AAPT Section News, December 2013
—Page 8
Ontario Section
The Ontario Section of AAPT (Ontario Association of
Physics Teachers) enjoyed another very busy year. The cur-
rent report features 2013 events and activities.
OAPT Thirty Fifth Annual conference titled “Phys-
ics Education Research in Action!” took place May 2-4,
2013. It was hosted by the University of Ontario Institute
of Technology (UOIT) in Oshawa, Ontario. As always, the
conference opened with traditional barbeque followed by
the conference tours and social activities. The conference
featured a wide range of workshops organized into five
workshop sessions. Each session contained several concur-
rent workshops. Six different workshops were dedicated to
PER-informed pedagogies. The conference program and
more details about the workshops offered can be found at
The
reviews of the selected conference sessions can be found
in July 2013 Newsletter at
-
ter/2013_07.pdf .
Ontario Section maintains very vibrant website http://
that was expanded and revitalized in 2012.
Various teaching resources (including but not limited to
the conference materials downloads) are posted at http://
. For example, past
OAPT Contest questions collected by topic and ready to
use in the classrooms can be found at
resources/contestQB.html, while the page about Concept
Questions for Peer Instructions can be found at
.
oapt.ca/resources/conceptquestions.html . Also, all of the
Demonstration Corner contributions collected over 25 years
are available at
.
html.
The list of recent and upcoming events in which the
OAPT members are involved can be found
.
oapt.ca/events/index.html .
Our Newsletter is published quarterly and can be found
at
Its regular
features include Demonstration Corner, Physics Education
Research, and High School Physics sections. The OAPT
web site now features OAPT Newsletters dating back to
1979. The most recent newsletter was published in October
2013. It can be accessed on-line at
/
newsletter/2013_10.pdf . July 2013 Newsletter at http://
features President’s
overview of recent developments.
We are happy to announce that our Past President Dave
Doucette is awarded the 2013 Canadian Association of
Physics Teachers (CAP) Award for Excellence in Teaching
High School/CEGEP Physics (Ontario) for his tireless pro-
motion of Physics Education Research, whose efforts have
transformed the practices of teachers across Ontario. Dave
is not just a great physics teacher - he is a great teacher
of physics teachers. He has given hundreds of workshops
and he has provided countless hours of individual mentor-
ing. He has led the resurgence of the Ontario Association
of Physics Teachers - doubling conference numbers and
developing a summer camp for teachers. His enthusiasm is
inspirational, his knowledge and his generosity greatly ap-
preciated. Please join us in congratulating Mr. Doucette,
winner of the 2013 CAPAward for Excellence in Teaching
High School/CEGEP Physics (Ontario).
Our next (36rd!) annual conference will take place on May
8-10, 2014 and will be hosted by the Department of Electri-
cal and Computer Engineering, the University of Toronto.
This conference will focus on STEM education. Building
on success of previous annual conferences, our 36th an-
nual conference once again will feature an array of exciting
presentations and hands-on, activity-based workshops. For
full conference program please visit
/
conference/2014/index.html .
We are looking forward to refine and further expand our
activities by building upon our successes and strengths in
2015 and beyond.
—Tetyana Anitmirova, Section Representative
Southern California Section
On November 9, over fifty members of the Southern Cali-
fornia Section gathered at LaSalle High School (Pasadena,
CA) for a day full of informative presentations and lively
discussions. SCAAPT thanks Chija Bauer, who hosted
the meeting and Bradley “Peanut” McCoy, who served as
Program Chair of the meeting. The meeting was called to
order by SCAAPT President James Lincoln.
Lee Loveridge and Travis Orloff led a workshop where
