eNNOUNCER August 2016


AAPT News


2016 AAPT Board of Directors Election

The election of officers for the AAPT Board of Directors will begin in September. Watch for the exact dates in next month's eNNOUNCER. Members will receive instructions through email or, if no email is on file, through the mail to help you vote electronically. Be sure your email address and membership are current so you can participate. Learn more about the candidates.

2017 AAPT Winter Meeting

The 2017 AAPT Winter Meeting will be held in Atlanta, Georgia from February 18-21 at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis. Abstracts submission for the winter meeting will open on August 4. Please click here between August 4th and September 15 to submit your contributed talk or poster abstract. This is a great opportunity to present your research or share your ideas with your colleagues.

AAPT Code of Conduct

You may have read recently in the June 2016 Physics Today (pp. 30-32) and in the news about harassment issues at professional society meetings. In light of these discussions, the AAPT Board of Directors and Executive Office affirms that the Association expects the highest level of professional behavior of everyone at its meetings and events. We all want AAPT meetings and workshops to be productive and welcoming for all and that means we all need to treat each other with respect and dignity. If you experience any unethical behavior or see such behavior directed towards someone else at the meeting, you may report that behavior to one of the AAPT staff so that appropriate action can be taken. AAPT will soon release a formal Code of Conduct and lay out the details of procedures to be followed in case violations of that Code are reported. Learn more

eAlliances: Uniting Isolated Women Physicists and Astronomers

Everyone needs mentors, but how do you find other women physicists who understand your experience-- as the only Hispanic in the department, the only PER researcher, the only full-time physicist at your TYC, the only one who brings a newborn in a sling to department meetings? Join eAlliances, an NSF-sponsored faculty development project for women physics faculty, and become part of a peer-mentoring alliance with other women who share many of your same experiences.

Why me?

• Connect with other women physicists and astronomers
• Get and give advice and affirmation
• Gather a variety of insights to help you address professional issues
• Address work-life balance issues
• Receive encouragement and support in achieving your goals

This is professional development for your career stage: whether you are teaching your first or hundredth section of intro physics; mentoring your first or hundredth research associate; or leading your first or hundredth committee meeting. Someone else has a similar experience and can share insights, frustrations and successes.

To join: Register at eAlliances.aapt.org

AAPT Privacy Statement

AAPT has added an updated privacy statement to its website. A link to the document can be found at the bottom of each page next to the copyright link and under the About tab in the navigation bar at the top of each page.

AAPT/PTRA Leadership Workshop

AAPT/PTRA The AAPT/PTRA leadership workshop was held August 13-16, 2016 in Roseville, CA and was hosted by PASCO. The PTRA Master Teachers focused on topics and pedagogy related to providing effective professional development in physical science for the K-12 education community. Topics ranged from helping elementary teachers understand thermodynamics and electricity to quantum physics for university or high school students. In addition to the leadership workshop, PTRAs facilitated or presented 15 sessions at the summer AAPT meeting. PTRAs have been busy this summer providing quality professional development to over 200 teachers. The majority of the summer workshops were over 75 hours and focused on serving elementary and middle school teachers.

Webinar K-12 STEM

Webinar: Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship Informational Session for K-12 STEM Educators with Jill Latchana, Project Manager for the AEF Program

18 August 2016
8PM - 9PM ET
Register Here: https://goo.gl/E4tXS6

Are you an outstanding STEM teacher? Do you feel STEM education could be improved and have ideas for how to make it better? Do you want to learn and grow as an educational leader? Are you eager for a chance to make a difference and have an impact at the national level?

Join the AAPT as it hosts an informational session about the Albert Einstein Fellowship, an 11-month program that places excellent K-12 STEM educators on Capitol Hill and in federal agencies (such as NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Energy) to impact nation-wide STEM education. Multiple AAPT members have been honored as fellows since the program's inception. Ask questions about the selection process and learn about the fellowship experience from prior fellows before applications open in August.

17 Educators Selected for Physics Master Teacher Leader Taskforce

The AAPT - including representatives from the AAPT Physics Teaching Resource Agents (PTRA), American Modeling Teachers Association (AMTA), and the Physics Teacher Education Coalition (PhysTEC) - selected 17 outstanding leaders in K-12 physics education for the Physics Master Teacher Leader Taskforce.

Collectively, these physics master teacher leaders will work with AAPT HQ to prepare a report to be presented to the AAPT Board of Directors that details a new set of aspirational and coherent professional development and leadership models for K-12 physics education, with an emphasis on engaging teachers as advocates for change.

Learn more here

AAPT Member Spotlight

Chandralekha Singh
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Read more

AAPT Career Center Offers FREE Postings

The AAPT Career Center offers FREE 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 jobs.aapt.org to get started.

Computational Physics at AAPT Section Meetings

The Partnership for the Integration of Computation into Undergraduate Physics (PICUP) has a project for fostering faculty communities to develop computational integration at a local level. We invite any AAPT section with faculty interested in exploring computational integration into their courses to express its interest (if it has not already done so) in developing such a community. Any section member who feels that local faculty might have an interest in including computation in their courses may convey this interest. The venue for doing so is the following survey. This process begins by hosting an introductory workshop (e.g. at a regular section meeting) whose objectives are:

  • to describe a strategy for introducing computation in courses and illustrative materials suggesting how to do so;
  • to help participants envision their own computational educational materials;
  • to formulate individual plans for each to implement these designs as materials in at least one of their upcoming courses; and
  • to introduce them to a local support network to use for mutual collaboration in and support for their implementation efforts after the workshop.
We look forward to hearing from you via the following survey.

AAPT Programs


2016 U.S. Physics Team Scores 2 Gold and 3 Silver Medals at 47th International Physics Olympiad

The United States Physics Team ranked fifth place in the point count and seventh place in the medal count at the 47th International Physics Olympiad that was held in Zürich, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, 10-18, 2016. Read more

2016 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.

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.

Physics and Astronomy Department Chairs - New Faculty Workshop Nominations

Physics and Astronomy department chairs are invited to nominate faculty members in their first few years of their tenure-track appointments for the Physics and Astronomy New Faculty Workshop to be held November 17-20 in College Park, MD. The workshop introduces the faculty members to effective and easy-to-implement interactive engagement teaching methods as well as other to grant-writing best practices and plans for preparing for tenure and promotion decisions. Nominations should be completed online at www.aapt.org/Conferences before 5 pm EDT on Friday, September 23. Chairs may also nominate faculty in full-time lecturer (or equivalent) positions. Some financial support is available for faculty members at minority-serving institutions and at small departments with severe financial constraints.

Getting the most from your Membership

Journals on AAPT.org American Journal of Physics and The Physics Teacher now have a home on the aapt.org website. When you click on the "Publications" tab and select one of our journal you will go to the new journal home page. This page will include links to the full Table of Contents for each issue as well as the cover image and description. Additional links related to the journal will be available from this home page. Past issue pages are archived here as well.

K-12 Lesson Plans based on TPT Articles. A developing library of K-12 lessons plans based on articles previously published in The Physics Teacher is now available to AAPT members at the K-12 Portal on aapt.org. Click Lessons and Resources to find interdisciplinary Lessons from The Physics Teacher.

K-12 Webinars. While you are on the K-12 Lessons and Resources page check out the growing body of content available as Webinars and Associated Resources. New webinars are being held each month so check this page often.


In the News


Let’s Get to PhysCon!

Don’t let your students miss PhysCon2016 (2016 Quadrennial Physics Congress) November 3-5 in Silicon Valley, CA! The Society of Physics Students and Sigma Pi Sigma, the physics honor society, have fundraising kits and tips, travel and reporter grants, sponsorship and exhibit opportunities, exciting tours, and much more. Register now!

APS National Mentoring Community: Call for Mentors

The American Physical Society (APS) established the National Mentoring Community to provide mentoring for underrepresented minority (URM) physics undergraduates in the US. Current physics faculty are invited to sign up for free as an APS NMC mentor and nominate a URM physics student to participate as your mentee. This is a great way to support our students and connect to a larger group of faculty concerned with these issues. For more information, please visit the APS website.

APS National Mentoring Community Conference

Registration is now open for the 2016 APS National Mentoring Community Conference. Conference attendees can look forward to plenary talks from prominent scientists, a tour of NASA’s Houston Space Center, career workshops and panels, and a lot more. Learn more and register on the APS website.

PhysPort.org: Supporting Physics Teaching with Research-based Resources

PhysPort is the go-to place for finding resources based on physics education research (PER) to use in your classroom. Free resources on PhysPort include:

• Guides to 50+ research-based teaching methods
• Guides and downloads (for verified educators) of 50+ research-based assessments
• Video workshops for TA/LA training and faculty professional development
• Expert Recommendations by PhysPort staff and experts in PER
• The Data Explorer for instant analysis and visualization of your students results on research-based assessments

Analyze your Concept Inventory Data with the PhysPort Data Explorer

Do you have piles of data from research-based assessments lying around waiting to be analyzed? Try out a new tool that will help you quickly:

• Analyze results for the FCI, FMCE, BEMA, CSEM, CLASS, or MPEX
• Match and score your raw data
• Chart and analyze: histograms for your class, your course over time, breakdown by topic, or compare multiple courses
• Split and group by grade, major, and other student information

The PhysPort Data Explorer is now available in open beta to U.S. college physics faculty. You can sign up to be beta tester today through our easy verification process.

Questions? editor@physport.org

Help Today's Children Deliver Tomorrow's Solutions

Northrop Grumman Foundation is on a mission to get students excited about science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM),apply today for one of five grants of up to $100,000 each available to public middle schools for their very own fabulous school lab makeover. Read more

Neoclassical Physics by Mark Cunningham

In this introductory text, physics concepts are introduced as a means of understanding experimental observations, not as a sequential list of facts to be memorized. The book is structured around the key scientific discoveries that led to much of our current understanding of the universe. Numerous exercises are provided that utilize Mathematica software to help students explore how the language of mathematics is used to describe physical phenomena. Read more

STEM Faculty Launch Workshop

Learn how to pursue, apply for, and successfully launch your faculty career with the STEM Faculty Launch Workshop, a premier workshop for graduate students and post-doctoral researchers seeking tenure-track positions.

This second annual workshop, based at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), is open to candidates nationwide. Women and traditionally underrepresented minority candidates are especially encouraged to apply.

Participants attend a variety of interactive sessions, present their research to expert faculty, and gain exposure to project-based learning, a hallmark of WPI education.

All invited participants receive funding to cover travel expenses to and from WPI as well as lodging and meals during the workshop.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Massachusetts September 22-23, 2016 Application Deadline: August 12, 2016

APPLY NOW

NSF STEM Video Showcase

AAPT members may be interested in participating in the NSF STEM Video Showcase that is now live at http://stemforall2016.videohall.com/

The virtual event features more than 150 short videos highlighting innovative programs and advances in STEM teaching and learning, including 62 initiatives that are specifically focused on science education. Read more

The showcase is free and open to the public.

Facebook
NOW LIVE! Be part of conversation at the NSF 2016 STEM for ALL Video Showcase - Over 150 3-min videos on innovative work in STEM Education. View, Discuss, and Vote for your favorite! #stemvideohall

Twitter
NOW LIVE! Be part of conversation at the NSF 2016 #STEMforALL Video Showcase View, Discuss, and Vote! #stemvideohall

Faraday’s Notebooks

The Royal Institution’s collection of Michael Faraday’s laboratory notebooks have been inscribed on to the UNESCO UK Memory of the World Register. Read more.

ALPhA Announcements

1. Barbara Wolff-Reichert Grants will provide up to $7,500, with a 50% departmental match, toward the purchase of a TeachSpin instrument successfully mastered by a participant in an ALPhA Immersion. Read more.

2. ALPhA Mining Actualization Grants were created by the Jonathan Reichert Foundation to underwrite the construction, testing and dissemination of advanced lab experiments that are closely related to current research in physics. These are first come, first serve equipment grants with a maximum of $2,000 per school. Apply now!

3. The Jonathan Reichert Foundation announced the recipients of its inaugural grant program, supporting the advanced laboratory physics association (ALPhA) immersions. This year, the Foundation funded twelve out of sixteen applications, with a total funding of about $38,000. Congratulations to the individuals and institutions who received grants for advanced labs! Read more.

APS National Mentoring Community

The American Physical Society (APS) has established the National Mentoring Community (NMC) to provide support to African American, Hispanic American, and Native American students as they navigate the path toward earning an undergraduate degree in physics. Current physics faculty (including those at community and 2-year colleges) who are already mentoring students or are interested in doing so are encouraged to become an NMC mentor today. Learn more and register on the APS website.

American Modeling Teachers Association

The American Modeling Teachers Association has already more than 60 workshops planned for the summer. In the workshops, science teachers learn how to use the Modeling pedagogy in their content area. Workshops are offered in physics, 1st and 2nd semester, chemistry, biology, physical science for high school teachers (and others) and a separate workshop for middle school teachers, see attachment.
Please go to:modelinginstruction.org/ or www.phystec.org for the complete list.

Inclusive Excellence: 2017 Undergraduate Science Education Grants

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute recently announced a new competition for science education grants to colleges and universities called "Inclusive Excellence: Engaging all students in science."

Scholarship Opportunity

Do you know any high school seniors looking to major in physics? Simpson College recently received a NSF grant that will provide 15 financially needy incoming students with financial assistance ($33,600 over four years), mentorship, and research opportunities as they pursue a degree in a mathematical STEM field. For this reason, we are recruiting talented high school seniors to come to Simpson as undergraduates.

For information on the Carver Bridge to STEM Success Scholarship Program visit the following website: http://simpson.edu/carver-bridge-scholars/

If you know any students who might be interested in this opportunity, we are more than happy to discuss more over email or phone. Contact Professor Aaron Santos at aaron.santos@simpson.edu or call at 515-961-1826.


Physics Careers


Jobs Announcements from the Career Center

Physics and Chemistry Teacher
Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy
http://jobs.aapt.org/jobs/8300817

High School Physics Teaching Jobs, Nationwide
Carney, Sandoe & Associates
http://jobs.aapt.org/jobs/8318667


More Physics Resources


What Does ORCID Have to do With Publishing Articles?

ORCID is an acronym which stands for “Open Researcher and Contributor ID,” designed to uniquely identify people involved in research activities. The term is used to refer to both the identifier standard (a 16-character string) as well as the organization which creates these IDs and maintains their registry.

ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between you and your professional activities ensuring that your work is recognized.

Register for your ORCID identifier at orcid.org

Learn more about how ORCID works ( link to: astrobetter.com

Periscope: Looking into Learning in Best-practices Physics Classrooms

Periscope is a set of lessons centered on video episodes from best-practices physics classrooms. By watching and discussing authentic teaching events, instructors enrich their experience with noticing and interpreting student behavior and practice applying lessons learned about teaching to actual teaching situations.
Periscope is free to qualified educators at physport.org/periscope.

CERN Beamline for Schools Competition

CERN is famous for the Large Hadron Collider, but there’s much more to the laboratory than that. A large part of CERN’s research and development is carried out using fixed-target beamlines, which are used for a variety of experiments that range from investigating the inner workings of protons to probing the mysteries of antimatter. As part of the beam line for schools competition, CERN is making a fully equipped beamline available for a team of school students to run an experiment. Read more


Social Media @ AAPT

AAPT wants to connect with you on social media! Stay abreast of the latest AAPT and physics-related news. We invite you to like us, follow us, connect with us, and pin us. You can find us here:
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Section News

To list your section meeting in the AAPT Calendar of Events, e-mail the information to dwolfe@aapt.org. See the December 2015 Section News.


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In this issue

AAPT News

AAPT Programs

In the News

Physics Careers

More Physics Resources

 

Featured Journal Articles

The Physics Teacher

The Best of The Physics Teachers 2015-2016

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American Journal of Physics

Numerical solutions of reaction-diffusion equations: Application to neural and cardiac models

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