AAPT Summer Meeting 2019 in Provo, UT

SM19 Program

Sessions, Panels, Posters, Plenaries, Committee Meetings, and Special Events . . .

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Plenaries

      • Millikan Award - Thomas Greenslade, Kenyon College
      • PL05
      • Tue 07/23, 10:30AM - 11:30AM

      • Awardee: Thomas Greenslade
      • Type: Plenary
      • Adventures with Oscillations and Waves - I would like to tell you some stories. The first one is about Robert A. Millikan and the apparatus that he designed for the introductory physics courses at the University of Chicago at the turn of the twentieth century. As for the rest, I would like to tell you how an interest in oscillations and waves sparked my interest and kept me going in the required first year physics course at Amherst College in the mid-1950s. After I arrived at Kenyon College in 1964, as the youngest faculty member at the College, I discovered a “back room” full of delightful physics apparatus from the nineteenth century, and learned how to use them in demonstrations of oscillatory phenomena. Later I was able to start a new course for sophomore physics majors called “Oscillations and Waves” that made full use of Tony French’s text with a similar title. Here I was able to devise a full set of experiments, some old and some that I developed. As you will see, there is more than one way to swing a pendulum!
      • 2018 AAPT ALPhA Award - Natalie Ferris, Dickinson College
      • PL01
      • Sun 07/21, 7:00PM - 7:30PM

      • Awardee: Natalie Ferris
      • Type: Plenary
      • The AAPT/ALPhA Award recognizes outstanding work in the development of an advanced laboratory apparatus/experiment by an undergraduate physics student at his/her home institution within the United States. National recognition of these projects will encourage their proliferation and help build the next generation of experimental physicists and educators. The award is only conferred if the work by the student or students is of exceptional quality, worthy of a national award. The AAPT/ALPhA Award Committee has announced the 2018 recipient of the award is Natalie Ferris, Dickinson College. Ferris, under the guidance of faculty supervisors David Jackson and Brett Pearson, is recognized for her project on the Double-slit interference with partially-coherent light. She developed this advanced laboratory experiment at Dickinson.
      • 2019 Homer L. Dodge Distinguished Service Citations
      • PL06
      • Tue 07/23, 11:30AM - 12:00PM

      • Presider: Gordon Ramsey
      • Type: Plenary
      • 2019 Homer L. Dodge Distinguished Service Citation awardees: Geraldine Cochran, Larry Engelhardt, Laura McCullogh, Brian Piper
      • 2019 Klopsteg Memorial Lecture Award - Jodi A. Cooley, Southern Methodist University
      • PL08
      • Wed 07/24, 8:30AM - 9:30AM

      • Awardee: Jodi Ann Cooley Sekula
      • Type: Plenary
      • Fantastical Dark Matter and Where to Find It - Only a small fraction of the universe is made from ordinary, visible matter. A much larger portion remains dark, its existence known to us only by its interactions through gravity. The first evidence of this dark matter originates from studies of celestial bodies in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Since that time, astrophysicists and astronomers have determined that it constitutes the bulk of matter in our universe. Despite this fact, the composition still remains unknown. In this talk, I will discuss the history of dark matter research and how scientists are trying to uncover the properties of this evasive matter.
      • APS Plenary - Jack Burns, NASA/SSERVI Network for Exploration & Space Science (NESS)
      • PL10
      • Wed 07/24, 1:30PM - 3:00PM

      • Speaker: Jack Burns
      • Type: Plenary
      • Hydrogen Cosmology: Observing the Dark Ages of the Universe from the Farside of the Moon - After the Cosmic Microwave Background photons decoupled from baryons, the Dark Ages epoch began: density fluctuations imprinted from earlier times grew under the influence of gravity, eventually collapsing into the first stars and galaxies during the subsequent Cosmic Dawn. In the Dark Ages, most of the baryonic matter was in the form of neutral hydrogen (HI), detectable via its ground state’s “spin-flip” transition. This line’s rest frame frequency (wavelength) of 1420 MHz (21-cm) arrives today highly redshifted to low radio frequencies (?100 MHz) due to cosmic expansion. A measurement of the redshifted 21-cm spectrum maps the history of the HI gas through the Dark Ages and Cosmic Dawn and up to the Epoch of Reionization, when the near absence of HI extinguished the signal. Recent reported observations by the Experiment to Detect the Global Epoch of Reionization (EoR) Signature (EDGES) claimed the detection of an absorption trough at 78 MHz (redshift z~17), similar in frequency to expectations for Cosmic Dawn, but ~3 times deeper than was thought possible from standard cosmology and adiabatic cooling of HI. Interactions between baryons and slightly-charged dark matter particles with an electron-like mass provide a potential explanation of this difference but other cooling mechanisms are also being investigated to explain these results. The Cosmic Dawn trough is affected by the complex astrophysical history of the first luminous objects. Another trough is expected during the Dark Ages (at frequencies below 30 MHz), prior to the formation of the first stars and thus determined entirely by cosmological phenomena. I will describe the results of a NASA-funded concept study for the Dark Ages Polarimeter PathfindER (DAPPER), operating in a low lunar orbit above the radio-quiet farside. DAPPER will use the Dark Ages trough to investigate divergences from the standard model and new physics such as heating or cooling produced by dark matter. DAPPER’s science instrument consists of dual orthogonal dipole antennas and a tone-injection spectrometer/polarimeter based on high heritage components from the Parker Solar Probe/FIELDS, THEMIS, and the Van Allen Probes. DAPPER will be deployed from the vicinity of NASA’s Lunar Gateway and transfer to a frozen 50×125 km lunar orbit using a deep space spacecraft bus which has both high impulse and high delta-V. This orbit will facilitate the collection of radio-quiet data over a 26 month lifetime for the mission. This research was supported by NASA cooperative agreement 80NSSC19K0141 and the NASA Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute cooperative agreement 80ARC017M0006
      • APS Plenary - Pearl Sandick, University of Utah
      • PL10A
      • Wed 07/24, 1:30PM - 3:00PM

      • Speaker: Pearl Sandick
      • Type: Plenary
      • WIMPs in the Sky - The question of the identity of dark matter is one of the most important outstanding puzzles in modern physics. Of the many potential explanations proposed, perhaps the most-studied is a new species of elementary particles called Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). The properties of dark matter are being probed in a variety of ways, for example by terrestrial experiments buried deep underground as well as satellite experiments looking for signals from space. I’ll discuss the prospects for “discovering” dark matter, focusing on the indirect detection technique, and how WIMPs may reveal themselves via signatures of their annihilation or decay in and around our Galaxy.
      • Halliday/Resnick Undergraduate Physics Teaching Award
      • PL02
      • Mon 07/22, 11:00AM - 11:30AM

      • Awardee: David Jackson
      • Type: Plenary
      • Helping Students Have Meaningful Learning Experiences In Physics - As physics instructors, we all want our students to learn some physics. But how can we best accomplish this task? Over the past several decades, a significant amount of research has gone into trying to answer this question. Two lessons that have come out of this research are: (i) that lectures are much less effective than any of us would like to believe, and (ii) that getting students actively engaged in the material is essential for effective learning. So why is it that some students can still learn in a lecture environment while others will fail to learn in a course that uses active-engagement techniques? Clearly, a lecture environment does not promote active learning, but that does not mean a student cannot be actively engaged in such a course. Conversely, even the best active-engagement strategies are doomed to fail if a student is inherently disinterested in the material. Ultimately, I think the best we can do is to try to provide meaningful hands-on experiences to our students, and then guide them through the steps needed to develop an understanding of the situation. In this talk, I will give several examples of how I try to provide such experiences to my students.
      • PERC Bridging Session - Paula Hooper, Northwestern University
      • PL11B
      • Wed 07/24, 3:00PM - 4:30PM

      • Presider: PERC PERC
      • Type: Plenary
      • Making through a lens of culture, power, & equity: Visions for Learning and Teaching in Informal Settings - Physics education in informal settings often happens in places that are described as makerspaces or tinkering settings. Claims are made by the branded maker community that the creation of objects with physical and digital tools will provide equitable access for children of all ages, cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds to STEM learning that will open career paths in which they are underrepresented. But these broad claims need a lot of conceptual and pedagogical work to help educators design spaces and activities that shift the nature of learning and teaching within informal settings to be responsive to the needs of all children. This presentation will consider the questions -What allows the physics of sound to be a material for exploration/investigation within a makerspace that is designed to be equitable and inclusive? How can educators come to think about learning and teaching where equity and science ideas are intertwined? We will discuss four principles from equity-oriented and making/tinkering research: critical analyses of educational injustice, historicized approaches to making as cross-cultural activity, ongoing inquiry into the sociopolitical values and purposes of making, and explicit attention to pedagogical philosophies and practices (Vossoughi, Hooper, Escude 2016). We will examine two cases that embody some of these principles that can help this community to recognize and design for equitable informal STEM learning environments. One case is a teaching interaction within an after school program where students are engaged in exploring sound with physical and digital tools. The other is an example of a professional development design that engages both formal and informal educators in grappling with how inquiry-oriented pedagogical structures can become tools for valuing multiple paths of sense making about science ideas.
      • PERC Bridging Session - Shane Bergin, University College Dublin
      • PL112A
      • Wed 07/24, 3:00PM - 4:30PM

      • Presider: PERC PERC
      • Type: Plenary
      • Making through a lens of culture, power, & equity: Visions for Learning and Teaching in Informal Settings Physics education in informal settings often happens in places that are described as makerspaces or tinkering settings. Claims are made by the branded maker community that the creation of objects with physical and digital tools will provide equitable access for children of all ages, cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds to STEM learning that will open career paths in which they are underrepresented. But these broad claims need a lot of conceptual and pedagogical work to help educators design spaces and activities that shift the nature of learning and teaching within informal settings to be responsive to the needs of all children. This presentation will consider the questions -What allows the physics of sound to be a material for exploration/investigation within a makerspace that is designed to be equitable and inclusive? How can educators come to think about learning and teaching where equity and science ideas are intertwined? A Collective Exploration of Physics Beyond the Classroom - We will discuss four principles from equity-oriented and making/tinkering research: critical analyses of educational injustice, historicized approaches to making as cross-cultural activity, ongoing inquiry into the sociopolitical values and purposes of making, and explicit attention to pedagogical philosophies and practices (Vossoughi, Hooper, Escude 2016). We will examine two cases that embody some of these principles that can help this community to recognize and design for equitable informal STEM learning environments. One case is a teaching interaction within an after school program where students are engaged in exploring sound with physical and digital tools. The other is an example of a professional development design that engages both formal and informal educators in grappling with how inquiry-oriented pedagogical structures can become tools for valuing multiple paths of sense making about science ideas.
      • PhysTEC Teacher of the Year
      • PL05
      • Tue 07/23, 10:30AM - 11:00PM

      • Awardee: Matthew Blackman
      • Type: Plenary
      • Matthew has been teaching physics and physics education for the past ten years, during which time he has made significant contributions to the physics education community at the local, state and national levels. His efforts in teaching students, trainingteachers, and creating web-based educational resources have made a positive impact on the physics education of many thousands of students in the U.S. over the past decade. Some of Matthew’s accomplishments: • Dramatically increased enrollment and student scores in AP Physics 1 and AP Physics 2 at both Madison and Ridge High Schools.?• Improved the ratio of female to male students taking AP Physics at Ridge High School, increasing female enrollment from under 20% to over 50% in just three years. • Taught himself how to code and design games in his spare time, and has since built five educational physics games to help students learn kinematics, circuits, waves, and electricity. • Created a 501c3 nonprofit – The Universe and More – to develop and distribute these games 100% free and ad-free – More at www.universeandmore.com • Matthew’s educational games have received over 6 million plays in total over the past 7 years, being used by teachers and incorporated into physics curricula in all 50 states and over 60 countries. • Teaches graduate courses in the Physics Education Master’s Program at Rutgers, consistently receiving some of the highest course evaluations in the Graduate School of Education. • Designs and runs a highly successful summer PD workshop, which has grown from eight teachers/year to now over 20 teachers/year – More at www.teachphysics.com • Recognized by the NJ Senate in a congressional resolution honoring his achievements in the high school and college classrooms, success coaching FIRST robotics and innovative development of educational games.
      • Plenary Keynote I: Laura Greene, National High Magnetic Field Lab
      • PL04
      • Mon 07/22, 4:00PM - 5:00PM

      • Speaker: Laura Greene
      • Type: Plenary
      • Correlated Electrons: The Dark Energy of Quantum Materials - The nearly 80-year-old correlated electron problems remain largely unsolved; with one stunning success being BCS electron-phonon mediated conventional superconductivity. There are dozens of families of superconductors that are unconventional including the high-Tc cuprates, iron-based, and heavy fermion superconductors. Although these materials are disparate in many properties, some of their fundamental properties are strikingly similar, including their ubiquitous phase diagram; with intriguing correlated-electron phases above the superconducting transition. These remain among the greatest unsolved problems in physics today; and a fun analogy stressing this will be presented.
      • Plenary Keynote II - Claire Gmachl, Princeton University
      • PL07
      • Tue 07/23, 4:00PM - 5:00PM

      • Speaker: Claire Gmachi
      • Type: Plenary
      • Mid-Infrared Quantum Cascade Lasers and Applications - Quantum Cascade (QC) lasers are a rapidly evolving mid-infrared and THz semiconductor laser technology based on intersubband transitions in multiple coupled quantum wells. The lasers’ strengths are their wavelength tailorability, high performance and fascinating design potential. They find primarily application in trace-chemical sensing for applications in environment and health. We will first give a brief introduction into QC lasers followed by a discussion of several recent highlights, such as the quest for high performance QC lasers and the implementation of unconventional laser schemes and new materials for intersubband devices. We will also briefly touch on several applications, such as field campaigns of QC laser-based sensing, and our recent work in non-invasive in vivo glucose sensing. The work presented has been conducted in collaboration with many valued colleagues in our own research group and across MIRTHE. Time permitting, I will present our recent efforts in tailoring introductory physics instructions for a diverse population of first-year engineering students.

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