2001 Area Committee Reports

Apparatus

Because of its interest in and emphasis on "hands-on" learning, the Committee on Apparatus benefits from interactions with members of the Physics Information Resource Association (PIRA) and Committee on Laboratories.

The details of another successful year for the 2001 Apparatus Competition were reported by Mike Moloney. There were 13 entries in the Low-Cost category and 15 entries in the Advanced Laboratory/Lecture Demonstration category. Concern was registered, however, about how to attract a larger number of high school teachers to enter the competition. The new directors for the Apparatus Competition will be Richard Flarend and David Sturm. Our special thanks go to PASCO scientific for its continuing support of the competition.

The workshop leaders for the Summer Meeting in Rochester reported that the sessions were well attended and that they received much positive feedback. They also commented on the great support for the workshops from an exemplary crew at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

At the time of the Committee on Apparatus meeting in Rochester, there were eight active members of the committee. An indication of the interest of AAPT members in the goals of the committee and, perhaps of its importance, is the fact that 24 people attended the meeting.

A. James Mallmann, Chair

Astronomy Education

Building on the momentum generated by the former chair (Tim Slater, now at the University of Arizona), the Committee on Astronomy Education offered diverse astronomy activities for AAPT. The Winter Meeting in San Diego was the first held in conjunction with the American Astronomical Society (AAS). AAPT members participated in the session Astro 101: A Continuing Dialogue, sponsored by AAS; astronomy education posters were presented by both AAPT and AAS members; workshops, tutorials, and crackerbarrels were sponsored by AAPT. All told, more than 20 distinct events took place including a Plenary Session by Phil Sadler.

Activities continued at the Summer Meeting in Rochester, with two workshops, seven papers, and an astronomy education research (AER) paper in a physics education research (PER) session on Research-Based/Informed Curricula. The Committee also voted to initiate a project of "AstroNotes" compiled from The Physics Teacher to be published as a resource book by the AAPT.

Michael Zeilik, Chair

Computers in Physics Education

The Committee on Computers in Physics Education (CIPE) is no more! A large fraction of the sessions and workshops sponsored by CIPE have been co-sponsored by other area committees, particularly the Committee on Instructional Media. Therefore, the two committees proposed a merger to the Executive Board that was approved. The new committee is to be called the Committee on Educational Technologies, a name that incorporates the activities of both former committees.

Over the years of its existence, the activities sponsored by the Committee on Computers in Physics Education have changed from a time when computers were in their infancy with workshops on SIMs and KIMs to a time when most members now have a workstation or its equivalent on their desktops. Along the way the Committee has sponsored workshops and sessions on everything from interfacing SIMs and Apple IIe's to the development of the World Wide Web and physlets. We have even had several sessions and demonstrations on virtual reality. It has been a few years of rapid and sometimes troubled development, but the Committee has served the Association well in bringing state-of-the-art material and developments in computers and associated technology, pertinent to physics education, to the attention of the membership. Sponsored sessions and workshops permitted material developed by association members to test their wares, to distribute their programs, and to interact with others who have had similar ideas and plans.

The past year has been no exception. The Committee sponsored nine workshops in San Diego; only two were not jointly sponsored. The Committee also sponsored four paper sessions alone, plus one that was jointly sponsored. In Rochester, the Committee sponsored two joint paper sessions and nine workshops, of which seven were jointly sponsored. The Committee is pleased to see that their efforts at bringing computer uses to the membership has been so successful, for many others have embedded computer usage into their programs so successfully that the computer is seen as a highly useful and an almost invisible tool.

We are confident that the merged committees will continue to carry on the work of the previous two committees and be able to do it in an efficient manner. We wish them the utmost in success.

William Ploughe, Chair

Graduate Education in Physics

During 2001, the Committee on Graduate Education in Physics met in San Diego in January, and some members also attended the Summer Meeting in Rochester.

For the San Diego meeting, the Committee organized a Hot Topics session featuring Margaret Murnane (Colorado) speaking on Optics: Where Does It Belong?; and Brian Saam (Utah) explaining Hyperpolarized Gases: From Atomic Physics to Seeing Lungs Breathe. The session was well attended (ca. 40) and was generally pronounced to be a success.

The Committee meeting in San Diego was attended by Jim Crawford, Robert Ehrlich, Russell Hobbie, and Robert Romer. Following is a rough summary of the proceedings.

1. Proposals for a Hot Topics session in Rochester were discussed; suggested themes included quantum computing, astrophysics, conductive polymers, and nonlinear optics in polymers, all areas where there are prime speakers close by. It was decided that we would propose the polymer topics. Jim Crawford cautioned that we might be too late because the Programs I committee meeting had already been held. (Indeed this turned out to be the case.)
   
   
2. Robert Ehrlich discussed the possibility of sponsoring tutorials on subdisciplines that would be broadly interesting to the AAPT community. Possible topics included Energy and the Environment, Particle Physics and Cosmology, and Cold Atoms, Atom Lasers, and Bose-Einstein Condensation. There could also be tutorials that highlight the AIP member societies of the American Institute of Physics, e.g., the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, the Optical Society of America, the Acoustical Society of America, and AVS. It was generally agreed that this would be something we should start up in the next year.

Stamatis Vokos expressed an interest in pursuing the tutorial concept, and all present expressed enthusiasm for his willingness to volunteer his efforts. He planned to contact Bernie Khoury at AAPT to discuss the particulars.

It was also noted that there had been discussion the previous year about two areas that can and probably should be matters of interest to the Committee in the future and possibly be subjects of future AAPT session topics:

1. A report on the pilot "Future Faculty" programs running at the University of Arkansas, the University of California at San Diego, the University of Colorado, and Howard University. There was general concern particularly about the level and quality of the experience of graduate teaching assistants.
   
   
2. The "dissertation experience," particularly when nontraditional (e.g., physics education research) or interdisciplinary subjects are at issue. A session of contributed papers, perhaps with support so that graduate students could come, was suggested. Finally, we note that last year the AAPT Venture Fund authorized Dennis Henry to initiate and undertake a review of the booklet Planning for Graduate Studies, which has not been updated in a while. The Executive Office staff and the Venture Fund Committee believe that it is a valuable resource and member benefit and would like to publish it as soon as possible. However, before we can put it into the publications process we need to have a recommendation from the Committee on Graduate Education. Various members of the Committee have reviewed the material with Dennis Henry, and it appears ready for reissue. The (slightly) amended version of this report will be approved by the Committee at the Philadelphia meeting.

Richard Haglund, Chair

History and Philosophy of Physics

This has been a relatively quiet year for the Committee. At the San Diego meeting in January, we sponsored a session on large telescopes with three speakers covering topics from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. Despite having a joint meeting with the American Astronomical Society, this session had comparatively sparse attendance. The two sessions sponsored by the committee at the Summer Meeting in Rochester were much better attended. A session of invited papers on the use of historical literature in physics teaching was presented by four authors of recent articles in Physics in Perspective, and most of the audience stayed for a contributed session. The majority of the members of the Committee were able to attend the Committee meetings at both national meetings. We were encouraged by the number of friends of the Committee who joined us.

Recently we have been concentrating on the historical side of physics. Now we ought to shift to the other side of our title and present sessions on the philosophical side of physics, which, in the past, have had strong attendance.

Thomas B. Greenslade, Jr., Chair

Instructional Media

This is the last annual report of the Committee on Instructional Media (IMC). As of the 2002 Winter Meeting, the Committee will merge with the Committee on Computers in Physics Education (CIPE). The result of this marriage will be the Committee on Educational Technologies. Many of the reasons behind this merger are discussed in the annual report of the CIPE. As Co-Chair (with W. Ploughe, current Chair of CIPE), I look forward to working with the new committee to provide a variety of resources and services to the AAPT.

In that spirit, before reviewing the results of the past year, I would like to look forward to the next by declaring the mission of the newly formed committee. The mission of the Committee on Educational Technologies is to:

1. Identify new developments in educational technology and new applications of educational technology to physics teaching and learning;
   
   
2. Communicate these new developments and applications to the AAPT membership through a variety of means, including print and electronic publications, workshops, and sessions at national and regional meetings;
   
   
3. Conduct competitions, as appropriate, to recognize, promote, and reward worthwhile contributions to the uses of educational technologies for physics education; and
   
   
4. Coordinate with other area committees, organizations, and institutions in the development and dissemination of new ideas for the use of various educational technologies in physics education.

In its final year, the IMC devoted itself to its mission of identifying new developments in instructional media, identifying best practices for using media resources in pedagogically sound ways, and informing the AAPT membership of these developments and methods. The primary communication method was the sponsorship of tutorials, workshops, and sessions at the national meetings. In all, the committee sponsored or co-sponsored three tutorials, eight workshops, and 15 sessions at the two national meetings. Many of these were led by members of the committee itself. A great example was the trio of tutorials on web-based instructional resources hosted on the Saturday of the Summer Meeting. Two members and two friends of the Committee provided tutorials covering the use of CGIs and database integration and two methods for producing interactive animated materials (Dynamic HTML and Macromedia Director). Other technologies highlighted in workshops included HTML authoring and the use of physlets (interactive Java applets designed to incorporate physics content). Other workshops highlighted pedagogy (e.g., Just-in-Time Teaching) or simulation systems (WebTOP, which focuses on optical phenomena, and Interactive Physics, which illustrates mechanics). In some cases, continuing education units were available for participation in these workshops. In the future, interested parties should check with workshop organizers.

During the Winter Meeting in San Diego, the committee sponsored a session on recent advances in digital video. Two invited and two contributed talks introduced attendees to several new tools for the capture and use of digital video resources. The committee also sponsored a "matched pair" of sessions on the use of the web. The first, Web-Based Learning, featured five contributed talks on a variety of web-based tools and activities. The second, Assessment of the Effectiveness of the Web, addressed the efficacy of web-based methods.

The Summer Meeting in Rochester introduced a new development in the Committee's commitment to informing the AAPT about instructional media. Several of the methods taught in committee sponsored workshops have been adopted by AAPT members. The committee sponsored sessions on these methods, giving adopters an opportunity to discuss their successes, failures, and insights. These sessions included 11 talks on Just-in-Time Teaching and four on the use of physlets. In addition to the web, an "old favorite" instructional medium also was featured at the Summer Meeting: photography. One mixed session included two invited and two contributed talks, and the high school photography contest drew a record-smashing 253 entries, many of top quality. The first place entry appeared as the cover photo for the Fall Announcer, and nine more were featured inside the front and back covers. I personally would like to thank the members of the Committee for their efforts over the past year. On behalf of the Committee, I would like to thank the membership of the AAPT for its support and interest.

Andrew Gavrin, Chair

International Physics Education

At each of the two national meetings of the AAPT, there is a meeting of the Committee on International Physics Education (IEC), which we, the committee members, expect all committee members to attend. We also welcome any visitors who are interested in the activities of the committee and who may be attending the AAPT meeting from other countries. Gordon Ramsey acts as the IEC webmaster and posts minutes, conference lists, and membership lists on the Committee's webpage. We try to nominate to committee membership those people who are actively interested in ways AAPT can further the connection with physicists of other countries and who are concerned with physics teaching in other lands. The IEC is most interested in involving physicists who may be visiting the United States for a time or who have spent some time in physics activities in other countries.

The IEC usually plans one formal major and sometimes one minor session at the Winter Meeting. Last year in San Diego, the session on Teaching Around the World: Personal Perspectives featured a review of the Inter-American Conference on Physics Education, which had met in July 2000 at Canela, Brazil. About 20 physicists from the United States had attended the meeting, and several spoke about their experiences. There was also a session, In the Tracks of Tycho: Astronomy Education in Danish Secondary Schools. This year in Philadelphia, the session on Teaching Around the World will feature a panel of three Philadelphia teachers who have recently returned from Peace Corps assignments and two others who have taught abroad. The International Education Committee is also a co-sponsor of a crackerbarrel session on teacher preparation.

The IEC feels a strong responsibility to encourage physicists from other countries to attend the AAPT national and section meetings and to consider becoming members of AAPT. To foster this, the committee plans to host a crackerbarrel reception in the early evening for all international attendees at the 2002 Summer Meeting in Boise, Idaho. The Fuller Fund enables the IEC to sponsor AAPT membership and one journal for up to two physicists a year who are teaching physics in another country and who would otherwise be unable to a enjoy the privileges of membership. This year the fund is sponsoring two physicists.

The IEC compiles a list of international conferences, which is posted on the IEC webpage. The Committee strongly supports (although not usually monetarily) attendance at these meetings. Those who do attend the international meetings are given the opportunity to report at the AAPT Winter Meeting. Also, at the July 2000 meeting in Guelph, the IEC, with the assistance of then President Ruth Howes, passed a resolution proposed by Harry Manos:

"The IEC moves that any member of AAPT planning to attend an international meeting on physics education may request official delegate status from the President of AAPT. The President of AAPT, with the consent of a majority of the IEC, may appoint one or more official delegates to such international meetings. The official delegates are obliged to:

- provide information about AAPT at the meeting as prominently as possible, and

- present a paper on the meeting at an AAPT meeting within one year of the international meeting."

At present, two such delegates have been appointed and have attended meetings. Currently, Harry Manos, appointed by Ruth Howes to represent AAPT, and Fred Stein, from the American Physical Society, are negotiating with the IEC committee to hold the Inter-American Conference on Physics Education in Havana, Cuba, in July 2003.

Considering the interest of AAPT in welcoming contact with physicists around the world, last year the Korean Physical Society (KPS) made a reciprocal agreement with AAPT to extend the benefits and member rates to meetings and journals of AAPT to KPS. It is anticipated that such a reciprocal agreement could be made with other national physics organizations.

Elizabeth Chesick, Chair

Laboratories

The Committee on Laboratories has continued to sponsor sessions and workshops at AAPT meetings, all the while seeking to establish the Committee's identity and purpose to be distinct and separate from other AAPT committees where there appears to be some overlap. This search has led us to choose the following mission statement for this Committee: "To enhance the quality of the teaching laboratory."

The sessions and workshops sponsored by the Committee on Laboratories are those that examine how and why we teach labs, and that explore new experiments for our labs.

The 1993 LabFocus conference in Boise accelerated the incorporation of computer-based labs into college and high school physics courses. The Committee, in response to requests by many AAPT members, is exploring the possibility of a second LabFocus (II) conference. A crackerbarrel session is organized for the Philadelphia meeting that will explore laboratory topics that will be the themes for this conference. Several members of the Committee on Laboratories are seeking funding and institutional support for this conference.

A new set of workshops, initially offered at the Rochester meeting by Dean Hudek and other PIRA members, have demonstrated a new dimension that this committee supports and has helped to inspire. Lab experiments at the introductory, intermediate, and advanced levels were brought to Rochester by a variety of AAPT members to share with the workshop participants. We hope that many new (or improved) experiments will be brought to the attention of the AAPT members through these workshops at future meetings. The Committee on Laboratories will continue to promote the active examination of the physics laboratory experience for the introductory-level and the advanced undergraduate-level laboratory. We encourage anyone with a passion for teaching physics through experimentation to feel welcome to help this committee.

I would like to thank all the committee members and participants at our meetings, workshops and sessions for their help and support during 2001.

Randolph S. Peterson, Chair

Minorities in Physics

Much of the past year has been spent determining the focus and building the membership of the Committee. Although organizing and sponsoring sessions and workshops is an important function of the Committee, one direction where the Committee has chosen to invest its energy is in the form of outreach activities. These outreach programs are intended to increase the visibility of the Committee to AAPT members and to the local and physics communities of the host city.

For the past few years, Betty Preece, longtime friend and member of the committee, has organized the SEES (Student Experiences in Engineering & Science) program during the Winter Meetings. Local students and teachers visit the conference venue and are exposed to physics through a series of hands-on activities presented by representatives of AAPT (Committees on Minorities and on Women in Physics), SWE (Society of Women Engineers), and a local university or company. In Philadelphia, the Franklin Institute will participate in the program. The Committee has also been active in welcoming first-time attendees to the national meetings through the First-Timers program. In Philadelphia, area educators have been included in this session. And last, but certainly not least, the committee is hosting the First Annual Multicultural Luncheon during the 2002 Winter Meeting to celebrate one way in which variety is the spice of life.

Many issues continue to challenge and hinder current and future physicists because of gender, race, religion, culture, economics, and physical disability. Through activities such as those described above, the diverse nature of all AAPT members can be celebrated and solutions to such issues found. The Minorities in Physics Committee continues to encourage AAPT members to participate in Committee-sponsored events and sessions as a friend or member of the Committee.

Patricia E. Allen, Chair

Physics in High Schools

The Committee on Physics in High Schools continues to face the challenges of an aging population. As more among our ranks retire, we face a growing need to mentor new teachers. The Committee on High Schools has chosen mentoring new teachers as our ongoing project. Internet technology brings our community closer together and we have decided to explore the possibilities of establishing a mentoring program.

In addition to our new project, we continue our efforts to provide sessions and workshops that are of interest to the secondary physics educator. Through the leadership of Barry Feierman of Westtown School in Westtown, Pa., there will be extensive opportunity to learn more about teaching physics in grade nine at the 2002 Winter Meeting in Philadelphia. The Committee on Physics in High Schools has agreed to join efforts with Peter Lindenfeld and the American Physical Society to renew efforts in establishing and rejuvenating physics alliances.

The Committee on Physics in High Schools continues to encourage creative classroom activities with the High School Grant for Innovative Teaching program. Finally, efforts to complete the revisions of Course Content in High School Physics and Role and Education of High School Physics Teachers have continued.

Deborah Rice, Chair

Physics in Pre-High School Education

The Committee on Physics in Pre-High School Education is concerned with supporting and promoting physics in K-8 instruction. At the Winter Meeting in San Diego, the Committee sponsored two workshops, Powerful Ideas in Physical Science: The New Force and Motion Units and Training Workshops for In-Service Teachers of Middle School Science. The Committee sponsored an invited session titled Report of the Constructing Ideas in Physical Science Project and a crackerbarrel on Powerful Ideas in Physical Science.

For the Summer Meeting in Rochester, the Committee sponsored a workshop on Powerful Ideas in Physical Science: The Force and Motion Units and co-sponsored workshops on How to become a National Board Teacher and Fun Experiments and Demos in Light, Color, and Spectroscopy. The Committee sponsored an invited session titled Working Toward a Definition of Middle School Science and an invited/contributed session titled Train Them in the Way They Should Go: Physics Education for Elementary Teachers.

Steven Shropshire, Chair

Physics in Two-Year Colleges

While organizing meeting contributions is one of our primary challenges, there are a few other tasks and challenges that I would like to highlight for this annual report of the Committee on Physics in Two-Year Colleges (CPTYC). Consequently I would point the reader to our committee website to view the workshops and sessions sponsored by the CPTYC. You can review our past meeting contributions and our plans for the future at http://science.mccneb.edu/AAPTCPTYCfiles/AAPTAreaCPTYC.htm. In addition to the efforts described there, the CPTYC in partnership with our Two-Year College (TYC) community undertook many tasks and challenges to fulfill its mission during 2001. Several projects, both new and old, were undertaken and completed. First was to publish the TYC21 Connections Newsletter. This effort was led by editor Martin Mason of Palomar College and past CPTYC Chair Bill Warren of Lord Fairfax Community College. The project was undertaken in order to continue the national communication link started by TYC21. The newsletter had previously been funded under the NSF grant for the TYC21 project. The Committee acknowledges and thanks Mason and Warren, as well as Lord Fairfax Community College, who supported the mailing of this newsletter. The latest newsletter was mailed to more than 1800 TYC faculty and institutions, and multiple copies were sent to the regional coordinators of the 15 TYC21 regions. The newsletter has also been posted at the CPTYC website.

The committee is currently working on publishing our next newsletter in both hard-copy and electronic versions. It should be published by the time this report appears in print. Martin Mason has graciously agreed to edit, and Carolyn Haas and Salem Community College will publish and mail the newsletter. Again the committee thanks Mason, Haas, and Salem Community College. A second project to facilitate communication was the TYC resource room. We have been maintaining this room at the Summer Meetings. The Rochester meeting was our second attempt at this. The room was open everyday and staffed every hour it was open. We posted information and handouts concerning CPTYC activities, workshops, and sessions. Several other TYC programs made handouts and information available. TYC attendees and speakers in CPTYC-sponsored sessions were encouraged to bring posters for the room. As a result, we had more than a dozen displays. The room allowed speakers to have their handouts available before and after their talks. It was command central, and every attempt was made to make it the place to go for a needed resource. We are getting better at maintaining the room, and we look forward to maintaining the room at Boise.

Third, with the help of Warren Hein and AAPT, this fall we instituted one mode for electronically communicating within our community. We have successfully consolidated our many e-mail aliases and listservs and migrated to the AAPT list, CPTYC-L@lists.aapt.org. (To join visit http:// lists.aapt.org/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=cptyc-l.) This has long been a goal of our committee. Thank you AAPT and Warren!

The Rochester meeting marked the completion of our efforts to revise the AAPT Guidelines for Two-Year College Physics Programs. We began working on these revisions prior to the 2000 Summer Meeting at Guelph. We completed our efforts in June. The final document was forwarded to the Publications Committee of AAPT and was approved save for some minor editorial changes. William Hogan of Joliet Junior College led this effort. He did a tremendous job, as did the many people who contributed to this process. Hard copy versions will soon be available. Currently a copy of the final draft is posted on the CPTYC website. We expect to post the official version by the time this report appears in publication.

One of our challenges the past few years has been to address the focus areas previously explored, and identified during the formation of TYC21 network. Because of much national and regional communication during that process, several critical issues and five focus areas were identified during TYC21:

• Links to Future Teachers
  
  
• Directions in Interdisciplinary Studies
  
  
• The Underprepared Student
  
  
• Physics for the General Populace
  
  
• Assessment

We began planning meeting contributions emphasizing those areas at the Kissimmee meeting. At the conclusion of the Rochester meeting we have now visited all five areas.

We plan to continue to address these areas. We also face the challenge of re-evaluating these topics of concern. More importantly, we have acknowledged that we need to institute systems where we can identify new focus areas, areas that are of importance to our community and of mutual concern to the membership of AAPT. Consequently, we have instituted a policy where we will sponsor crackerbarrel sessions addressing this at each AAPT meeting. It is hoped that this will help focus our committee meetings, so we can compress our meeting planning within our formal meeting. We will also be pursuing this challenge outside of our physical meetings via communication avenues such as the TYC21 Connections Newsletter, the CPTYC-l listserv, the TYC resource room, the CPTYC website, and AAPT meetings. I want to encourage AAPT members and physics faculty, as well as members of the TYC community to participate. You are welcome to attend our committee meeting, to participate via the listserv, to join us in the resource room, and most importantly to contact any committee member. Please do so.

William T. Waggoner, Chair

Physics in Undergraduate Education

The work of the Committee focuses on four questions.

• What is a "good education" in physics?
• How can we help our students learn physics more effectively?
• How can we make the study of physics the most challenging and engaging one possible for both faculty and students?
• How can we better promote the study of physics at the undergraduate level?

These questions are not unique to the Committee. Most of the physics community is working on them. But the Undergraduate Education Committee helps maintain the dialogue in the AAPT.

Part 1: Workshops and Sessions in 2001

Workshops: The workshop is our primary method of providing additional education and training in areas useful to the teaching of the undergraduate curriculum. In 2001 we sponsored 13 workshops on bringing topics of advanced physics into the classroom, interpreting the results of physics educational research in the curriculum, adopting innovative teaching techniques in both the introductory sequence and the upper-level curriculum, and advancing the careers of undergraduate faculty.

Sessions: The sessions provide the committee the opportunity to focus the dialogue on physics throughout the undergraduate curriculum. In 2001 we sponsored 15 sessions covering advanced topics in physics, undergraduate research, teaching paradigms, science and society education, preparing pre-college teachers, the role of epistemology in the physics curriculum, and educational reform.

Part 2: Future Goals and Plans of the Undergraduate Education Committee

Though this has been a quiet year for the committee, numerous issues loom on the horizon. The role of accreditation in the physics curriculum, the changing nature of the undergraduate curriculum, multitrack options for the physics major, the effectiveness of K-20 teacher preparation, and career options for the physics major are only a few of the issues we have discussed and will continue to pursue.

Yet two questions remain: Are we providing the workshops and sessions needed and desired by the membership? How can we more effectively communicate the opportunities afforded by the workshops and sessions to the membership? These questions will continue to dominate the minds of the committee as we go into the new year.

Juan R. Burciaga, Chair

Professional Concerns

The mission of this Committee calls for it to provide a forum for discussion of topics of professional concern to physics teachers, emphasizing the framework of conditions and extra-classroom activities that affect the teachers and the educational process. In order to provide this forum, the Committee has sponsored several sessions and held discussions on a variety of topics at the Winter and Summer Meetings and have plans to continue discussions on these and other topics.

The low attendance at the Winter Meeting and the difficulty in finding a new Chair led to a discussion about the viability of the Committee. We asked ourselves several questions: Are we doing anything that could not be done by another Committee? Are the sessions that we have been sponsoring of interest to the membership? Should we recommend that the Committee be eliminated? What can we do about attendance at our meeting? Will we be able to find someone to Chair the Committee in 2002?

We discussed these issues at the Summer Meeting, and all agreed that the Committee is unique and has been providing a service to the Association and should continue along the path we have been traveling during the past few years. We were unanimous in believing that we should not be disbanded. The low attendance at the previous meeting was attributed to it being the Winter Meeting and that we should not expect a large attendance at that time. Bill McNairy of Duke University volunteered (without being asked) to be Chair for the next year. Everyone left the meeting feeling good about the Committee and its future.

At the Winter Meeting we sponsored a session on Independent Master's Degree Programs that was co-sponsored with the Committee on Graduate Education in Physics. Frieda Stahl organized the session that included talks on stand-alone and professional master's degree programs.

At the Summer Meeting we sponsored a session on accreditation of physics programs, looking at both the pros and cons of this contentious topic. In another session the speakers investigated whether the bachelor's degree prepares students for the workplace. We continued the series of discussions on the professional development of instructional resource specialists. Finally, the topic of retirement was discussed by several members who recently retired. None of them considered themselves actually retired; they were more self-directed. In fact, this will be the title of a session we will sponsor at the 2002 Summer Meeting.

The most important item for 2002 will be our continued discussion on whether AAPT should, in conjunction with other organizations, begin a program of accreditation of physics programs. It is evident from the discussions we have already had that different physics programs have different goals and different needs. Any accreditation program will need to take this into account.

We need your input so we invite the reader to join us at our Committee meetings or to attend our sessions. The profession has many concerns, most of which present themselves as challenging opportunities to which we physicists can apply our problem-solving skills. Our Committee is now excited about the future and looking forward to addressing these challenging opportunities.

Chuck Robertson, Chair

Research in Physics Education

The Committee on Research in Physics Education has had an active and productive year. The sessions and workshops sponsored by the Committee continue to be well attended, and the number of contributed sessions with talks on physics education research topics continues to grow. The Physics Education Research Conference (PERC) that now runs tandem to the AAPT Summer Meeting, beginning during the last session of the Summer Meeting and extending to the following day, is very well attended. The organizers of PERC produced a volume of peer-reviewed and contributed papers for the first time this year.

We will again be sponsoring a large number of sessions and workshops at the Boise meeting, including a new crackerbarrel for young faculty in the field of physics education research (PER), reflecting the growth of the field and an increasing number of young PER faculty becoming active members of AAPT. The next PERC will be run by Dewey Dykstra, Noah Finkelstein, and Melissa Dancy.

The work of the Committee includes listening to issues discussed by the growing physics education research community and sharing the thoughts and concerns of that community with various bodies of AAPT and the AAPT membership in general. Issues discussed this year included the continuation of the Physics Education Research Supplement (PERS) to the American Journal of Physics (AJP), issues related to PERC, and the growth in PER-related workshops. The Committee on Research in Physics Education meeting is also used as a venue for discussion by members of the PER community, and the committee meeting is attended by a large number of members of the community.

The committee would like to thank the AAPT community for its strong support, and we look forward to another successful year.

Beth Ann Thacker, Chair

Science Education for the Public

The year 2001 has been one of significant growth and activity for the Committee on Science Education for the Public. As the name implies, one of the Committee's missions is to seek ways in which physics concepts and the importance of science instruction can be effectively conveyed to the public, of all ages and persuasions. During most of the past decade, this has been well accomplished by a cadre of dedicated and active members who mostly numbered less than 10. However, during the year 2001 attendance at Committee meetings has grown to the point that we have more than 20 members and friends of the Committee present for lively discussions.

Workshops on Physics and Chemistry on the Road and Physics of Toys continue to be very popular at AAPT meetings and are often completely filled. Members from Purdue University normally bring their demo van to AAPT meetings, and besides offering workshops, they now try to offer at least one presentation to the general public, mostly for school children, away from the meeting site. Although this effort is not well publicized to AAPT members, it is well appreciated by the local community, and it has become a highlight for Committee members. The Committee wishes to gratefully acknowledge the efforts of Purdue University for many years of dedication to science education for the public. The University of Nebraska at Omaha has also been bringing their van to the Summer Meeting in recent years. The Physics of Toys remains popular with AAPT members who want to learn the practical applications of common toys that can be obtained locally in any toy store.

The Committee continues to take advantage of any opportunity to bring the excitement of science to the public. This includes sponsoring and co-sponsoring events in astronomy, amusement parks, summer science camps, demo shows, and other similar activities. Every possible effort is made to promote science in other venues such as Physics in Arts and Physics in Sports. One of the recent thrusts of the Committee has been toward magic shows. These sessions and workshops have become immensely popular and are often held to standing room only. We hope magic shows and their science (or nonscience!) explanations will become a regular feature of AAPT meetings.

The second mission of the Committee is to aid in keeping the AAPT membership informed of the importance of communicating science and an enthusiasm for science to the public, and of effective means for doing so. This part of our mission is also successfully met by the public shows, demo shows, and other public events held by the committee as previously discussed. More recently, the committee has ventured into other areas to bring the attention of science to the general public. For example, sessions have been held and planned for Physics and Society and Physics and Civic Engagement. A large group of more than 100 AAPT members loosely held together by e-mail contact is now offering invited and contributed sessions, panel discussions, and crackerbarrels on topics of interest to the general membership. The Committee welcomes these efforts to broaden our efforts to bring science to the public. The future of the Committee has never looked brighter.

Stephen T. Thornton, Chair

Women in Physics

The year 2001 was a very good one for the Committee on Women in Physics. The Committee meetings at both the AAPT Winter and Summer Meetings were very well attended by both members and friends of the Committee.

The Committee has continued with its outreach activities. At the 2001 Winter Meeting, both the Committees on Women in Physics and on Minorities in Physics sponsored the SEES (Students to Experience Engineering & Science) session. Through the capable organization of Betty Preece and Willa Ramsay, the SEES program was held for approximately 60 seventh-grade students from the Preuss School. At the 2001 Summer Meeting, students from the Rochester Technical Institute for the Deaf (RTID) attended a Mentor Lunch, arranged and hosted by Betty Preece. At both the Winter and the Summer Meetings, both the Committees on Women in Physics and on Minorities in Physics sponsored the First-Timers program. Trish Allen has been doing a wonderful job.

The Committee notes with pleasure that Evelyn Patterson of U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, was presented with the Distinguished Service Citation at the Winter Meeting in San Diego.

The Committee sponsored one session and a workshop at the 2001 Winter Meeting. The workshop The Web in Pre-College Physics and Beyond and the session Promoting the Success of Underrepresented Students in Physics had several well-known speakers: Antoinette Torres, Sheila Tobias, and Emily Pronin. There was standing room only for the session. The Committee sponsored two sessions, a workshop, and a working group meeting at the 2001 Summer Meeting. The workshop Teaching Science to Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students was held at RTID. The two sessions were: Women's Contributions to Contemporary Optics and Space Physics II: A Different Perspective. Space Physics II had several well-known invited speakers: Catherine A. Pilachowski, Kathryn Flanagan, and Nicola Fox, and was attended by Virginia Trimble. Virginia Trimble was the Klopsteg Memorial Lecturer and spoke on Cosmology: Man's Place in the Universe. The Robert A. Millikan Awardee was Sallie A. Watkins who gave the lecture: Can "Descriptive" End with "A"? Congratulations to Virginia Trimble and Sallie Watkins. The Work Group on Student Confidence Workshop met two afternoons during the workshops. The working group started reviewing the workshop and sent a proposal to the AAPT board. The Committee will work further on the workshop.

The Committee has set up a listserv with the help of Warren Hein and Erwin Campbell. Currently, the members of the Committee are the only members of the listserv. If you wish to be added to Women in Physics Listserv, please join at http://lists.aapt.org/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=aaptwip-l. We thank you all for your support of our e-mail list and feel the listserv will be an even better medium for communication.

Thank you to all our members and friends for their support. The Committee encourages all who are interested to attend our meetings and activities.

Kathleen Falconer, Chair

Teacher Preparation (Temporary)

On the recommendation of the Ad Hoc committee of the AAPT Executive Board a temporary Committee on Teacher Preparation was appointed in June 2001 with the mission to "influence policy and activities within AAPT regarding the preparation of teachers in grades K-20." In addition, the Ad Hoc Committee recommended six issues for consideration by the new AAPT Committee:

1. Dissemination of "best practices" in physics teacher preparation for grades K-20 across our country;
   
   
2. Proposal of conferences, AAPT meeting sessions, and sessions within conferences (e.g., Preparing Future Faculty, Department Chairs) regarding teacher preparation practices;
   
   
3. Facilitation of grant development for funding;
   
   
4. Identification of "best practices" in nonteacher preparation schools;
   
   
5. Provision as a link between high-quality, practicing mentor teachers with pre-service and novice teachers; and
   
   
6. Assistance in the development of standards and curriculum for physics teacher preparation and certification.

The Committee has nine members appointed by the President of AAPT. They are: Len Jossem, Chair (The Ohio State University), Dewey Dykstra (Boise State University), Fred M. Goldberg (CRMSE), Jack Hehn (American Institute of Physics), Patricia Heller (University of Minnesota), Paula Heron (University of Washington), Paul Hickman (CESAME, Northeastern University), John Layman (University of Maryland), and Ingrid Novodvorsky (University of Arizona).

The Committee had its first meeting at the AAPT Summer Meeting in Rochester in July 2001. The meeting was an open one at which there was general and wide ranging discussion of the problems associated with teacher preparation - most of it focusing on the preparation and support of K-12 teachers. The subject is an enormous one and one in which there is much ongoing effort, both in other AAPT Area Committees and outside of AAPT. A collection of materials broadly related to teacher preparation - reports, papers,, bibliographies, and entire books - has been assembled to provide a common reference shelf for the work of the Committee. This set of references is also available at the Committee website.

The committee is sponsoring a Crackerbarrel Session on Teacher Preparation (Session BS) at the 2002 Winter Meeting in Philadelphia and a session at the 2002 Summer Meeting.