Treasurer's Report - Winter 2003

Charles E. Robertson
Announcer, Vol. 33, Iss. 4

The Bauder Endowment

A former member of the AAPT, "Cappy" Capecelatro, was asked by his neighbors Frederick and Florence Bauder if he knew of any organizations to which they could donate money. Capecelatro was a very active member of both the New Jersey Section and the national AAPT, so he did what comes naturally. He suggested AAPT, and in 1986 the Frederick and Florence Bauder Endowment for the Support of Physics Teaching was established with their donation of $140,000. Since that time interest payments have increased the size of the Bauder fund to more than $250,000.

The activities supported by the Bauder fund include, but are not limited to:
1. Providing expense-only grants for the development and distribution of innovative apparatus for physics teaching;
2. Providing funds to obtain and/or build and support traveling exhibits of apparatus;
3. Providing funds for scholarship grants to attend physics courses provided by colleges and universities, enabling teachers to enrich their knowledge of and ability to teach physics.

An advisory committee was created within the Association to provide advice and guidance to the Executive Board in the selection of projects for support from the endowment. This committee meets twice a year to hear an annual report of the activities of the New Jersey Section, to hear reports from previously funded projects, and to discuss and vote on new proposals. The committee also is in contact electronically so that proposals can be discussed and voted on without waiting until the next Association meeting.

Members of the committee are: Robert Beck Clark, Brigham Young University; Ray Polomski, Dumont High School; Deborah Rice, Gateway Institute of Technology; Chuck Robertson, University of Washington; and Gerald Zani, Brown University.

In compliance with the endowment, payments from the fund are divided between worthy projects of the New Jersey Section and projects of other AAPT members.

I have been amazed at the activities of the New Jersey Section. In January 2003 they sponsored a Physics Olympics with 28 teams from 23 schools. In February they had 18 attendees at a workshop who were shown methods of teaching concepts. Materials were distributed, and items were made for the classroom. The next day, more than 100 attended an evening demonstration program given by Dave Maiullo. During the year, they also sponsored a Jacobâ??s Ladder â??make and take,â?? a QuarkNet symposium, and a workshop that brought together physics teachers from three New Jersey and one New York county to exchange ideas on teaching methods. These activities were partially or fully supported by the Bauder fund.

During the past year the fund also supported many activities carried out by other members of the Association. PIRA received $4400 for the printing (both paper and compact disc) of Demonstration Experiments in Physics by Richard Manliffe Sutton. (This has been exceptionally successful, and PIRA has given $2200 back to the endowment.) A project ($500), titled National Seminar â?? Workshop on Philippine Physics Education Beyond 2000, was international in scope. Another very successful project was the Physics on the Road Workshop, which was cosponsored by the APS. The Bauder fund donated $5000 to this project, the participants of which will be participating in the World Year of Physics in 2005. We also funded ($500) the production of 100 CDs that contain information on demonstrations, the catalog system, vendors, web resources, and other items.

One purpose of this report is to inform you that there is money available to the members of AAPT for their projects, as long as they meet the criteria set forth above. They do not have to be big thousand-dollar projects. If you want to give a demonstration workshop for your local high school teachers, the Bauder fund can probably help if you need equipment. (Please donâ??t try to outfit your classroom with equipment bought with Bauder funds. That is not what the Bauder family had in mind.)

If you have ideas, get an application form (http://www.aapt.org/Grants/bauderfund.cfm) and send it to me. Send two if you have two good ideas. Like Jell-O, there is always room for one more.