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• T01: (Cancelled) Designing and Running Your Own Physics Camp

  Date/Time

  • Sun, Jul 23
  • 08:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Pati Sievert

  Co-Organizer(s)

  Paul Nord, Valparaiso University

  Cost

  • Members: $60
  • Non-members: $85

  Seats

  • Max: 40
  • Available: 36

  Many physics enthusiasts have a cool hands-on experience to look back on as inspiration for investigating nature through physics. Running a physics camp program or offering physics sessions through other camps is one way to inspire children and teens to explore physics. Pati Sievert and Paul Nord have each started multiple successful camp programs at their respective universities, but the same planning process applies to high school teachers. In this tutorial these two experienced physics camp organizers will share insights and help you work through the decision making and planning processes for your future camp. As a group, we will discuss the pros and cons of developing an entirely new program or tagging on to another program. We will also consider these questions: What age range(s)? Single gender or co-ed? How do you choose positively challenging experiments? Why would you choose a residential camp or a day camp? By the end of the tutorial you will have thought through locations, payment methods, and employment issues, as well as programming and marketing your program. Maximize your experience by coming prepared to share why you want to launch a camp.

• T02: (Cancelled) Where Were You?

  Date/Time

  • Sun, Jul 23
  • 08:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.

  Organizer

  Ann Robinson

  Co-Organizer(s)

  Karen Jo Matsler, Tommi Holsenbeck

  Cost

  • Members: $75
  • Non-members: $100

  Seats

  • Max: 50
  • Available: 48

  Does your phone know where you have been and where you are going? If so, how does it work? Relativity of course!! Come learn how relativistic effects apply to everyday devices such as iphones, cameras, computers, and what we now consider to be basic technology. GPS influences many aspects of our society, yet few understand the connections between special relativity, general relativity, and GPS. Come participate in a learning cycle that you can take back to your classroom and help students understand these connections. This is just one small part of a vast array of resources that help students build the foundation necessary to understand quantum concepts.

• W01: (Cancelled) Designing Circuits Activities for Middle School Students

  Date/Time

  • Sat, Jul 22
  • 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Shawn Reeves

  Cost

  • Members: $70
  • Non-members: $95

  Seats

  • Max: 16
  • Available: 15

  The workshop leader has taught middle school and home school students to choose from a menu of interactive circuits, then build them from scratch learning both about circuits and the physical phenomena of the interactions. Participants will make and take various circuits, review helpful materials, and discuss the limits and possibilities of pre-teen learners in this 21st century field. Participants will leave with ideas, skills, and parts for making their own devices. Most of our circuits involve sensors and outputs, to respond to physical inputs; they are built from lead-free discreet components and integrated circuits, on reusable breadboards. Typical components include light, sound, magnetic field, temperature, and distance sensors; photo-gates; accelerometers; motors; lights; switches; speakers; timers; and amplifiers. Free follow-up consultation will be available for the school year following the workshop.

• W02: Making High Speed Videos

  Date/Time

  • Sat, Jul 22
  • 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Paul Nord

  Co-Organizer(s)

  Stephen Irons

  Cost

  • Members: $60
  • Non-members: $85

  Seats

  • Max: 24
  • Available: 18

  Participants will explore the use of inexpensive high speed cameras for lecture demonstration and lab experiments. Several presenters will work to share experiences developing lab exercises. Cameras from GoPro and the new iPhones provide up to 240 frames per second. Nikon 1 cameras can take video at 1200 frames per second. A few cameras will be available for shared use. Participants are welcome to bring their own cameras. Topics discussed will include: lighting, mounting, geometry of the setup, optimizing camera settings, data transfer, correcting for fish-eye lens distortions, and the use of simple editing tools.

• W03: Mathematical Modeling with Desmos

  Date/Time

  • Sat, Jul 22
  • 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Michael Lerner

  Cost

  • Members: $60
  • Non-members: $85

  Seats

  • Max: 24
  • Available: 18

  Desmos is a seemingly simple online graphing calculator that hides a powerful tool for high school and introductory college physics classes. Originally designed for math teachers, Desmos is an easy way to graph functions, fit curves, and linearize data. We’ll learn how to use these basic functions and then explore how Desmos can be a great first step to bring computational and graphical problem solving into physics classes. We’ll also learn about creating independent and whole-group activities using Desmos' built-in classroom activity builder. Participants will have time and support to build their own activities. Participants are required to bring a laptop computer with a current version of Firefox, Chrome or Safari installed.

• W04: iMobile Physics and iPhysics Classroom

  Date/Time

  • Sat, Jul 22
  • 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  André Bresges and Jochen Kuhn

  Co-Organizer(s)

  Colleen Countryman, Pascal Klein,

  Cost

  • Members: $60
  • Non-members: $85

  Seats

  • Max: 40
  • Available: 22

  Smartphones and tablets can be used as experimental tools especially in physics classrooms. This is possible because today’s smartphones and tablets are equipped with many sensors which can be used to perform quantitative and qualitative experiments. We will describe how these mobile devices could be used as mobile Pocket-Labs throughout various topics by students in high school and introductory physics courses. Participants will learn and practice how to use these mobile devices as experimental tools in the topics mechanics (video motion analysis and others) and acoustics, using our provided devices or their own ones.

• W05: Make and Take Low Cost Spectrograph for Physics Labs

  Date/Time

  • Sat, Jul 22
  • 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Timothy Grove

  Cost

  • Members: $85
  • Non-members: $110

  Seats

  • Max: 20
  • Available: 14

  Spectrographs (a device used to take pictures of spectra) are typically expensive and fragile. Our shoebox spectrograph is quite different. It is made of scrap corrugated cardboard, a DVD fragment, duct tape, school glue, and a webcam. Despite the inexpensive parts (~ $22/unit), the shoebox spectrograph can be remarkably accurate (~ 1.5nm accuracy for a well-constructed device and they can resolve the Hg 576.96nm line from the 579.07nm line). Furthermore, there are numerous low cost experiments (assuming available computers) involving the spectral features of light that can be explored using this spectrograph. These experiments include, but are not limited to, observation of atomic spectra, observation of the Fraunhofer lines, reflection of white light off colored objects including dandelion flower reflection spectroscopy, transmission of white light through dye tinted water, and even laser induced fluorescence of Play Doh. Attendees will learn how to construct their own spectrographs out of pre-cut cardboard and then use them. Then a representative experiment will be done (laser induced fluorescence of Play Doh; the purpose of this experiment is to help students understand the difference between fluorescence and reflection).

• W06: Modern Physics Labs on a Budget Using LEDs and Mixed Signal Processors

  Date/Time

  • Sat, Jul 22
  • 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Mark Masters

  Co-Organizer(s)

  Jacob Millspaw

  Cost

  • Members: $85
  • Non-members: $110

  Seats

  • Max: 15
  • Available: 0

  Participants will build (and take with them) several pieces of equipment to perform some modern physics investigations using LED's. First, participants will use a microcontroller to measure the I-V curve of several LED's and determine the Boltzmann constant. Second, we will use LED's as very inefficient single photon avalanche photodiodes and do several counting and coincidence investigations. In the process the participants will learn about how to use the mixed signal microcontrollers for other investigations as well.

• W07: "Can We Have a Group Test?" Designing Collaborative, Active, Alternative Assessments for Physics Classes

  Date/Time

  • Sat, Jul 22
  • 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Kelly O'Shea

  Co-Organizer(s)

  Danny Doucette

  Cost

  • Members: $60
  • Non-members: $85

  Seats

  • Max: 24
  • Available: 0

  The Next Generation Science Standards require that students construct explanations and design solutions using scientific practices. Lab practicums are an engaging and effective way for students to demonstrate their understanding. At the same time, students often learn and work in groups, and scientists also work in teams. How can we design assessments that challenge students to use their practical skills while also reflecting the social nature of scientific understanding? In this workshop, participants will experience a collaborative practical exam, learn about different approaches to group and practical assessments, think through how to apply these assessments in their own classrooms, and have an opportunity to design and try out a practical assessment of their own. We hope that this workshop will be interesting to a wide audience, and we hope it will be especially useful for high school physics teachers.

• W08: Introductory Labs for Electricity and Magnetism

  Date/Time

  • Sat, Jul 22
  • 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Kenneth Lonnquist

  Cost

  • Members: $72
  • Non-members: $97

  Seats

  • Max: 20
  • Available: 0

  Whether your lab curriculum is ripe for an overhaul, well-established, or you are simply looking for exciting and innovative activities for the classroom, this workshop will provide new ideas to bring home to your institution. Presenters from colleges and universities across the United States will each demonstrate their approach to a favorite introductory lab exercise. This year's workshop will focus on labs for Electricity and Magnetism. Attendees will have the opportunity to work with each apparatus. Documentation will be provided for each experiment, with lab manuals, sample data, equipment lists, and construction or purchase information. This workshop is appropriate primarily for college and university instructional laboratory developers, but all instructors are welcome.

• W11: (Cancelled) Activity Based Physics in the Advanced High School Classroom

  Date/Time

  • Sat, Jul 22
  • 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Steve Henning

  Co-Organizer(s)

  Maxine Willis, Priscilla Laws

  Cost

  • Members: $75
  • Non-members: $120

  Seats

  • Max: 24
  • Available: 23

  This hands-on workshop is designed for AP, IB and honors physics teachers interested in engaging their students in inquiry-based active learning based on the award winning Workshop Physics curriculum at Dickinson College. Teachers will work with activities based on PER in mechanics, rotational motion, waves and circuits selected from the Activity-Based Physics High School Ê-dition. How to use pre- and post-testing assessments will be a part of the workshop. The curricula uses computers for data collection and analysis and allows students to learn physics by doing physics. In addition to Workshop Physics, the workshop will include units from Interactive Lecture Demonstrations, Physics with Video Analysis and Interactive Video Vignettes. The data acquisition software is compatible with both Mac and Windows computers and is supported with set-up files by PASCO and Vernier. Participants will receive copies of supporting texts in addition to Teaching with the Physics Suite.

• W12: Physics Activities for the Life Sciences (PALS)

  Date/Time

  • Sat, Jul 22
  • 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Duane Deardorff

  Co-Organizer(s)

  Alice Churukian, David Smith, Colin Wallace

  Cost

  • Members: $85
  • Non-members: $110

  Seats

  • Max: 25
  • Available: 9

  Physics instructors are increasingly being asked to reform their teaching practices and use evidence-based instructional strategies to actively and intellectually engage their students. In this workshop, participants will gain firsthand experience implementing multiple collaborative learning activities that have been specifically designed for use in introductory physics for life science (IPLS) courses. Examples will include content from mechanics, electricity, magnetism, and optics, with each activity grounded in real-world applications to biological phenomena and/or medical practices. Participants will also gain a better understanding of student difficulties in IPLS-focused topics and be introduced to teaching methods aimed at addressing such issues.

• W13: Learn Physics While Practicing Science: Introduction to ISLE

  Date/Time

  • Sat, Jul 22
  • 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  David Brookes

  Co-Organizer(s)

  Robert Zisk, Yuhfen Lin, Eugenia Etkina

  Cost

  • Members: $95
  • Non-members: $120

  Seats

  • Max: 30
  • Available: 17

  Participants will learn how to modify introductory physics courses to help students acquire a good conceptual foundation, apply this knowledge in problem solving, and engage them in science practices. The framework for these modifications is Investigative Science Learning Environment (ISLE). We provide tested curriculum materials including: (a) The College Physics Textbook by Etkina, Gentile and Van Heuvelen, the Physics Active Learning Guide and the Instructor Guide; (b) a website with over 200 videotaped experiments and questions for use in the classroom, laboratories, and homework; (c) a set of innovative labs in which students design their own experiments, and (d) newly developed curriculum materials that use LEDs to help students learn physics. During the workshop the participants will learn how to use the materials in college and high school physics courses to help their students learn physics by practicing it. We will focus on the connections of our materials with the NGSS and revised AP curriculum, specifically on the interplay of science practices and crosscutting concepts. *Please bring your own laptop to the workshop if you own one. Make sure it has Quicktime installed. If you do not own a computer, you will be paired with somebody who does.

• W14: The Perplexed Physicists' Primer on Teaching Astronomy

  Date/Time

  • Sat, Jul 22
  • 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Tim Slater

  Co-Organizer(s)

  Stephanie J. Slater, Windsor Morgan, Chris Palma

  Cost

  • Members: $85
  • Non-members: $110

  Seats

  • Max: 50
  • Available: 41

  Although physicists are highly qualified academically to teach astronomy, few have had significant experience in doing astronomy either professionally or as a hobby. Moreover, because most students electing to enroll in astronomy are self-proclaimed non-science students, the nature of students’ motivation, background, and mathematical sophistication differs considerably from students who typically take physics. Taken together, teaching the astronomy course offers new teaching challenges that are often unfamiliar to even the most talented physics professors. This full day teaching strategies workshop provides a step-by-step success plan for physicists who have been assigned to teach astronomy. Topics include designing an effective syllabus for non-science students and future teachers, appropriate mathematical and quantitative reasoning tasks, interactive lecturing strategies designed to captivate the widest diversity of students, how to best to utilize textbooks, how to use telescopes, where to find the best astronomy pictures, and efficient testing and grading strategies for busy faculty. Classroom-ready materials will be distributed to all participants. Attendees are encouraged to bring their laptops, sample syllabi, textbooks, and exams to discuss with workshop leaders.

• W17: Low-Cost Open-Source Laboratory Instruments

  Date/Time

  • Sat, Jul 22
  • 1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Brian D'Urso

  Cost

  • Members: $60
  • Non-members: $85

  Seats

  • Max: 25
  • Available: 9

  Scientific equipment for research can be expensive and complex, while equipment specifically designed for instructional laboratories is often too limited. Neither typically allows students to understand or modify the inner workings of the instruments. In this workshop, we will show you how to make several common laboratory instruments using inexpensive and open hardware and software. Specifically, we will show how to use an Arduino microcontroller board and a personal computer running Python to make an oscilloscope, waveform generator, spectrum analyzer, and network analyzer. With a Raspberry Pi and touchscreen as the computer, these can combined into a stand-alone, touchscreen-controlled instrument. We will show how you can customize the instruments and how to create a completely new instrument using the same tools. This workshop is most appropriate for those teaching intermediate and advanced instructional physics laboratories, although it may also be valuable for those looking for low-cost instruments for introductory labs.

• W18: Physics of Toys

  Date/Time

  • Sat, Jul 22
  • 1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Beverly Taylor

  Cost

  • Members: $61
  • Non-members: $86

  Seats

  • Max: 36
  • Available: 10

  This hands-on workshop is designed for teachers at all levels in search of fun physics demonstrations and lab experiments using ordinary children's toys. The exploration of common toys aids deep learning by emphasizing concepts and connections before formal definitions and mathematics. It also connects the science to the familiar world outside of the classroom and gets students writing and talking about physics ideas. Investigating what toys do and how they do it can be a challenging application of undergraduate physics from the introductory course up through senior mechanics. In fact, I have found that toys can be utilized at all grade levels from kindergarten through college by varying the sophistication of the analysis. These same toys can be used for informal presentations to public groups of all ages. More than 60 toys will be demonstrated, and the physical principles related to these toys will be discussed. A wide variety of physics topics will be addressed including forces, energy, magnetism, sound and light. Because the meeting is so close to home for me, I will be able to bring a wider variety of toys than normal. You will have the opportunity to participate in both qualitative and quantitative investigations using toys.

• W19: Computational Modeling with GlowScript and VPython

  Date/Time

  • Sat, Jul 22
  • 1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Tom O'Kuma

  Co-Organizer(s)

  Dwain Desbien, David Weaver

  Cost

  • Members: $60
  • Non-members: $85

  Seats

  • Max: 24
  • Available: 11

  Over the last few years, we have implemented a number of different computational modeling activities in our introductory physics courses. These activities use either VPtyhon (http://vpython.org) or Glowscript (http://glowscript.org). Several of these activities have been developed in conjunction with a series of workshops done as part of the ATE Physics Workshop Project. Participants will work activities used in a typical two-semester introductory physics course ranging from conceptual level to calculus-based level. In this workshop, participants will work with some of these activities and develop their own. Participants are asked to bring their own laptops with VPython already downloaded on your laptop and a web browser to access the internet.

• W20: Examining the Relationships among Intuition, Reasoning, and Conceptual Understanding in Physics

  Date/Time

  • Sat, Jul 22
  • 1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Andrew Boudreaux

  Co-Organizer(s)

  Paula Heron, Mila Kryjevskaia, Beth Lindsey, Mackenzie Stetzer

  Cost

  • Members: $60
  • Non-members: $85

  Seats

  • Max: 40
  • Available: 26

  Physics instructors commonly expect their students to consciously and systematically draw on their formal physics knowledge to construct chains of reasoning that start from established principles and lead to well-justified predictions. If exam performance does not seem to match such thinking patterns, it is often assumed that students either do not possess the requisite conceptual understanding or lack the reasoning ability needed to chain the appropriate ideas together. An emerging body of research rooted in cognitive science provides a somewhat different explanation: students may “abandon” formal reasoning in favor of ideas that are (perhaps) more intuitively appealing at that moment. Although relatively little is known about the complex relationships among intuition, reasoning, and conceptual understanding in physics contexts, insight into these relationships is important for both researchers and instructors. In this workshop, participants will explore these relationships by examining student responses to a variety of assessment tasks. The focus will be on collaborative analysis and interpretation of such student data, and discussion of the implications for instruction.

• W21: An Example of Tutorials for Upper-division Physics Courses: Quantum Mechanics

  Date/Time

  • Sat, Jul 22
  • 1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Peter S. Shaffer

  Co-Organizer(s)

  Paul J. Emigh, Gina Passante

  Cost

  • Members: $65
  • Non-members: $90

  Seats

  • Max: 28
  • Available: 22

  Tutorials in Physics: Quantum Mechanics is a set of instructional materials intended to supplement traditional lecture instruction in quantum mechanics courses, particularly courses targeted at upper-division physics majors. The tutorials address conceptual, mathematical, and reasoning difficulties that research suggests can impede student learning of key ideas in quantum mechanics. The workshop will provide hands-on experience with the instructional materials and results from assessments of student learning. Topics of discussion will include ways in which the tutorials can be implemented in a wide variety of different course structures; possible challenges to the use of interactive curriculum in upper-division courses; and differences between tutorials for introductory and more-advanced levels.

• W22: PIRA Lecture Demonstrations I & II Condensed: Selections from the PIRA 200

  Date/Time

  • Sat, Jul 22
  • 1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Dale Stille and Sam Sampere

  Cost

  • Members: $95
  • Non-members: $120

  Seats

  • Max: 55
  • Available: 43

  During this ½ day workshop, we will introduce you to the Physics Resource Instructional Association (PIRA) and the PIRA 200. Almost every demonstration one can think of has a catalog number within the Demonstration Classification System (DCS); we will introduce you to this system and the comprehensive bibliography that details journal articles and demonstration manuals for construction and use in the classroom. The PIRA 200 are the specific 200 most important and necessary demonstrations needed to teach an introductory physics course. We will also show a subset of approximately 50 demonstrations explaining use, construction, acquisition of materials, and answer any questions in this highly interactive and dynamic environment. Ideas for organizing and building your demonstration collection will be presented. We especially invite faculty members teaching introductory physics to attend. NOTE that this is a paperless workshop. All information and materials will be distributed on a USB thumb drive. A computer, tablet, or other device capable of reading a USB will be needed for note taking, or you can bring your own paper.

• W23: An Introduction to Race, Ethnicity, and Equity in Physics Education

  Date/Time

  • Sat, Jul 22
  • 1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Vashti Sawtelle

  Co-Organizer(s)

  Katemari Rosa, Abhilash Nair

  Cost

  • Members: $65
  • Non-members: $90

  Seats

  • Max: 30
  • Available: 16

  This workshop focuses on race, ethnicity and equity in the context of physics education. We especially encourage those that may feel novice in talking about race and ethnicity to attend, but welcome everyone who is interested in exploring this area as well. We will support participants to examine educational spaces through the lenses of race and ethnicity. We will also consider how race and ethnicity play a role in systemic issues affecting physics education more broadly. Topics to be explored will be guided by participant input and may include, but are not limited to: identity, culture, privilege, microaggressions, implicit bias, and colorblind rhetoric. We will engage in group conversations, self-reflection, and explore possibilities for action within our own institutional contexts.

• W24: Student Activities from the IceCube Neutrino Experiment

  Date/Time

  • Sat, Jul 22
  • 1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Silvia Bravo Gallart

  Co-Organizer(s)

  Jim Madsen

  Cost

  • Members: $60
  • Non-members: $85

  Seats

  • Max: 30
  • Available: 19

  In this workshop, educators and researchers from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory will demonstrate a series of activities for juniors and seniors in high school physics courses. These activities introduce advanced concepts in physics, such as the Standard Model of Particles and Interactions, and invite students to perform guided research activities using IceCube data. IceCube is a cubic-kilometer telescope located deep in the ice at the South Pole that uses neutrinos, instead of light, to study the extreme universe. In 2014, IceCube launched a research-based educational program for high school students called the IceCube MasterClasses. The activities presented in this workshop were developed for these masterclasses and have been tested with more than 500 high school students in the US and Europe. The IceCube masterclasses are inspired by a similar program coordinated in the US by QuarkNet. The workshop will highlight two activities: - A role-based game to introduce the Standard Model of Particles and Interactions - A guided research activity to replicate the discovery of astrophysical neutrinos by IceCube.

• W27: High Altitude Ballooning

  Date/Time

  • Sun, Jul 23
  • 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Erick Agrimson

  Co-Organizer(s)

  Kaye Smith, James Flaten

  Cost

  • Members: $75
  • Non-members: $100

  Seats

  • Max: 24
  • Available: 16

  Ever dream of doing science in space? High-altitude weather balloons can lift science experiments into the stratosphere, providing relatively low-cost and uncomplicated access to a space-like environment (and view)! Sending experiments to “near-space” is an unforgettable experience which can address a wide range science and engineering standards. This workshop will provide an introduction for those who wish to explore this exciting type of platform in their classroom. We will share ideas for college as well as pre-college projects and undergraduate collaborative research that can make use of this hands on experimental platform.

• W28: Physics Invention Tasks: Developing Mathematical Creativity as a Scientific Practice

  Date/Time

  • Sun, Jul 23
  • 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Suzanne Brahmia

  Co-Organizer(s)

  Stephen Kanim, Andrew Boudreaux

  Cost

  • Members: $60
  • Non-members: $85

  Seats

  • Max: 21
  • Available: 0

  This workshop introduces PITs (Physics Invention Tasks1), curricular activities designed to foster mathematical creativity in the context of physical quantities and relationships. Affective measures show that traditional physics instruction results in students viewing physics as formulaic (Adams et al. 2006), which may contribute to the lack of diverse interest in calculus-based physics courses (Ross & Otero, 2013). Important goals of PITs include developing expectations that physics should make sense, and strengthening beliefs that naïve views and mathematical sensemaking facilitate learning physics. Research in mathematics education has shown that invention tasks help students use math creatively while priming them for subsequent formal instruction (Schwartz et al., 2011). PITs support the construction of quantitative physics concepts and relationships while contributing to a well-defined set of physics course norms in which struggle is communal, there are no dumb ideas, and creativity is valued. These norms align well with authentic science practices and the NGSS practices, but contrast starkly with a stereotypical physics course in which there is little motivation for its algebraic reasoning. In this workshop participants will be introduced to the many PITs that are developed and validated1 and will get started on developing their own tasks. 1. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1602.02033.pdf

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  Date/Time

  Cost

  • Members:
  • Non-members:

  Seats

  • Max:
  • Available: 39

• W30: Fun and Engaging Labs

  Date/Time

  • Sun, Jul 23
  • 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Wendy Adams

  Co-Organizer(s)

  Duane Merrell

  Cost

  • Members: $60
  • Non-members: $85

  Seats

  • Max: 40
  • Available: 1

  In this workshop we will share many labs that are suitable for both high school and introductory college physics. The labs are challenging but not too difficult and, leave plenty of room for creativity! We have found success by limiting the goals for the labs to: 1. Fun and engaging, 2. Built in student choice, 3. Related to this week’s material. The labs are effective at engaging the students in problem solving and conceptual understanding. Merrell used this type of lab as a high school teacher and physics quickly became one of the most popular classes in the school. Adams, inspired by Merrell, has found that her college students no longer rush to leave, and in some cases stay to see how other groups do even after they’ve turned in their lab write up for the day! This workshop will allow you to try out these labs for yourself.

• W31: (Cancelled) Using Minecraft to Teach Physics

  Date/Time

  • Sun, Jul 23
  • 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Michele McColgan

  Co-Organizer(s)

  Amanda Depoian, Natasha Collova

  Cost

  • Members: $70
  • Non-members: $95

  Seats

  • Max: 16
  • Available: 14

  Participants will explore worlds in Minecraft with activities on kinematics, energy, forces, projectile motion, quantum mechanics, and astronomy. Participants will have the opportunity to create their own activities. Supporting materials including videos, hands-on activities, and pre/post assessments will be described. Participants must bring their own COMPUTERS.

• W32: What Every Physics Teacher Should Know About Cognitive Research

  Date/Time

  • Sun, Jul 23
  • 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Chandralekha Singh

  Cost

  • Members: $60
  • Non-members: $85

  Seats

  • Max: 25
  • Available: 0

  In the past few decades, cognitive research has made significant progress in understanding how people learn. The understanding of cognition that has emerged from this research can be particularly useful for physics instruction. We will discuss and explore, in a language accessible to everybody, how the main findings of cognitive research can be applied to physics teaching, learning and assessment.

• W33: Interdisciplinary Instruction in Biological Physics

  Date/Time

  • Sun, Jul 23
  • 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Philip Nelson

  Cost

  • Members: $60
  • Non-members: $85

  Seats

  • Max: 27
  • Available: 15

  Physics departments must constantly develop up-to-date courses that can attract both majors and non-majors. One often-neglected area of opportunity is at the intermediate level. Specifically, students from Bioengineering, Materials, Chemistry, Chem.E., Biochemistry, Biophysics, and even Physics, from second-year undergraduates up, are keenly interested in biophysical topics. There is also a growing cohort of premedical students in these majors who have enough interest and aptitude in quantitative work to go beyond standard first year courses. The session will invite instructors with skills at reaching this group of students. Many faculty find such interdisciplinary instruction scary, at first, so there is much to discuss. The session will include: * Science tutorials, especially on recent revolutions in light imaging (superresolution, two-photon, etc), stochastic simulation, dynamical systems, visual neuroscience. * Discussion of project-based learning, including pairing students across disciplines as partners. * Discussion of collaborative tasks, especially getting students up and running with computer programming very fast, in a course not explicitly dedicated to computation. * Discussion of inexpensive in-class demos. * Strategies for meaningful assessment in interdisciplinary classes of this sort. Participants should bring a laptop computer to the session. Limited funds are available to partially offset participants' travel costs. Participants who need this should contact the organizer directly (nelson@physics.upenn.edu) by June 28.

• W34: Fun, Engaging, and Effective Labs and Demos in Electricity, Magnetism and Optics with Clickers, Video Analysis, and Computer-Based Tools

  Date/Time

  • Sun, Jul 23
  • 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  David Sokoloff

  Co-Organizer(s)

  Ronald Thornton, Priscilla Laws

  Cost

  • Members: $75
  • Non-members: $100

  Seats

  • Max: 15
  • Available: 0

  RealTime Physics and Interactive Lecture Demonstrations have been available for over 15 years—so what’s new? Participants in this workshop will have hands-on experience with some of the activities in RTP and ILD using clickers, video analysis and computer-based tools to teach electricity, magnetism and optics. These active learning approaches for lectures, labs, and recitations (tutorials) are fun, engaging and validated by physics education research (PER). Research results demonstrating the effectiveness of these curricula will be presented. The following will be distributed: Modules from the Third Edition of RTP, the ILD book, and the Physics with Video Analysis book and CD.

• W35: Explore Your Assessment Data with the PhysPort Data Explorer

  Date/Time

  • Sun, Jul 23
  • 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Sam McKagan

  Co-Organizer(s)

  Adrian Madsen, Eleanor Sayre

  Cost

  • Members: $60
  • Non-members: $85

  Seats

  • Max: 30
  • Available: 22

  Do you have piles of data from concept inventories such as the FCI, FMCE, BEMA, CSEM, CLASS, or MPEX, that you haven't gotten around to analyzing yet? Are you curious what kinds of patterns are in your data? Would you like to compare your data to national averages? In this interactive workshop, you will upload your students' assessment and demographic data to the PhysPort Data Explorer (www.physport.org/dataexplorer), get instant analysis and visualization, explore patterns, and discuss these patterns and their implications with other participants.

• W37: Periscope: Looking Into Learning in Best-Practices Physics Classrooms

  Date/Time

  • Sun, Jul 23
  • 1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Rachel Scherr

  Co-Organizer(s)

  Tali Hairston

  Cost

  • Members: $60
  • Non-members: $85

  Seats

  • Max: 40
  • Available: 33

  Periscope is a set of lessons to support learning assistants, teaching assistants, and faculty in learning to notice and interpret classroom events the way an accomplished teacher does. Periscope lessons are centered on video episodes from a variety of best-practices university physics classrooms. By observing, discussing, and reflecting on teaching situations similar to their own, instructors practice applying lessons learned about teaching to actual teaching situations and develop their pedagogical content knowledge. They also and get a view of other institutions’ transformed courses, which can support and expand the participants’ vision of their own instructional improvement and support the transfer of course developments among faculty.

• W38: Intermediate and Advanced Laboratories

  Date/Time

  • Sun, Jul 23
  • 1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Jeremiah Wiliams

  Cost

  • Members: $85
  • Non-members: $110

  Seats

  • Max: 30
  • Available: 10

  This workshop is appropriate for college and university instructional laboratory developers. At each of five stations, presenters will demonstrate an approach to an intermediate or advanced laboratory exercise. Each presenter will show and discuss the apparatus and techniques used. Attendees will cycle through the stations and have an opportunity to use each apparatus. Documentation will be provided for each experiment, with sample data, equipment lists, and construction or purchase information.

• W39: Making Videos as Projects

  Date/Time

  • Sun, Jul 23
  • 1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Dan MacIsaac

  Co-Organizer(s)

  André Bresges, Florian Genz, David Abbott, Kathleen Falconer, Brad Gearhart, Joey Heimburger and Andrew Roberts

  Cost

  • Members: $60
  • Non-members: $85

  Seats

  • Max: 25
  • Available: 13

  Participants will learn how to make short physics video vignettes for learning purposes using modern tablets with low cost applets. Participants will view examples, learn and practice how to plan, storyboard, shoot, simply animate, edit, caption and voiceover videos using tablets. Constructive critiques and guidance will be provided, as well as advice on how to incorporate student video projects into physics classes. We encourage you to come to the workshop prepared with a physics topic of interest to you, and a tablet. Draft videos and storyboards are also welcome -- the more you do in advance the more you can take away from the session. A limited number of loaner iPad tablets will be made available to participants without a device. This project is supported by the NSF, SUNY Buffalo State and the University of Cologne.

• W40: Don't Lecture Me: Tutorial-Based Curricula for Teaching Advanced Placement Physics

  Date/Time

  • Sun, Jul 23
  • 1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  James Clarke

  Co-Organizer(s)

  Michael Gearen, Peter Shaffer, Paula Heron

  Cost

  • Members: $65
  • Non-members: $90

  Seats

  • Max: 24
  • Available: 0

  "Tutorials in Introductory Physics", by the Physics Education Group (PEG) at the University of Washington, has influenced physics curriculum development for decades, mostly at the college level.  Based on "Tutorials", comprehensive tutorial-based curricula have been developed at Punahou School in Honolulu for each of the four Advanced Placement Physics courses, AP Physics 1 and 2, AP Physics C Mechanics and E&M.  For several years, these inquiry-based tutorials have completely replaced the lecture portion of the courses at Punahou with demonstrably positive results.  Workshop participants will experience a hands-on/minds-on introduction to tutorial instruction, playing the roles of students and tutorial instructors, and reflecting on lessons learned with the workshop presenters.

• W41: (Cancelled) Making Waves with NASA: Culturally Responsive Instructional Approaches for Teaching Physical Science Concepts in Middle and High School

  Date/Time

  • Sun, Jul 23
  • 1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Eleanor Close

  Co-Organizer(s)

  John Weis

  Cost

  • Members: $65
  • Non-members: $90

  Seats

  • Max: 40
  • Available: 38

  Participants will receive an overview of the Next Generation Science Standard PS4 and a hands-on opportunity to utilize NASA resources for teaching science concepts involving waves, lenses, and mirrors. This workshop will encourage discussion towards the exploration of equity issues driven by the recurring question: “How can culturally responsive teaching be operationalized in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) classroom?” Culturally responsive instructional practices will be presented and demonstrated in the context of teaching physical science in middle and high school, using NASA curricular resources aligned to NGSS. A culturally responsive curriculum validates students, integrates school-based knowledge with cultural-based knowledge, encourages differentiation of instruction and contributes to reducing student misunderstanding and demotivation. The NASA Educator Professional Development Collaborative (EPDC) is a multi-institution effort focused on making the best of NASA’s professional learning resources available to STEM Educators at all levels, including university pre-service educators, pre-service teachers, K-12 teachers, and informal educators. This workshop will highlight NASA inquiry-based lesson plans, web-based applications, primary data sources, and countless digital media resources that can be used in culturally congruent ways to enhance student learning. Participants will receive a flash drive with relevant NASA resources and other ‘make and take’ materials.

• W42: Using Jupyter Notebook to Teach Physics with Computation

  Date/Time

  • Sun, Jul 23
  • 1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Aaron Titus

  Co-Organizer(s)

  Ruth Chabay, Bruce Sherwood

  Cost

  • Members: $65
  • Non-members: $90

  Seats

  • Max: 24
  • Available: 7

  Jupyter Notebook (formerly iPython Notebook) is a web application (front-end) to create and share documents that contain live code, visualizations, and marked-up text and equations. Teachers can write tutorials, and students can write professional, interactive reports. Accessible to students and scalable to professionals, Jupyter Notebook is ideal for both undergraduate research and for teaching computational modeling, data visualization, collaborative computing, and reporting. Furthermore, the latest version of VPython runs in Jupyter Notebook. In this workshop, participants will receive a set of Jupyter notebooks that demonstrate various features and will write their first notebooks, including Jupyter VPython.

• W43: Developing the Next Generation of Physics Assessments

  Date/Time

  • Sun, Jul 23
  • 1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  James T. Laverty

  Co-Organizer(s)

  Marcos D. Caballero

  Cost

  • Members: $60
  • Non-members: $85

  Seats

  • Max: 48
  • Available: 11

  Want to write assessments that will give you more evidence about what your students are actually able to do with their physics knowledge? If so, then this is the workshop for you. Participants will learn how to use the Three-Dimensional Learning Assessment Protocol (3D-LAP; a research-based protocol) to develop in-class, homework, and exam problems that engage students in both the process and content of physics. This instrument was developed to help assessment authors at all levels generate questions that include scientific practices, crosscutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas, the three dimensions used to develop the Next Generation Science Standards. Join us to learn how to create the next generation of physics assessments.

• W44: Integrating Computation into Undergraduate Physics

  Date/Time

  • Sun, Jul 23
  • 1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Larry Engelhardt

  Co-Organizer(s)

  Marie Lopez del Puerto, Kelly Roos, Danny Caballero, Norman Chonacky

  Cost

  • Members: $20
  • Non-members: $45

  Seats

  • Max: 40
  • Available: 18

  In this workshop we will discuss the importance of integrating computation into the physics curriculum and will guide participants in discussing and planning how they would integrate computation into their courses. The PICUP partnership has developed materials for a variety of physics courses in a variety of platforms including Python/VPython, C/C++, Fortran, MATLAB/Octave, Java, and Mathematica. Participants will receive information on the computational materials that have been developed, will discuss ways to tailor the materials to their own classes, and will learn about opportunities that are available to receive additional support through the PICUP partnership. PLEASE BRING A LAPTOP COMPUTER WITH THE PLATFORM OF YOUR CHOICE INSTALLED. This workshop is funded by the National Science Foundation under DUE IUSE grants 1524128, 1524493, 1524963, 1525062, and 1525525.

• W45: Demo Kit in a Box: Electrostatics

  Date/Time

  • Sun, Jul 23
  • 1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Steve Lindaas

  Co-Organizer(s)

  Adam Beehler

  Cost

  • Members: $60
  • Non-members: $85

  Seats

  • Max: 30
  • Available: 14

  Reduced Cost! Participants will leave with lots equipment, supplies and knowledge to do demos! Are you looking for easy ways to infuse inquiry into your classroom? Don't have a demo manager? We will help you establish having several small demos conveniently packed into one box, ready for the classroom at any moment. You may bring your box to your class and use the demos to highlight lecture points, or use them when a student asks a question. Use a "Just-In-Time" teaching approach but with a demo twist! We will show you how to pack small demo kit boxes that pack a large instructional punch. The demo focus this summer is electrostatics (toys are likely to be involved). The cost of the equipment and supplies is being funded by a generous grant from the AAPT Fredrick and Florence M. Bauder Endowment Fund. For more information visit us on line at Demo Kit in a Box (http://web.mnstate.edu/lindaas/AAPT/index.html)

• W46: Strategies to Help all Women Succeed in Physics Related Professions

  Date/Time

  • Sun, Jul 23
  • 1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

  Organizer

  Chandralekha Singh

  Cost

  • Members: $60
  • Non-members: $85

  Seats

  • Max: 20
  • Available: 10

  Women are severely under-represented in physics-related professions. This workshop will explore strategies to help women faculty members in K-12 education, colleges and universities understand and overcome barriers to their advancement in careers related to physics. A major focus of the workshop will be on strategies for navigating effectively in different situations in order to succeed despite the gender schema, stereotypes and subtle biases against women physicists. We will also examine case studies and learn effective strategies by role playing.

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