eNNOUNCER November 2019
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AAPT News
2019 AAPT Board of Directors Election Results
The AAPT membership has voted and elected the following members to serve on the AAPT Board of Directors:
Vice-President: Toni Sauncy
Treasurer: Tom O'Kuma
High School at Large Rep: Martha Lietz
AAPT Oersted Medal for 2020 to be Awarded to David Sokoloff
David Sokoloff has been named as the 2020 recipient of the prestigious Hans Christian Oersted Medal, presented by the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT). The Medal will be awarded at a Ceremonial Session of the 2020 AAPT Winter Meeting, in Orlando, Florida. The Oersted Medal recognizes his outstanding, widespread, and lasting impact on the teaching of physics through his contributions to the development of active learning strategies and materials to motivate students-especially those using computer-based tools-and his extensive dissemination activities. In connection with the award, Sokoloff will deliver a talk, "If Opportunity Doesn't Knock, Build a Door: My Path to Active Dissemination of Active Learning," at the Orlando meeting. Read more
Be a Part of the AAPT Delegation to Egypt!
World Learning, a US-based nonprofit organization, and AAPT are leading a Physics Education delegation to Egypt during summer 2020! AAPT is looking to assemble a diverse delegation of K-12 and College educators to engage in exciting discussions on global STEM education. Apply at www.worldlearning.org/what-we-do. Click on the AAPT logo near the bottom of the page for more information. AAPT has applied for NSF funding to support delegation member costs. Interested? Have questions? Email Mel Sabella and Beth Cunningham
Seeking Applications for Editor of the American Journal of Physics
The American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) will be seeking applications for the position of Editor of the American Journal of Physics (AJP),
the world's preeminent journal in physics education focusing on the undergraduate and graduate levels. Candidates should have the following demonstrated experience and skills:
- ● Strong interests and accomplishments in physics teaching
- ● Significant acquaintance with AJP
- ● Reasonable familiarity with the various sub-fields of physics
- ● History of publications in professional physics journals
- ● Excellent organizational and administrative skills
- ● An ability to meet deadlines and to make difficult decisions fairly and rapidly
- ● Computer skills, including a working knowledge of LaTeX
- ● Experience reviewing journal articles, particularly for AJP, and serving on a journal editorial board is preferred
Timeline: The Search Committee will begin reviewing applications beginning February 1, 2020 and will continue until the position is filled. The official start date will be September 1, 2020, but the new editor will ideally begin transitioning into the post no later than June 2020.
Please look for a more detailed ad in the near future. If you have specific individuals that you think would make an excellent editor, please send information about these individuals to ajpsearch2020@aapt.org
Donate : New award for AAPT members who are Early Career Emerging Leaders
At the AAPT 2018 Summer Meeting, the AAPT Board of Directors established the new AAPT Early Career Emerging Leader (EXCEL) Award. While most AAPT awards recognize members who are more established in their careers, this particular award supports members who are at the start of their careers, through a monetary prize, mentorship, and professional development. These are the members who will serve AAPT in exciting leadership roles for years to come and can bring fresh, innovative ideas to the organization. This investment in AAPT's new leaders is an investment in AAPT's long-term success. Nominations will be accepted soon. Click here to learn more Click here to donate online
2020 AAPT Winter Meeting In Orlando
Join your colleagues at the 2020 AAPT Winter Meeting in Orlando, Florida. Surround yourself with Physics Educators from around the globe and develop and strengthen professional connections. Hear from internationally known plenary speakers, such as Jonathan Smith, SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment and Jim Gates to name a few. Attend sessions, workshops and special activities designed with you in mind. Don't miss this opportunity to share your expertise and learn from and network with leaders in the field.
Post-deadline Abstract Submission
AAPT will be accepting post-deadline abstracts for the 2020 AAPT Winter Meeting in Orlando, Florida until November 13. This is a great opportunity to present your innovative research and share creative teaching methods with your peers. Please click here to submit your abstract. All post-deadline abstracts will be scheduled in the last session on Tuesday, January 21.
AAPT Child and Dependent Care and Travel Grants
AAPT has a limited number of child care/dependent and travel grants "pending approval of funding" available for the 2020 Winter Meeting. Please check the AAPT website.
Registration
Registration is now available for the 2020 Winter Meeting. Please click here for more information. Register before November 12 to save over $100.
Workshops
Please click here for a list of workshops available for the 2020 Winter Meeting.
Conference Hotel
The 2020 AAPT Winter Meeting will take place at the Caribe Royale Orlando. The last day to book your room is December 18, 2019. We suggest that you book your room early, since the hotel can sell out before the cut-off date. Please click here for more information.
AAPT Books Program - Calling All Authors!
We are interested in hearing from authors who desire to publish books in the areas of physics content, the history and philosophy of physics, physics education research, and the application of pedagogical techniques in physics. Book topics must fit within the AAPT mission of “enhancing the understanding and appreciation of physics through teaching.” We have prepared guidelines to help us evaluate prospective book ideas as we seek a publisher. If you are interested in authoring an AAPT book, please review the guidelines and consider submitting a proposal. Send questions about authoring an AAPT book to eo@aapt.org.
Help Support National Meeting Attendees!
AAPT is committed to making sure that our national meetings are as accessible as possible to as many as possible. Our physics education community thrives when we can hear diverse voices and perspectives.
Did you know that AAPT offers assistance via small grants to individuals attending AAPT's summer and winter meeting who have childcare, dependent care, or elder care or who need assistance because of a disability? Did you also know that AAPT offers small travel grants for the summer and winter meetings to AAPT, NSHP, or NSBP members who need additional financial assistance including a few grants specifically to high school and two year college faculty who are from underrepresented groups and/or from institutions whose students are predominantly underrepresented?
Below are some examples of the impact that these grants have had:
"The grant allowed me to attend the meeting by helping to pay for a specialized caretaker ... and a babysitter."
"I was able to attend the meeting with my 3 month old child by bringing my spouse to help with childcare during the meeting."
"I was able to concentrate while attending the conference because I knew that my children were in good hands."
"My caretaker was able to transport me in a car and support me during my presentation while attending so that I didn't become too exhausted."
"I will be forever grateful for this opportunity to attend the AAPT national meeting."
"I was so excited to give my first invited talk at a large conference. Since my institution typically doesn't support travel, the AAPT travel grant made it possible for me to attend. Impact: 100%."
"If I had to cover all of the expenses myself I would have had to find a cheap hotel outside of town... With this grant I was able to stay at a hotel downtown making it much easier to attend evening events and also meet up with and network with other physics teachers."
"I was not in good financial position [and] the grant gave me [the] opportunity to participate for the first time."
Help AAPT continue to impact individuals and our field! Please donate to these funds to sustain these grants for future conferences! Read More
AAPT Programs
2020 F=ma Contest Open
AAPT and the American Institute of Physics (AIP) sponsor a competition for high school students to represent the United States at the 2020 International Physics Olympiad. The mission of the U.S. Physics Team Program is to promote and demonstrate academic excellence through preparation for and participation in the International Physics Olympiad. The selection process begins with the F=ma exam. Online registration opened October 1, 2019.
2019 AAPT PhysicsBowl Contest Results!
Results for the 2019 AAPT PhysicsBowl Contest have been posted. Check Results Here!.
2019 High School Physics Photo Contest
One of the fun opportunities during the AAPT Summer Meeting is reviewing and voting on the top 100 photos as selected by the Committee on Physics in High Schools under the direction of Tommi Holsenbeck. The votes have been tallied and the winning entries are posted. View Here Congratulations to the winning students and their teachers.
Register for the 2020 PhysTEC Conference
Come to the nation's largest meeting dedicated to the education of future physics teachers-featuring workshops on best practices, panel discussions by national leaders, and networking opportunities for physics teacher educators. The conference will take place from February 29 - March 1 in Denver, Colorado, immediately preceding the APS March Meeting. Registration and abstracts close on February 13. Register today.
Apply to Join PhysTEC's The 5+ Club
Did your college or university graduate five or more physics teachers in the last academic year? If so, apply to join PhysTEC's The 5+ Club and be recognized among the top 1% of teacher preparation programs in the country! The 2019-2020 application closes on November 15. Apply today.
STEP UP: Careers in Physics Lesson Plan
Have you done the STEP UP Careers in Physics lesson with your students? It illustrates the careers that a physics degree can enable and allows the students to learn about physicists whose interests align with theirs. Most importantly, students create profiles for their future selves in which they used a physics degree to achieve their career goals. Our researchers have shown that this lesson, along with the Women in Physics lesson, are successful in helping students to see physics in their future and improving students’ recognition as physics people. Building recognition as a physics person is extremely important to recruiting students, especially women, into physics.
Report on Undergraduate Physics Programs at Hispanic-Serving Institutions is now available online
In January 2018, the National Society of Hispanic Physicists and the American Association of Physics Teachers held a Conference on Enhancing Undergraduate Physics Programs at Hispanic Serving Institutions (EUPP-HSI). The Conference website is now archived on ComPADRE. The Conference Report compiles the results of a pre-conference survey, summarizes our discussions, and extracts recommendations from the discussions. The Conference report is freely available from AAPT
The Frederick and Florence Bauder Endowment
The Frederick and Florence Bauder Endowment provides grants to support special activities in the area of physics teaching. The deadline for applications to request funds is December 1.
AAPT Membership
AAPT Member Spotlight
Shannon D. Willoughby
Montana State University
Bozeman, MT
Read More
Membership Renewal
We appreciate our community of members, and we are here to serve you. If you have any difficulties renewing your membership or have any membership-related questions, please do not hesitate to contact us in the Membership Department at 301.209.3333 or membership@aapt.org.
Member Discounts Now Available!
AAPT Members can now take advantage of major discounts at retailers such as Hertz, Office Depot/Office Max and HotelEngine.com. You save a percentage of your bill and a portion of the proceeds helps to support AAPT as well! We will be launching the program in the coming weeks, so be sure to check the Member Discounts Program page for details.
AAPT 2017-2018 PAEMST Awardees
Eight AAPT members have been honored as the 2017 and 2018 recipients of the prestigious Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST). Read more
What Do You Want Your Legacy to Be?
Teachers make a difference. Given the chance, most of us would like to leave a legacy to organizations we valued in our lifetime. You help shape the future. AAPT can help you determine what you want your legacy to be-to your family, to your fellow teachers, and to tomorrow's future teachers. Planned Giving creates opportunities for you to make a lasting difference to physics education and AAPT. Consider including AAPT in your estate and financial plans. Click here for more information or contact eo@aapt.org
2020 PER Conference Blog - Call for Entries
The 2020 PERC Organizing Committee is working hard to prepare our community for the conference next year. The theme of the 2020 PERC is about the history, current, and future of physics education research. In other words, as the PER community continues to move forward, we need to take a pause and ask ourselves some critically important and yet easily forgotten questions, such as who we really are, what we really do, and why we do what we do. These questions are closely tied to the ultimate identities of ourselves. That's why we created this blog as an opportunity for us to share with each other the key features about ourselves (be they professional or personal) that we haven't yet got a chance to show through our published research. (You'll need to create a ComPADRE account to see the blog if you don't already have one.) If you are interested in contributing to the blog, please send an email to perconference2020@gmail.com.
New AAPT Member Benefit: Up to 25 Free Downloads of AIP Journals Every Year
AAPT has partnered with AIP Publishing on a valuable new benefit. AAPT members now have access to 25 free article downloads every year from any of the AIP Publishing journals
This is an exclusive AAPT member benefit. Access any one of the journals in this list, now by clicking the 'SIGN IN' link in the right hand corner, and logging in with your Scitation username and password. Access the full text of an article from the journal by going to the article page and clicking either the "PDF" download or the "FULL TEXT" menu buttons. You will then be given an option to use one of your AAPT member credits to access the article. If you do not have a Scitation username and password e-mail Scitation and let them know.
Articles you download will be saved in your Scitation profile. AAPT members receive 25 free downloads each year as long as their membership remains in good standing.
Thank you for supporting AAPT, and we hope you enjoy this new membership benefit.
Call for Award Nominations
The AAPT Awards Committee invites nominations for all of AAPT awards, citations, and medals. We are particularly interested in nominations for AAPT Fellows and for the Homer L. Dodge Citation for Distinguished Service to AAPT.
Infusing Engineering into the Science Classroom
Join other teachers seeking to integrate engineering into their science classroom with this unique professional development opportunity. Headed by AAPT/AIP Master Teacher Policy fellows Matthew Peterie and Andrew Edmondson, you will learn from experienced and skillful teachers. The cost will be $385 for individual attendee which includes your registration for the year long program and meals for the two days at Olathe Northwest. If a group of teachers from a building or district would like to attend, reduced pricing is available. After registering your team by completing the form below, subsequent correspondence will make arrangements for payment. Sign up here
PhysicsCon 2020 Celebration of Physics, James Lincoln will be portraying Richard Feynman
As part of the PhysicsCon 2020 Celebration of Physics, James Lincoln will be portraying Richard Feynman, accent and all, in a one-hour lecture on physics taking place in the same Caltech lecture hall that Richard Feynman delivered his famous lectures in 1962-1963. Richard Feynman (1918-1988) is often regarded as the greatest teacher of physics and brought hijinks and eccentricities along with his science instruction. In this lecture, Lincoln celebrates the mannerisms, energy, charisma, and gusto of the Nobel-Prize-Winning professor as was when he stood in the same place all those years ago.
The 2nd Annual PhysicsCon will take place on SAT January 4 at Caltech in the Feynman Lecture Hall. This academic conference will celebrate physics with many talks and presentations. The conference highlights and registration is to be found at www.PhysicsCon.org
In the News
Melba Phillips Honored with Historical Plaque
Renowned physicist Melba Phillips, alumnae of Oakland City College will be honored Friday, Nov. 1, with a historical marker on the campus of Oakland City University. Dr. Phillips had established her credentials as a master teacher and scientist. She helped organize the founding of the Federation of American Scientists in 1945. She was the first woman to be president of the American Association of Physics Teachers in 1966. Read more
Arizona State University Master of Natural Science Degree in Physics for Teachers
Arizona State University has an interdisciplinary Master of Natural Science (MNS) degree in physics for high school and two-year college teachers. Courses are in summer, and the degree is founded on Modeling Instruction. Teachers in 15 western states can apply for discounted tuition; the deadline is APRIL 1. Partial tuition scholarships might be available.
More details: https://physics.asu.edu/admissions/mns-admissions/financial-support
For information: Jane.Jackson@asu.edu
Dick and Rae's Demo Notebook
Print copies of the widely used Dick and Rae's Physics Demo Notebook by Richard Minnix and Rae Carpenter are still available through the Physics and Astronomy Department at Virginia Military Institute. The Notebook contains detailed instructions and pictures for about 600 demos in all areas of physics. Dick and Rae used the Notebook for many years for their two-week intensive workshops on lecture demos. Send a $45 check (or invoice) to Col. Timothy M. Hodges, Head Department of Physics and Astronomy Virginia Military Institute Lexington, VA 24450 Email: hodgestm@vmi.edu Phone: 540-464-7123 The $45 includes postage and any applicable sales tax. All proceeds will go to an educational fund in the VMI Foundation
The Living Physics Portal is now seeking beta users!
The Living Physics Portal is a new online environment for physics faculty to share and discuss free curricular resources for teaching introductory physics for life sciences (IPLS). The objective of the Portal is to improve the education of the next generation of medical professionals and biologists by making physics classes more relevant for life sciences students. We are currently looking for beta users to contribute curricular materials to this early version of the site, browse our existing collection of high quality materials from our team, and give us feedback on the site. To learn more about what's available in the beta version of the site, and what will be available in the future, see what's available and what's coming and become a beta tester. To get involved in our upcoming in-person events, see our events page.
JavaScript Physlet Physics Now Available
The new JavaScript edition of Physlet Physics is now available from the Open Source Physics ComPADRE Collection. The original functionality and interactivity of Physlets is maintained and all 800+ Illustrations, Explorations, and Problems are mobile friendly and ready-to-use by students without installing any additional plug-in. Try them out on AAPT-ComPADRE at: www.compadre.org/physlets/
Career Toolbox for Undergraduates
The Careers Toolbox for Undergraduate Physics Students is a set of tools and exercises designed to help undergraduate physics students prepare to enter the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics workforce. Tools range from exploring the common job titles of physics bachelor's to preparing for interviews, and are all geared specifically for physics students. This resource is brought to you by the American Institute of Physics and the Society of Physics Students. The 4th Edition is now ready for use.
Help students find the right grad program. Tell them about GradSchoolShopper.com
Advise your students to check out GradSchoolShopper.com, the most complete directory of graduate programs in the physical sciences. Students headed for graduate school can use this FREE service to search by degree programs, admission deadlines, research specialties, faculty profiles, GRE requirements, and more! New 2020 departmental data is now available. If your program isn't listed, contact us to find out how to have it included.
American Modeling Teachers Association
Modeling Workshops & Courses for 2020
The American Modeling Teachers Association will offer distance learning Modeling courses for the 2020 spring. The distance learning courses are synchronous sessions, 3 hours each, using the Zoom platform with video and break-out sessions. The leaders will dive deep into the Modeling pedagogy and use simulations and videos if labs cannot be conducted in participants' own time. Details.
Intro to Modeling, a 15 week course hosted on Tuesday evenings 7-10 pm EST
For details and registration
Advanced Topics for Middle School Modeling, a 5-week course hosted on Wednesday evenings from 7-10 pm EST
For details and registration
Electricity & Magnetism Modeling course, a 15 week course hosted on Thursday evenings from 7-10 pm EST
For details and registration
Information of the upcoming Summer 2020 Modeling Workshops is constantly updated every time when we receive information about another workshop. At this moment, workshops have been scheduled for Arizona, Maine, Massachusetts and Ohio. For details
Physics Careers
Recruit STEM Interns from the Best Job Sites for FREE!
The AAPT Career Center offers no-cost postings to employers recruiting seasonal interns. Locate the best fit for your organization by reaching the future of the science community - the AAPT membership, as well as the members and student members of the American Physical Society (APS Physics), AVS Science and Technology, and the Society of Physics Students and Sigma Pi Sigma.
Get the word out! Your posting will also appear on the Physics Today Jobs site, which when combined with the job sites of the organizations mentioned above forms the ultimate online science, engineering, and computing career network, ensuring maximum relevant visibility for your internship. Visit https://jobs.aapt.org/employers/ to get posting!
Jobs Announcements from the Career Center
Editor of the American Journal of Physics
AAPT
Click here for job description.
Physics Teacher
The Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science
Click here for job description.
More Physics Resources
Social Media @ AAPT
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Section News
Please submit your Section Report for the AAPT Section News. To list your section meeting in the AAPT Calendar of Events, e-mail the information to mhall@aapt.org. See the Spring 2019 Section News.
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© 2019, American Association of Physics Teachers
Table of Contents
Featured Journal Articles
American Journal of Physics
Finite and half-infinite solenoids and the Aharonov-Bohm effect
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The Physics Teacher
Modeling Potential Energy of the Gaussian Gun
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