AAPT Section News, July 2013
—Page 6
Electronics presented by Andrew Morrison, New Vernier
Physics Apparatus and the Connected Science System
presented by John Gastineau, and Using TIPERS to Help
Students Make Sense of Physics presented by Steve Kanim.
Invited speakers included Steve Kanim, John Gastineau,
Dave Maloney, Shawn Cornally, Diandra Leslie-Pelecky,
Robert C. Hilborn, and Beth A. Cunningham. Full program
details are available at
The Illinois section will meet twice in 2013; March 1-2
at Western Illinois University and October 4-5 at Heartland
Community College. More information about both of these
meetings as well as other details about the Illinois Section
can be found at
.
Jeremy Paschke (left) receives the 2011-12
Outstanding H.
S. Teacher Award
from Brian Davies at the Spring Meeting
Doug Brandt (right) receives the 2012
Distinguished
Service Citation
at the Fall meeting.
More photos are available at
/
isaapt/s12/pictures.html
and
isaapt/f12/pictures.html
.
—Zak Knott, Section Representative
Long Island Section
The
2012 Physics Olympics
was held at the Farmingdale
State College on March 30 with high schools from all over
Long Island participating in such events as Physics Bowl,
Pendulum of Doom, and Sensing the Fundamentals. Division
High School from Levittown Public Schools triumphed over
the 16 participating schools. Our Committee Chair, Gillian
Winters from Smithtown High Schools, was responsible for
coordinating this entertaining and challenging event.
An April 20, 2012 field trip to Farmingdale to our local
amusement park, Adventureland, served as the venue for
our
Spring Conference
. Twenty participants met with
the park engineer to get a behind the scenes look into the
operation of the rides. Teachers also made suggestions to the
park engineer about how students could take more effective
measurements. For example, he agreed that students could
use tethered balls on the carousel and could be permitted to
climb to an upper level to drop balls.
After a break for conversation and breakfast snacks the
group met to work on revising the workbook used in our
Adventureland student field trip in October. Tania Entwistle,
section representative and Treasurer, led the effort to make
revisions in format (to make the appearance more consistent)
and to restructure the activities and content to make more
sense. Extension of the activities to include work that
would be useful for Conceptual Physics students through
AP C Physics students were made. The group adjourned
at noon, after Tania Entwistle and Gillian Winters agreed
to incorporate the new information into a Word file that
could be downloaded from our website for Physics Day at
Adventureland.
Our annual
AP Physics Exam Review Conference
took
place on March 22nd from 7 to 9 PM at Western Suffolk
Boces in Dix Hills, Bill Leacock, Lipta’s Vice-President
from Mepham High School worked the solutions to the AP B
exam and Gillian Winters handled the AP C solutions. Our
15 participants got a chance to discuss the exam in a relaxing
atmosphere, while sharing refreshments.
The
LIPTA Barbeque
, on June 28, 2012 from 12-3
PM, at Bill Leacock’s house, started off the summer. . Bill
provided the grilling skills and our President Ed McDaniels,
supplied the food. The beautiful day enhanced the discussion
about our recent Regents Physics exam and a recap of the
year’s activities.
Physics Day at Great Adventure
drew about 700
students from around Long Island who became involved
in the fun of Physics on October 23, 2012. Rich Yngstrom,
from Patchogue-Medford High School, handles the logistics
of this event where the measurements and activities can
be used by teachers through the semester as the concepts
are encountered in the curriculum. Teachers were able
to download the new workbook created at the Spring
Workshop.
