January 2025: Jane Jackson

About Jane

I always wanted to be a teacher from the time I was a little child. As a teenager, I wondered, “What is the essence of reality?” I thought that was too hard a question, so I narrowed it down to physical reality, where I’d have a chance at beginning to understand it. At the public library, I checked out the book The Evolution of Physics by Albert Einstein and Leopold Infeld, and that book convinced me to go into physics.

I joined the AAPT in conjunction with joining the Arizona section in 1985. AAPT was the logical, professional organization to join since I was a physics teacher – rather than the NSTA, which is more broadly focused. My first national meeting was in the summer of 1986 at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. I have benefited hugely from AAPT membership: better teaching, sharing with like-minded colleagues, journals to read (American Journal of Physics, The Physics Teacher, and Physics Today), national meetings to contribute to and learn from others, listservs, eNNOUNCER, PhysTEC, ComPADRE, PhysPort, other AAPT initiatives and web-based resources, and AAPT virtual coffee hours. I like the breadth of participation: in AAPT, teachers in high schools, two-year colleges, and universities come together to explore ways to better help students learn physics.

For 18 years, I taught college physics and astronomy – first at South Dakota State University and then at Scottsdale Community College. Since 1994, I’ve overseen the Modeling Instruction Program at ASU. Modeling Instruction was developed at ASU. It is research-informed interactive engagement pedagogy that focuses on the student construction of basic scientific models. I organize ASU summer Modeling Workshops in physics and chemistry for teachers (https://modeling.asu.edu). I helped spread Modeling Instruction nationwide, and I’m a founding longtime volunteer in the American Modeling Teachers Association (https://www.modelinginstruction.org)

I like connecting physics to how we learn (mental models) and to societal uses and challenges, like global warming. The physical universe is awesome, and the more I understand it and relate it to our inner and outer worlds, the more I appreciate my life on Earth. In sum, physics is a way of coming closer to understanding reality. And we physic teachers have the additional joy of sharing our evolving understanding to help young people learn and evolve, too.