016-17 President. There were two tracks for the meeting and everyone was welcome to choose their path. —Tommi Holsenbeck, Section Representative Two Half-Day Workshops were offered during the day. With pre-registration, teachers could attend free of Alberta Section charge one of these workshops and receive equipment/ materials for the activity/engineering project to use in The first event on April 22 was a Workshop co- their classroom. Taught by PTRAs, they were funded organized with the University of Alberta Science by the AAPT Board and by the Bauder Fund. The K-8 Makerspace “The Shack” and the Dept of Physics Workshop was Electricity with Play Dough. The 9-12 Undergraduate Laboratories. Lead by Workshop Workshop guided the teachers through engineering Coordinator, Clayton Coutu and Shack Volunteers, a “Scribble Bot.” Each teacher to home what he/she Troy Redshaw and Sam Cheng, this one - day needed for the lab to return to their school do the lab/ workshop used the Raspberry Pi to run three different activity with their students. A donation will be made experiments - analyzing kinematic motion with an to the PTRA Continuation Fund by the Section. IMU unit, the Constant Volume GasThermometer and Other sessions available were: the Doppler effect The teachers were introduced to Making Einstein Accessible: Using Hands-On the Pi, how to get a store bought sensor operational Experiments and Social Media to Teach Einstein’s using open source code, and how to use the Pi to Theories to Non-Scientists Maureen and Mike communicate information which is then graphed and Murphy analyzed. Twenty-six teachers were able to take-away Air Resistance: What a Drag Justin Sanders their Pi unit with the IMU unit for their classrooms. Protein X-Ray Crystallography Doba Jackson Physics Pet Peeves Mark Rupright On Oct 25, eighteen teachers converged and had a Throw Me a Lifeline Ann McCarty evening of Physics, Pizza and Pi (and AGM). Martin NASA Education K-8 John Weis Connors, and Farook Al-Shamali, both of Athabasca NASA Education 9-12 John Weis University presented on uses of the Raspberry Pi Opening Closed Doors: The Impact of Teacher-Led in teaching physics. Martin discussed the breakout Observation Rounds Jennifer Brown port on the Pi and some examples of the uses of it in Throw Me a Lifeline Ann McCarty his teaching and research. With Mathematica being Sharing Great Demos by Ali Yazdi, Duane Pontius, included with the Raspberry Pi, Farook presented on and Maureen Murphy: using Mathematica to develop diagrams and animated Chladni plates, Is There Hydrostatic Equilibrium figures that can be used as virtual, on-line experiments in Free Fall?, Rotational Inertia Using Soup Cans, for students. Photoelectric Effect with Soda Cans, Marshmallows and the Speed of Light. A short AGM was also held and and the executive In the Business Meeting the Vice President was committee was elected: AAPT Section News, Fall 2016—Page 1 President: Jeff Goldie The third presentation, by Kelli Warble, was on the Secretary: Laura Pankratz status of AAPT Leadership development, based on the Treasurer: Isaac Isaac Aspiring to Lead Report. We broke into discussion AAPT Section Representative: Terry Singleton groups to talk about leaderships and the different Past-President: Allen Linville leadership roles we can play in our schools and in our communities. Our final event of the year was our annual Physics Teachers Day on Sat Dec 2 with 44 teachers attending. The fourth presentation, by Rebekah Brubaker, We started the day with a hands-on LIGO lesson Founder and CEO of RealTime STEAM, was about presented by members of the Alberta Teachers’ her company’s efforts to bring real scientists to public Network of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical events, like Comic Conventions and other large Physics(Laura and Jeff), and followed with three events, where the scientists talk about the science presentations on Stellar Evolution. they do and how it connects to the various world and realities explored in comics, science fiction, etc. —Terry Singleton, Section Representative The fifth presentation, by Karie Meyers, was about her Arizona Section efforts to make her classes more student-centered, and was followed by a general discussion of the topic. This meeting was held at Estrella Mountain Community College to take advantage of their Membership report: Maker Space. We began with a tour of the space, demonstrations of the equipment, and opportunities There are 25 lifetime members of the section and 14 to try out equipment such as the 3D printer and laser regular members. The current officers are: cutter. The student club there was testing out using the laser cutter on pumpkins to do complex engravings for President: Jim Ward, Veritas High School Halloween for a fundraiser. Vice-President: Amy Johnson, Saguaro High School Secretary: Allison VanLiew, Northwest Christian High The first presentation from Mike Vargas was on the School status of High School Physics Teaching in Arizona. Treasurer: Michael Canham, Scottsdale Community Simply put, this status is nigh unto apocalyptic. There College is something like 160 active certified teachers teaching Section Rep: Eric Martell, Phoenix Country Day physics in public high schools in Arizona, a state School with more than 1000 public high schools. Efforts to High School Rep: Zak Kovach, La Joya Community obtain funding to train additional teachers have met High School with some success, but the resources are both smaller 4 Year College Rep: Kelli Warble, Arizona State than what is needed and being dispersed too broadly University to have a substantial impact. It is left as an exercise 2 Year College Rep: Jeff Hegensbach, Estrella for the reader whether the average starting salary Mountain Community College for teachers in the state of $31,874 (for the 2012-13 academic year, according to the NEA) affects this situation. —Eric Martell, Section Representative AOK section The second presentation, by Zak Kovach, was on the status of the development of new science standards for The AOK section met in Hot Springs, Arkansas on the state. Arizona chose not to adopt either Common Nov 9 – 10, 2017. The meeting was organized by Core or the NGSS as written, but rather to write its Shane Thompson and held at the Arkansas School own standards. It is hoped that these standards will be for Mathematics, Science and the Arts (ASMSA). released sometime in 2018. Speakers included Joel Gordon, Executive Director of the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub, and talked AAPT Section News, Fall 2016—Page 2 about the Maker Movement in the USA and Dr. Jon The meeting concluded with a physics education Ruehle, Biology Instructor at ASMSA and his work research talk by Dr. Eugenia Etkina, a physics with quantum biology. education professor at Rutgers University in New The fall 2018 meeting is to be held at Northeastern Jersey, who presented the SFU Dept of Physics State University in Tahlequah, Ok and the Fall 2019 colloquium. A big “Thank you” to all the presenters meeting Ottawa High School in Ottawa, KS. and organizers, and to the SFU Dept of Physics for their sponsorship of the meeting. The day provided —Martin Shaffer, Section Representative much insight into the developments in BC’s new science curriculum and new developments in physics education in general. British Columbia Section The BCAPT held its Annual General Meeting on The BC Association of Physics Teachers (BCAPT) Saturday, May 6, 2017 at the University of Victoria and Simon Fraser University (SFU) hosted a physics (UVic) on Vancouver Island. A group of about 20-30 professional development event for high school attendees comprised of local physics teachers and teachers on Friday, February 24, 2017. Approximately dedicated BCAPT executive committee members, 50 physics instructors and student teachers were in who traveled from the Vancouver Metro area by ferry, attendance. The focus of the meeting was the new BC enjoyed a day of talks, a panel discussion, lunch science curriculum for Grades 10- 12, especially the and a tour of the UVic campus. The talks included a physics topics that are new to the curriculum. presentation by Jennifer Kirkey (Douglas College) on open source educational resources and a talk by Mark The day began with a keynote talk by high school Laidlaw (UVic) entitled “Getting more from Multiple- teacher Joe Muise on “Inquiry Learning at Canada’s Choice Questions”. We are grateful to the University National Synchrotron Laboratory”. This presentation of Victoria Physics Department for sponsoring us. included student perspectives on the program provided We also voted to elect new Executive Committee by several of Joe’s students who were able to take members: some time out from their busy schedules to attend in person. The keynote was followed by a selection The 2017-18 BCAPT Executive Committee is: of hands-on workshops and talks including Daria Ahrensmeier’s (SFU Physics) workshop entitled President: Takashi Sato “From Schrodinger’s Cat to Quantum Computing”, Barbara Frisken’s (SFU Physics) workshop on energy Vice-President: Giselle Lawrence Past President: in the Grade 10 curriculum, Levon Pogosian’s (SFU Mark Laidlaw Treasurer: Paul Cheng Secretary: Bruno Physics) talk: “Our Universe: The Big Bang” (See Tomberli Figure 1.) and a special workshop led by Svetlana AAPT Section Representative: Sarah D.