74
Portland
Tuesday, July 16
Highlights
REGISTRATION
7 a.m–4:30 p.m. Plaza Foyer
Fun Run/Walk 6:30–7:30 a.m. Offsite
Exhibit Hall Opens 10 a.m.–4 p.m. Exhibit Hall
Gift Card Raffle
10:15 a.m. Exhibit Hall
PLENARy 9–10 a.m. Grand Ballroom I
Alan Nathan
— The Physics of Baseball
APS PLENARY 2–3:30 p.m. Grand Ballroom I
Producing Superheavy Elements
TPT
50
th
Anniversary Session
10:30-12:30 Pavilion East
COMMERCIAL WORKSHOPS
Perimeter Institute 9:30-10:30 a.m. Galleria III
Physics2000
9:30-10:30 a.m. Galleria I
Pearson
9:30–10:30 a.m. Salon I
Perimeter Institute 12:30–2 p.m. Galleria III
Expert TA
12:30–2 p.m. Skyline III
Vernier
12:30–2:30 p.m. Pavilion East
PASCO
1–2 p.m. Skyline IV
COMMITTEE MEETINGS, 12:30–2 p.m.
–Laboratories
Executive Suite
–Interests of Senior Physicists Directors Suite
–Teacher Preparation Council Suite
–Physics in Undergrad. Educ. Studio Suite
–Women in Physics Forum Suite
–PTRA Institute Followup
Senate Suite
Afternoon Break
3:30–4 p.m. Exhibit Hall
Kindle Raffle 3:45 p.m.
Exhibit Hall
COMMITTEE MEETINGS, 5–6:30 p.m.
–Bauder Fund
Senate Suite
–ALPhA Meeting Studio Suite
–Graduate Education in Physics Council Suite
–Science Education for the Public Forum Suite
–Educational Technologies Directors Suite
–Awards (closed)
Executive Suite
AAPT Summer picnic sponsored by Vernier
6:30–8 p.m. Portland Center for Performing Arts
Physics Center Stage
8–9:30 p.m.
Portland Center for Performing Arts
– Newmark Theatre
Session CA: PIRA Session: Managing
Instructional Resources in an Era of
Increasing Enrollments
Location: Broadway I/II
Sponsor: Committee on Apparatus
Date: Tuesday, July 16
Time: 7:30–8:40 a.m.
Presider: Keith Warren
CA01:
7:30-8 a.m. Demonstrations in Larger Lecture Halls
Invited – Samuel Sampere, Syracuse University, Department of Physics, 201
Physics Building, Syracuse, NY 13244;
We can find most any apparatus desired to teach any physics course in com-
mercial catalogues. These items are typically intended for smaller classroom
environments. Large enrollments make small classrooms rare at larger
colleges and universities. Certainly at my institution, such small-scale appa-
ratus is less than impressive when viewed in a room filled with 300 students.
Instructional resource managers must make use of increasingly smaller
budgets while still meeting the educational needs of our instructors and stu-
dents. Fortunately it is often cheaper to construct apparatus in-house, and
of equal or superior quality, to that obtained commercially. While you’re at
it, you may as well scale up the apparatus, giving the audience an improved
view. I will show several examples of apparatus that are more flexible and
impressive than their commercial counterparts, constructed at Syracuse
University, and even some not found in catalogs, but certainly in every
introductory physics textbook.
CA02:
8-8:30 a.m. Using Students’ Personal Electronic Devices
in Teaching Laboratories*
Invited – Michael Paesler, North Carolina State University, Physics Depart-
ment, Raleigh, NC 27695-8202;
Colleen Lanz, William Sams, North Carolina State University
In the current academic environment, educational institutions are often
forced to respond to increased enrollments. Laboratory courses that involve
space, equipment, and personnel resources are particularly stressed. The
introduction of kitlabs can ease this stress. Furthermore, synchronous
kitlabs where students’ live video-chat with their lab TA can provide a labo-
ratory experience much like traditional laboratories. Data collection and
manipulation, however, often suffer due to a lack of electronic equipment
associated with kits. An effort at NC State exploits the rapidly emerging
capabilities of the students’ own personal electronic devices to address this
issue. Employing smartphones (as well as tablets and laptops), the program
utilizes students’ electronic devices’ internal sensors for data collection. We
describe this program initially designed for the first semester of a college-
level general physics course, showing how specific laboratories can be
developed with no sacrifice in data-taking or manipulation as compared to
the traditional laboratory experience.
*Research is supported by the NC State Large Course Redesign Program and the
National Science Foundation.
CA03:
8:30-8:40 a.m. Labs Outside the Lab: Addressing
Enrollment Increase with Portable Labs
Contributed – William R. Sams, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
27604;
M A. Paesler, North Carolina State University
eTALK, Enhanced Teaching Assistance to aid Learning with Kitlabs, is a
teaching laboratory reform under development at NC State University. It
offers an alternative to traditional laboratory courses that use proprietary
loggers and probes. eTALK instead utilizes students’ personal electronic
devices, portable kits, and online teaching assistant contact. An eTALK lab
thus allows students to focus on the experiment rather than on the mastery
