AAPT Section News, December 2013
—Page 1
Appalachian Section
The 62nd Appalachian Section Meeting was held October
18-19, 2013 at Marshall University, Huntington, WV. Our
host, Maria Babiuc Hamilton, assembled an interesting
schedule of sessions and activities. Friday events opened
with a Welcome from Ronald Bieniek, Dean of the Honors
College and an Invited Talk about “Teaching Sustainability
Using Physics” by Beth Cunningham, Executive Officer of
AAPT. Dinner was served at the Shawkley Dining Room
in the Marshall Memorial Student Center.
Nicola Orsini, Chair of Physics and Physical Sciences,
opened the Saturday morning session. Six contributed
papers were presented followed by a mini-workshop “A
Modeling Teaser.” Doug Forrest and Kevin McChesney
from the Southern Ohio Section conducted a highly
interactive experiment on Rates of Change. All attendees
fully engaged and enjoyed the workshop. Four contributed
papers rounded out the remainder of the afternoon.
The Appalachian Section Business Meeting was held
following lunch on Saturday. Officers elected included:
• Maria Babiuc Hamilton, Marshall University, President
• Hang-Den Luzader, Frostburg State University,
President-Elect
• John Lynch, Wheeling Jesuit University, Secretary-
Treasurer
• Pam Sharma, Northern West Virginia Community
College, Vice-President, High Schools
Our Fall 2014 Meeting is scheduled for Frostburg State
University in Frostburg, MD.
Gregory Puskar, Section Representative
Arkansas/OklahomaSection
The Arkansas-Oklahoma-Kansas Section Meeting of the
American Association of Physics Teachers was held on
October 25-26, 2013, at Butler Community College in
El Dorado, KS. With nearly 70 different people attending
the meeting over the two days students, faculty, and staff
members were treated to a number of activities.
The meeting was themed, Physics and Flight: Igniting the
interest of students and boosting them to success according
to Dr. Anne Gillis, host of the meeting,
“This year’s theme draws attention to the motivation
and success of our students, and I think that when we
educators are at our best these follow naturally. The
ideas that you, my colleagues, bring to this conference
year after year, address these goals. It is always a sincere
pleasure to discuss ideas with you, to share stories of
trials, tribulation, success, and to learn from you. Your
enthusiasm, commitment and love of teaching are
contagious.”
Friday afternoon and evening activities that occurred at the
annual conference included:
December 2013
Published by the American Association of Physics Teachers as a service to AAPT Sections
Appalachian Section Modeling Teaser Workshop
participants.
