2024 Winter Meeting Workshops
AAPT is offering many workshops in association with the upcoming 2024 AAPT Winter Meeting. These workshops will take place on January 6. This is a great opportunity to gather with your colleagues and learn some new teaching techniques while engaging in thoughtful discussion. Be sure and register early, as these workshops can fill up quickly.
Location: Hilton New Orleans Riverside
Cost: All half-day workshops (four hours) will cost $75 for members and $100 for non-members. All full-day workshops (eight hours) will cost $125 for members and $150 for non-members.
There is an $85 fee to register for a workshop if you are not registering for the 2024 AAPT Winter Meeting.
Laptops: We encourage everyone to bring their own laptops to the workshops.
Continuing Education Units (CEU): Earn CEU hours for attending one of the AAPT workshops. Earn 0.40 hours for a 1/2 day workshop. Any workshop under 4 hours does not qualify for CEU hours.
Saturday, January 6
Inclusive Astronomy Education: Bridging Gaps for Diverse Learners
The NSF-supported Big Astronomy project has developed an extensive catalog of freely available resources tailored to serve both formal classroom and informal learning environments. Additionally, in keeping with our commitment to inclusivity, we have expanded our focus to encompass research and resource development for the Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) and Blind/Low Vision (BLV) communities. This hands-on workshop will supply educators with effective strategies for engaging and instructing diverse learners. The workshop will explore themes such as inclusive astronomy pedagogy, evidence-based best practices for engaging DHH & BLV learners, teaching multiwavelength astronomy, and promoting diverse STEM careers to improve STEM identity among a broad spectrum of individuals. All participants will receive a carefully curated selection of tactile and hands-on activities, supplemented by a wealth of digital resources. Join us and gain the resources needed to foster a more inclusive learning environment, promote equity, and kindle a passion for astronomy among a wider array of students. For further insights into our initiatives and available resources, please visit Bigastronomy.org
Date: January 6
Time: 8:00 AM to Noon
Organizer(s): Tiffany Stone Wolbrecht, Renae Kerrigan
Cost: $75 member/$100 non-member
Learning how to use Augmented Reality Simulations in your Physics Courses
In this workshop, you will learn about various strategies to incorporate both Augmented and Virtual Reality in the Physics classroom. We highly recommend you bring a laptop and a phone that you can download apps on. Some of these simulations are in the process of being created so you will have a chance to input what you think would make a good simulation while others are existing programs/simulations available. You will also learn how to enhance your own lessons through Augmented reality so bring a lesson you would like to enhance.
Date: January 6
Time: 8:00 AM to Noon
Organizer(s): David Rosengrant, Garret Matthews, Richard Rho
Cost: $75/$100
LHC Physics in the Classroom
Students who complete an introductory physics course may be under the impression that physics somehow “stopped” in the late 19th or early 20th century. Of course, this idea could not be further from the truth, as physicists today continue to work on addressing an ever-growing list of unsolved questions: Where has all the antimatter gone? What is dark matter? What is dark energy? (What questions have we not thought of yet?) Physicists from all over the world work to address these and many other questions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, on the border of Switzerland and France. This workshop will focus on how teachers can tap into the excitement of LHC physics to both motivate students and provide a contemporary context for them to engage with topics and practices covered in introductory physics courses, including (but not limited to) conservation laws, data collection, organization, and analysis, and making claims based on evidence. Participants in this workshop will alternate between “student mode” and “teacher mode”, will analyze authentic LHC data, and will get a chance to work through some activities from QuarkNet’s Data Activities Portfolio. The workshop will conclude with a discussion on classroom implementation. Some of the activities will be computer-based, so please bring along a laptop!
Date: January 6
Time: 8:00 AM to Noon
Organizer(s): Shane Wood
Cost: $75 member/$100 non-member
Quantum Computing: What's the Buzz?
Are you interested in learning more about Quantum Computing? Have you been asked to teach it or introduce some of the concepts into courses you are already teaching? What’s the state of the field anyway? Do you just want to be more informed about this fascinating, relatively new field? Should it be taught in Physics or Computer Science or Chemistry or Math or all of them!? If you find yourself interested in these questions, this workshop is for you. We will give an overview of the present state of the field, present an introduction to Quantum Computing, including discussion of our experiences learning the topics and teaching them, course coverage, format, and learning materials, research we have done on student strengths and difficulties in learning quantum computing topics, and the development of evidence-based materials to teach the course. We will share information on freely available online resources, our own evidence-based materials, and possible texts. We will focus on an undergraduate course, but it will be relevant for classes above and below that level, too. Participants should bring their own internet-enabled laptop.
Date: January 6
Time: 8:00 AM to Noon
Organizer(s): Beth Thacker, Tunde Kushimo
Cost: $75 member/$100 non-member
PICUP: Integrating Computation in Introductory Physics Courses
In this workshop, we will show you some ways in which computation can be integrated into your introductory courses. The PICUP partnership has developed a variety of computational activities for introductory physics, and we will show you how you can take these PICUP materials and adapt them to fit your needs. PLEASE BRING A LAPTOP COMPUTER. In this workshop, we will focus on computational activities using spreadsheets and web-based “Trinkets” so you do not need to have any specialized software installed.
Date: January 6
Time: 1:00 to 5:00 PM
Organizer(s): Aaron Titus
Cost: $75 member/$100 non-member
Equity in STEM: Exploring the Underrepresentation Curriculum
The Underrepresentation Curriculum is a free, open, modular, teacher-created resource that supports high school and college science instructors in empowering students to examine issues of equity, identity, and justice in society and in STEM. This workshop will introduce the curriculum by engaging participants themselves in the learning activities (e.g., discussing the role of objectivity and subjectivity in science and analyzing data about disparities in representations of certain groups of people). The workshop will familiarize participants with the support materials available and make space for exploration. Finally, participants will have the opportunity to discuss how the curriculum can be implemented in their classrooms, and collaborate with other instructors to create viable actions beyond the workshop.
Date: January 6
Time: 1:00 to 4:00 PM
Organizer(s): Elissa Levy, Abigail Daane
Cost: $75 member/$100 non-member
AP Physics Course Revisions for Fall 2024
The 2024-25 school year will introduce a new, common, exam format for all AP physics courses, as well as some curricular modifications for each course. This includes a smaller set of science practices, consistent across all four courses. The workshop will familiarize teachers with the new curricula. It will take a deep dive into the key features and major differences between the new curriculum and its predecessor, focusing on science practices. Attendees will develop skills to adapt and implement the new curriculum in their classrooms. The revised exams will be reviewed and participants will work through case studies with sample questions tied to each science practice. Strategies to prepare students will be discussed and modeled.
Date: January 6
Time: 1:00 to 5:00 PM
Organizer(s): Amy Johnson, John Pinizzotto, Jesse Miner
Cost: $75 member/$100 non-member
Robotic Telescope Labs for Survey-Level Undergraduates
Participants should bring their own computer. In this workshop, participants will be given accounts on both the Skynet global telescope network and the image processing and analysis software, Afterglow Access, as well as observing credits on Skynet. We will learn how to queue observations on Skynet, and will carry out multiple OPIS! (Our Place in Space!) and MWU! (MultiWavelength Universe!) observing experiences throughout the day. OPIS! is built around the cosmic distance ladder, which serves as an organizing principle in many introductory astronomy courses/sequences, and as such, it reinforces students’ classroom experiences. The goal of OPIS! is to move beyond laboratory experiences in which students learn how to use a telescope for its own sake to instead use it to do science - the same science that they are learning in class. MWU! is for students who have already completed OPIS!, and is able to provide this smaller group of students with more telescope time per student, making possible color- and radio-mapping, inquiry-based explorations. MWU! currently consists of ten explorations, with more being developed, and uses both Skynet’s optical and radio telescopes, as well as archival infrared data, to study the solar system, stars, and galaxies. The curriculum also focuses on light-producing mechanisms, and astrophotography serves as its “hook”.
Date: January 6
Time: 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Organizer(s): Rachel Freed, Dan Reichart
Cost: $125 member/$150 non-member
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