July 26–30, 2014
17
Awards
The 2014
David Halliday and Robert Resnick Award
for Excellence in Undergraduate Physics Teaching is
presented to
Ruth Chabay and Bruce Sherwood,
in recognition of their contributions to undergraduate physics
teaching and their extraordinary accomplishments in communicating the excitement of physics to students.
John Wiley & Sons is the principal source of funding for this award. Chabay earned a PhD in physical chemistry
from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is Professor Emerita in the Department of Physics at
North Carolina State University and recently was Weston Visiting Professor, Department of Science Teaching, at
the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. She has also taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign and Carnegie Mellon University. She is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.
Sherwood’s PhD is in experimental particle physics from the University of Chicago. He is Professor Emeritus in
the Department of Physics at North Carolina State University. He has also taught at Caltech, the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Carnegie Mellon University. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.
Both Chabay and Sherwood have made great contributions to the modernization of the introductory, calculus-
based Physics curriculum by authoring the
Matter & Interactions
textbook published by John Wiley & Sons,
which integrates contemporary and classical physics by making macro-micro connections and emphasizing
fundamental principles. They have played a major role in developing the VPython interactive 3D programming
environment and integrating computational modeling into the introductory physics curriculum. Their goal has
been to help students acquire the conceptual and computational skills to be able to apply fundamental physical
principles to complex real-world systems.
Regarding their selection for this award they noted, “It’s an honor to receive this award from AAPT, a commu-
nity in which so many people think so deeply about teaching and learning physics. We especially value this com-
munity’s willingness to take seriously nontraditional ideas about introductory physics, such as our conviction
that introductory physics doesn’t have to be about inclined planes, and that computational modeling can enable
students to analyze complex systems, even at the introductory level.”
Ruth Chabay
David Halliday and Robert Resnick Award for
Excellence in Undergraduate Physics Teaching
Established as the Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award in 1993; it was renamed and substantially endowed in 2010
by John Wiley & Sons. Named for David Halliday and Robert Resnick, authors of a very successful college-level textbook in
introductory physics, the award recognizes outstanding achievement in teaching undergraduate physics.
Bradford Hill
Southridge High School
Beaverton, OR
The
Paul W. Zitzewitz Excellence in Pre-College Physics Teaching Award
for 2014 is presented to
Bradford
K. Hill
in recognition of his career-long concern for and attention to quality education at the pre-college level.
A high school physics teacher from Beaverton, OR, Hill earned his BS in Physics at the University of Minnesota.
His MS in Physics was earned at the University of Maryland and his MA in Science Education at the University
of California, Berkeley. Hill began teaching physics at Montgomery College in 2002 in Montgomery County,
MD. He moved to Oregon in 2005 and began teaching physics at the high school level. He has been at South-
ridge High School since 2006, where he also now facilitates a district-wide collaboration of physics teachers.
Hill was a Knowles Science Teaching Mentor from 2009-2011. He was selected to help draft, align, create and
test rubrics for the new Oregon state science Standards in 2009 and currently is on the Oregon Science Content
Panel as Oregon considers adopting the Next Generation of Science Standards.
He received the 2013 Outstanding Classroom Science Teacher Award from the Oregon Science Teachers As-
sociation. From 2003 to 2008 he was a Knowles Science Teaching Fellow, and from 2012 – 2014 he performed
original research in the Physics Department at Portland State University on characterizing dark current in
Charged-Coupled Devices, under a Partners in Science Grant from the M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust.
Bradford develops, tests, and openly shares a curriculum he calls the Patterns Approach which meets the high
standards of the NGSS. This approach introduces students to the power of recognizing patterns to make sense
of novel situations from the very beginning of the course and engages them in high level inquiry and problem
solving, He was so successful using this approach with ninth grade students, that it was adopted district wide.
He has been sharing his work through local, state, and national conferences, publishing in the March 2013 issue
of The Science Teacher, and providing extensive, ongoing professional development for teachers in his district
and nationwide. He continues to study the impacts of this approach while also collaborating with other teachers
across the country to further develop curriculum units for AP Physics, IB Physics, Project Based programs, and
Chemistry.
Established as the Excellence in Pre-College Teaching Award in 1993 then renamed and endowed in 2010 by Paul
W. and Barbara S. Zitzewitz, the Paul W. Zitzewitz Award for Excellence in Pre-College Physics Teaching recognizes
outstanding achievement in teaching pre-college physics.
Paul W. Zitzewitz Award for Excellence in
Pre-College Physics Teaching
Citizen Science:
Harnessing Physics to
Advance Science and
Mathematical Literacy
Monday, July 28
10:30 a.m. –12 p.m.
Northrop Auditorium
Bruce Sherwood
Inviting Students Into
the 21st Century
Monday, July 28
10:30 a.m.–12 p.m.
Northrop Auditorium
