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January 4–7, 2014
Sundayafternoon
Session BE: 100Kin10: Training and
Retaining Teachers
Location: Salon 6
Sponsor: Committee on Teacher Preparation
Date: Sunday, January 5
Time: 4:30–5:40 p.m.
Presider: Julia Olsen
BE01:
4:30-5 p.m. The 100Kin10 Partnership Effect: Many
Hands Make Light Work
Invited – M. Colleen Megowan-Romanowicz, American Modeling Teach-
ers Association, 2164 E Ellis Dr., Tempe, AZ 85282
In his 2011 State of the Union address, President Obama outlined
the need for 100,000 new STEM teachers within the next 10 years.
Shortly thereafter Carnegie Corporation of New York and Oppor-
tunity Equation convened representatives from teacher education
and professional development programs and foundations across the
country and in June of 2011 the 100Kin10 partnership was launched
at the Clinton Global Initiative Meeting. Of the 150 partner organiza-
tions 22 are funding partners. The rest are best-in-class organizations
who prepare, develop, and retain excellent STEM teachers who are
incentivized by funding from donor partners to work together and
multiply the effectiveness of partners’ programs. This presentation will
highlight the work of a number of AAPT-affiliated associations and
institutions that are 100Kin10 partners, discuss collaborations among
these partners and outline how other organizations can join or con-
nect with the movement.
BE02:
5-5:30 p.m. 100Kin10: A Response from the STEM
Community and Physics Organizations
Invited – Aline D. McNaull, American Institute of Physics, One Physics
Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740;
In his 2011 State of the Union address, President Obama called for the
training of 100,000 new, excellent science, technology, engineering,
and math (STEM) teachers over the next decade. In my talk, I will
describe this initiative, the partnerships that have formed, and the
work being done at the federal level to improve the number of highly
qualified STEM teachers. I will also provide an overview of the discus-
sions within the STEM community in Washington, which includes
scientific societies, research universities, and industry about increas-
ing the number of highly qualified STEM teachers. Physics societies
have played a major role in teacher pre- and in-service professional
development at the local, state, and national levels. I will provide an
update on the joint efforts of the American Association of Physics
Teachers, American Astronomical Society, American Physical Society,
The Optical Society, and American Institute of Physics to improve
teacher training and professional development.
BE03:
5:30-5:40 p.m. Strategies to Enhance the Joy of
Learning and Teaching Physics
Contributed – C. Dianne Phillips, Northwest Arkansas Community
College, Division of Science and Mathematics, Bentonville, AR 72712;
Pre-Service teachers are given the opportunity to engage in curric-
ulum-driven, project-based learning projects and activities in the
framework of an Introduction to Physical Science course. Learners
work in teams to apply course content as they develop college-level
peer presentations, classroom demonstrations and engage in skill
building projects and activities, as well as formative and summative
self-assessments. Future teachers are given the opportunity to design,
test, and produce grade appropriate (K-12) lesson plans and activities,
which are trialed with their peers and then shared with area school
faculty mentors and their science students. Pre-Service teachers leave
the course with their own lesson plans and activities to be added
to their professional teaching portfolios. The course is specifically
designed to engage the learner in self-directed exploration and
discovery. The joy of learning and teaching is enhanced as students
are given the opportunity to be actively engaged learners in a safe
learning environment.
Session BF: A Potpourri of
Astronomy and Physics Topics
Location: Salon 8
Sponsor: AAPT
Date: Sunday, January 5
Time: 4:30–5:30 p.m.
Presider: Lee Trampleasure
BF01:
4:30-4:40 p.m. Integrating Robotic Telescopes in
Introductory Astronomy Labs
Contributed – Gerald T. Ruch, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN
55105;
The University of St. Thomas (UST) and a consortium of five lo-
cal schools are using the UST Robotic Observatory, housing a 17’
telescope, to develop labs and image processing tools that allow easy
integration of observational labs into existing introductory astronomy
curriculum. Our lab design removes the burden of equipment
ownership by sharing access to a common resource and removes the
burden of data processing by automating processing tasks that are
not relevant to the learning objectives. Each laboratory exercise takes
place over two lab periods. During period one, students design and
submit observation requests via the lab website. Between periods, the
telescope automatically acquires the data and our image processing
pipeline produces data ready for student analysis. During period two,
the students retrieve their data from the website and perform the
analysis. The first lab, “Weighing Jupiter,” was successfully implement-
ed at UST and several of our partner schools.
BF02:
4:40-4:50 p.m. Teaching, Outreach, and Research
with the Guilford College Observatory
Contributed – Donald Andrew Smith, Guilford College, Greensboro, NC
27410,
The Guilford College Cline Observatory hosts a 16’ optical tele-
scope (connected to the worldwide SkyNet network of automated
telescopes), two 2.4 m radio telescopes, a 10’ optical telescope, several
8’ telescopes, and a 50’ planetarium dome. We use these facilities for
public outreach, classroom instruction, and student research. In this
talk, I will give examples of how we integrate learning activities across
our resources: students learn about the universe through labora-
tory explorations using telescopes, recording images, and analyzing
observations. We involve students in public outreach both through
planetarium shows on campus as well as remote radio observations
from public school classrooms. Students have also used the facility
for senior thesis research projects, ranging from vibrational studies
of the support pier to interferometric radio observations of sunspots.
These examples will show how a small observatory can be a dynamic,
productive facility to connect the dots between research, teaching,
and public outreach.
BF03:
4:50-5 p.m. Balls Rolling in Cones: New-ish
Examples of Learning-by-Contrast
Contributed – Gary Dane White, AAPT and GWU, College Park, MD
20740;
The motion of a ball rolling-without-slipping on a conical surface
reveals many analogies with classical celestial phenomena, and many
contrasts as well. The initial conditions of the ball’s “spin” can be
adjusted so that one can observe quite different orbital periods even
at a fixed orbital radius! Even so, the analogy with Kepler’s Third
Law--”(period squared)/(radius cubed) = constant”--is robust; for
a ball rolling in a cone the dictum is “(period squared)/(radius) =
constant,” providing a nice contrast with real gravity, and with balls
rolling in spandex wells for which the mandate is “(period cubed)/(ra-
dius squared) = constant,” curiously.* Furthermore, one can choose to
