eNNOUNCER October 2014

2014 AAPT Executive Board Election

The election of officers for the AAPT Executive Board is underway until November 4.  Members should have received instuctions through email or, if no email is on file, through the mail to help you vote electronically.  Those elected will take office at the close of the 2015 Winter Meeting. Learn more about the 2014 candidates.

2015 AAPT Winter Meeting - Registration Opening Soon!

The 2015 AAPT Winter Meeting will be held January 3-6, 2015 in beautiful San Diego, California.  Join hundreds of your colleagues from early career professionals to those more seasoned, for networking and professional development on a host of topics.  Learn more

Abstract submissions will be accepted until September 12th. Learn more about the meeting and reserve your hotel room today! Registration opens soon!  Post deadline abstracts can be submitted until November 5. Submit yours today!

Learn more about:
High School Physics Teachers' Day
  Childcare Grants

Call for Award Nominations

The AAPT Awards Committee invites nominations for all of AAPT's awards, citations, and medals http://www.aapt.org/Programs/awards/. This is the first year that nominations will be accepted for AAPT Fellows. Nominees are accepted from the High School, Two-Year College and Four-Year College communities on a yearly rotating basis. Nominations of Two-Year College faculty for AAPT Fellows are particularly encouraged this fall.

More from AAPT

Limited Edition Einstein and Newton Shirts Still Available
In case you missed it, we still have a few limited edition shirts left.  The shirts were designed by AAPT member Walter Trikosko (of Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX).  They are only $12 and proceeds go directly to support the AAPT Student Fund.  Purchase yours today before they sell out.

Physics Days at NSTA
AAPT is pleased to partner with NSTA for Physics Day held at their 2014 Area Conferences held in Richmond (VA), Orlando (FL), and Long Beach (CA).  For more information about the programming for each Physics Day, click here.

Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC) Registration Reminder
Registration is now open for the world's largest student rocket contest, the Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC). Sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association (AA) and the National Association of Rocketry (NAR) in partnership with AAPT, TARC is an opportunity for hands-on learning as students design, build and fly modal rockets in a national contest while competing for more than $60,000 in cash and scholarships.  Registration runs until December 12, 2014 and is open to teams of 3-10 students in grades 7-12.  For more information or to register go to rocketcontest.org.

2015 F=ma Contest Open

AAPT and the American Institute of Physics (AIP) sponsor a competition for high school students to represent the United States at the 2015 International Physics Olympiad. The mission of the U.S. Physics Team Program is to promote and demonstrate academic excellence through preparation for and participation in the International Physics Olympiad. Listen to stories from students at this year's Training Camp and register online.

Save the Date

AAPT/NSBP Workshop for HBCU Physics and Astonomy faculty, November 10-14
AAPT and the National Society of Black Physicists are hosting a meeting for physics and astronomy faculty members at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Nov. 10-14, 2014 in College Park, MD.  The meeting will focus on issues important to physics and astronomy at HBCUs including department structures and resources, recruiting and retaining students, and implementing effective pedagogy.  Participants at the meeting are welcome to stay on for the Physics and Astronomy New Faculty Workshop, Nov. 13-16, also in College Park, for which a limited number of travel subsidies are available.  More information about both workshops will be available on the AAPT and NSBP websites.

Physics and Astronomy New Faculty Workshop, November 13-16
  Physics and astronomy chairs are invited to nominate early career tenure-track faculty members for the Physics and Astronomy New Faculty Workshop to be held November 13-16, in College Park, MD. The NSF-funded workshop introduces new physics and astronomy faculty members to effective teaching and learning methods, grant writing, time management, and other professional skills.

ComPADRE Continuation Fund

The ComPADRE Digital Library is a network of free online resource collections supporting college faculty, high school and middle school teachers, education researchers, and students in Physics and Astronomy. Collections contain materials designed for a specific community, with all materials available through the central ComPADRE portal.

The creation and development of ComPADRE was funded by multiple federal grants over the past decade. Now that these grants have ended, AAPT has committed to fund and develop ComPADRE with help from other sources of funds. The ComPADRE programs and resources will continue to be available as we transition to AAPT servers. Beginning next year these and additional services will be available through your AAPT membership.

Donations to the ComPADRE Continuation Fund are used to sustain and continue the operation of the ComPADRE website and the services provided to the physics education community.

Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship Program

The Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship (AEF) Program for K-12 STEM Teachers is now accepting applications for the 2015-2016 fellowship year.  The AEF program provides a unique opportunity for accomplished K-12 educators in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to serve in the national education arena.  Fellows spend 11 months working in a Federal agency or U.S. Congressional office, bringing their extensive classroom knowledge and experience to STEM education programs and/or education policy efforts. More information can be found here. The deadline for applications is November 20, 2014. To be eligible, applicants must be U.S. citizens, be currently employed full-time in a U.S. public or private elementary or secondary school or school district, and must have taught full-time in a public or private elementary or secondary school for at least five of the last seven years in a STEM discipline.

Get More from Your Membership

In our current world of 24/7 news sources catering to audiences of every sliver of the political spectrum it can be difficult to find an objective news source.  The physical science community is fortunate that it can turn to FYI, The AIP Bulletin of Science Policy News for its unbiased analysis of developments on Captiol Hill and in federal agencies supporting physical science research and STEM education. FYI is a membership benefit.  Subscribe today and stay informed.

Need a Helping Hand in Studying Physics?

Announcing the release of a new eBook! Learning Introductory Physics: A Guide for All Students by Subhash Antani, Professor of Physics (Retired), Edgewood College, Madison, WI.  For further information on the book and to order your copy, please visit: http://PhysicsNow321.com

SCOPE Student-centered Learning Resources for Schools and Classrooms

Student-centered schools have been shown to support high levels of achievement for traditionally underserved students.  As educators return to school this fall, they can learn ways to implement student-centered practices in their own schools and classrooms through a new online tool developed by the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE).

This professional development tool includes definitions of the features of student-centered schools, video examples of student-centered practices, and reflection questions for educators to use to integrate their own practices within their classroom and school-wide. For more information visit this link.

Sustainability: October 16, 2014 Free Webinar and Networking Event

Civil Discourse and Civic Engagement with Planet Education - Course Activities for all Disciplines
Plan to participate October 16th in a networking and learning opportunity focused on empowering faculty, students, staff, and communities through applied learning. Sponsored by the Higher Education Associations Sustainability Consortium (HEASC). Time: 3pm to 4:30 pm EST on October 16,2014. Click here to register.
Course Conversation Assignment for all Faculty
Utilize this teaching activity that engages students and is easily integrated as an assignment into a wide variety of courses. For Course Conversations teaching tools and resources click here. For more information, contact Debra Rowe at dgrowe@oaklandcc.edu or click here.

Jobs Announcements from the Career Center

INSTRUCTOR (Full/Part-time/Multiple Positions)
Louisiana State University
http://jobs.aapt.org/jobs/6512816

Three Open Rank, Tenure-track Positions: Cluster Hire in K-12 Integrated STEM Teacher
Purdue University
http://jobs.aapt.org/jobs/6492522
                   

Barbara Lotze Scholarships for Future Teachers

AAPT offers scholarships for future high school physics teachers. These scholarships, supported by an endowment funded by Barbara Lotze, are available only to U.S. citizens attending U.S. schools. Undergraduate students enrolled, or planning to enroll, in physics teacher preparation curricula and high school seniors entering such programs are eligible. Successful applicants receive a stipend of up to $2,000. The scholarship may be granted to an individual for each of four years. December 1 deadline.                        Read more.

2015 PhysTEC Conference

The 2015 PhysTEC Conference, will be held at the Marriott Seattle Waterfront in Seattle, WA next February 5-7. The conference's theme is Building Thriving Programs and will feature a plenary talk by Ron Henderson of Middle Tennessee State Univerity.  To learn more visit the conference website.

2015 Building a Thriving Undergraduate Physics Program Workshop

The workshop will be held February 6-8 at the Marriott Seattle Waterfront in Seattle, WA.  The goal of the workshop is to assist departments in developing strategies for increasing enrollment of physics majors. Institutions are invited to send teams of 2-4 faculty members to analyze their current departmental situation and decide how to take actions that will help them sustainably achieve their goals.  To learn more visit the website.

ASU's MNS Degree has In-State Tuition for 15 States

The Master of Natural Science (MNS) degree in physics at Arizona State University is a summer program for high school teachers.  Teachers in 15 western states can apply for IN-STATE tuition; the deadline is November 1.

Details and Application Form  |  List of 15 States

For more information contact Jane.Jackson@asu.edu.

Assistance Introducing History to the Physics Classroom

The Center for History of Physics at the American Institute of Physics is producing materials to help teachers introduce lessons on the stories of African Americans in the history of the physical sciences.  The team producing this Teachers Guide, which will be a resource for both history and science teachers and adhere to the Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards, is looking for advice on the best way to incorporate history into the science classroom.  If you have advice on creating lesson plans and resources that will make if easier for physics teachers to introduce history into their curriculum, please share it with the AAPT Executive Office (eo@aapt.org).

Increase Undergraduate Research Opportunities

Do you or does your department have a practice, funding strategy, internship placement strategy, or course with research embedded in it that, if adopted by other physics or astronomy departments, would help increase the number of undergraduate research opportunities? AAPT along with the Council on Undergraduate Research, the American Physical Society, and the Society of Physics Students are collecting articles that will be published on-line to serve as a resource to departments, faculty, and students as they work to meet the challenge put before the community that all undergraduate physics and astronomy majors at all colleges be provided with a research experience. AAPT’s statement on research experiences for undergraduates is available on our website. We invite you to submit an article for publication in this new resource that highlights any practice that encourages, leads to increases in, or enhances research experiences for undergraduates. We strongly encourage faculty members at two-year colleges to consider submitting a highlight.  Please contact Executive Officer Beth Cunningham (eo@aapt.org) for more information.

AAPT-ALPhA Award is Now Open for Nominations

AAPT and ALPhA (Advanced Laboratory Physics Association) have announced the AAPT/ALPhA Award for undergraduate physics students who have executed, mastered, and left as a legacy for future students an advanced laboratory experiment. Do you have a student (or team of students) who might be interested in taking up the challenge to build an experiment new to their own department and possibly receive national recognition, attend a national AAPT meeting, present an invited talk, and receive a check for $4,000? The nomination process is now open.  Applications need to be completed by September 1, 2015. If qualified candidates are proposed, we anticipate presenting the first award at the 2016 AAPT Winter Meeting in New Orleans. Read more or Apply. Funding for this award, for the first five years, is provided by TeachSpin, Inc.

New α-Miners Program

Having determined that the topic of a given talk has the possibility of being imported into the advanced lab, the job of these so called "α-miners" will be to approach the presenters and research groups with the following questions in mind:

• Are they willing to share special techinques or electronics?
• Are they willing and able to provide any necessary samples?
• Are they willing to mentor other faculty?
• Are they willing to help design the new experiments?
• Are they willing to lead an ALPhA Immersion on this experiment

The alpha-miners will be responsible for documenting the successful discoveries and submitting their reports to the COMPADRE website for use by the general physics community.

Those faculty interested in applying for this program should email Jonathan Reichert at jfreichert@teachspin.com

2014  International Year of Crystallography

The International Year of Crystallography 2014 (IYCr2014) commemorates not only the centennial of X-ray diffraction, which allowed the detailed study of crystalline material, but also the 400th anniversary of Kepler’s observation in 1611 of the symmetrical form of ice crystals, which began the wider study of the role of symmetry in matter.  Links to posters and other promotional materials and resources are available on the IYCR website. Read more »

More from your Membership, Join your AAPT Community

Did you know that you can connect with your collegues by joining an AAPT Email Discussion List?   There are more than 20 different lists/communities available. Find the list that matches your career interests at  http://www.aapt.org/Resources/lists.cfm.  Contact your Member Services  Department at 301-209-3333, or  by e-mail at membership@aapt.org if  you need assistance, or have further questions.

Career Learning Center

Professional development is a work in progress, and constantly gaining new skills and knowledge is essential to the success of any career. The latest enhancement to the AAPT Career Center - the Career Learning Center - is a career-guidance companion to searching the latest science teaching jobs. Equipped with four career-centric seminars, the AAPT Career Learning Center is a user-friendly virtual platform that satisfies the professional needs of AAPT members at all points on the career spectrum.
This helpful content is ONLY available to registered users with the AAPT Career Center, a free job seeker service provided by AAPT. Quickly login or create your job seeker account, and take control of your future by building a stronger presence among our industry's top employers.

Free Internship Job Posting on AAPT Career Center

AAPT has an online jobsite that offers free 60-day internship job postings.  To post internships online at AAPT visit http://jobs.aapt.org/. Locate the best fit for your organization by reaching the future of the science community – AAPT members. Valid intern-level opportunities are defined as limited-term (up to 12 weeks) employment for current undergraduates or recent bachelor degree recipients with financial compensation (if any) in the form of a modest salary or stipend. "Internship" Job Level must be selected when posting to access this offer.

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:

Physics Simulations Delivered to Your Tablet

Francisco (Paco) Esquembre, the Open Source Physics group, and ComPADRE have collaborated to create the tools to create, deliver, and run physics simulations on iOS and Android portable devices.  Paco and his colleagues have extended the Easy Java Simulations (EJS) modeling tool to create HTML5 and Javascript simulations (EJsS). An app to download and run these simulations is now available on the Apple and Android stores; search for EJSS Reader.  The Reader can access the OSP library and similar sites, to quickly and easily download and run simulations from authors around the world.  More information is available on the EJS Wiki at http://www.um.es/fem/EjsWiki/.

Section News - October

July 2014 Section News is available here.

Section Meeting:New England Section
Oct 10, 2014 - Oct 11, 2014
Join meeting with New York Section
Siena College
Loudenville, NY
Email: David Sturm

Section Meeting:Southern Ohio Section
Oct 11, 2014
Fall Meeting
The Seven Hills School
Cincinnati, OH
Email: Lenore Horner

Section Meeting:Texas Section
Oct 17, 2014 - Oct 19, 2014
Fall Meeting with APS and SPS
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX
Email: Tatiana Erukhimova or Email: Joe Musser

Section Meeting:Western Pennsylvania Section
Oct 18, 2014
Fall Meeting
Thiel College
Greenville, PA
Email: Dyan Jones

Section Meeting:Appalachian Section
Oct 31, 2014 - Nov 1, 2014
Fall Meeting
Frostburg State University
Frostburg, MD
Email: Hang Deng-Luzader

To list your section meeting in the AAPT Calendar of Events, e-mail the information to mgardner@aapt.org.

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