AAPT Section News, December 2013
—Page 4
We plan to meet in the spring at Lake Forest College at
a date to be determined in April. Fall meeting date and
location remain to be determined.
—Gordon P. Ramsey, Section Representative
Illinois Section
The Illinois Section of AAPT held two local meetings
in 2013. Our spring meeting was hosted by the Western
Illinois University in Macomb, IL and our fall meeting was
hosted by Illinois State University in Normal, IL.
The theme of the spring meeting was “Setting New
Standards in Physics Teaching”. Over 50 faculty, students,
and guests participated in a panel discussion, invited
and contributed talks, a lab tour, a dinner banquet, and
other events. Invited talks were given by Dr. Esteban
D. Araya (“Radio Astronomy: Observing the Invisible
Universe”) and Dr. Kishor T. Kapale (“Super-Resolution:
Quantum Tricks to Beat the Diffraction Limit”). The panel
discussion was led by panel members Gwen Pollock, Jim
Rabchuk, Jill Bucher, Gil Downey, and Pat Schlinder and
focused on the Next Generation Science Standards. Full
program details are available at helios.augustana.edu/isaapt/
s13/isaapt.html.
Our fall meeting activities were were were attended
by over 50 participants and centered around the theme
“Physics and Astronomy Education”. Invited speakers
included Dr. Rebecca Rosenblatt, Stacey Shrewsbury, Dr.
Daniel Miller, Sanjay Rebello, Carl Wenning, Revecca
Vieyra, and Dr. Robert Wagner. Two space themed events
were organized for attendees – a telescope viewing/tour and
a challenger learning center mission. Full program details
are available at
The Illinois section will meet twice in 2014. The
spring meeting will be March 28-29 at Illinois Wesleyan
University in Bloomington, IL and the fall meeting will
be joint with the Iowa section at Bettendorf High School
in Bettendorf, IA. More information about both of these
meetings as well as other details about the Illinois Section
can be found at
.
Andrew Vikartofsky (right) winner of the 2012-13 Student
Research Symposium with Brian Davies at the Spring Meeting.
—Zak A. Knott, Section Representative
Iowa Section
The Iowa Section of AAPT held its annual fall meeting
November 2, 2013 at Northeast Iowa Community College’s
Regional Academy for Math and Science in Oelwein,
IA with section President John Zwart of Dordt College
officiating.
After a welcome by NICC President Dr. Liang Chee Wee,
John Zwart made announcements and brought “News from
National AAPT” which included announcing that next
summer’s national meeting is in the neighboring state of
Minnesota. In some sad news, he let members know that
our 2010 section president, Cliff Chancey of the University
of Northern Iowa, passed away unexpectedly.
Moving into contributed talks, Michael Farndale of
Waldorf College showed how Vernier’s pressure sensor
could be used to demonstrate Boyle’s law and pointed out
several details to keep in mind to get good results. Sara
Karbeling of Central Academy presented “It’s Your Lab
– A New Focus on Inquiry in Upper-Level High School
Physics Courses” in which she described how she is
implementing inquiry based labs as required by Advanced
