Ohio Section News

October 2007
posted October 31, 2007

U. Akron’s Frank Griffin Feted by Ohio Section

During the October meeting of the Ohio Section as hosted by Greg DiLisi at John Carroll University, C. Frank Griffin, Ph.D., retired physics professor at the University of Akron, was awarded lifetime membership in the section. Frank was introduced by his colleague, and current Ohio Section representative, Larry Badar, and presented with a plaque, reading in part, “For his dedication to the improvement of physics teaching, as a distinguished mentor, and as both a founder and officer of the Ohio Section.”



C. Frank Griffin, left (Univ. of Akron, retired) is awarded lifetime Ohio Section membership at the October meeting. Dr. Griffin is accompanied here by section president, Jim Andrews, and section representative, Larry Badar.)

The Ohio Section’s meeting on October 13th featured dual plenary speakers, Bob Brown of CWRU and AAPT president, Harvey Leff. Brown summarized the recent efforts at Case Western Reserve University to improve physics teaching through “recycling” of lesson material in his talk, “Doc Brown’s Tricycle—What’s the Latest on Teaching by Revisiting.”  Harvey Leff of U. California at Pomona provided the second major session on “What is Entropy?”  Leff also offered section members a workshop on “What Is AAPT Supposed To Be?”

The traditional “How I Do It” session at this fall meeting was hosted by section president-elect, Mary Kay Patton. The following section members provided five-minute talks on these subjects:

•     Fred Gram—“Flash Physics Movies”
•     Steve Majoros—“New Uses for a Force Probe”
•     Dick Heckathorn—“Another Look at Accelerometers”
•     Sue Ramlo—“ComPADRE Workshop at the National Summer Meeting”
•     Ken Kane—“A Look At Refraction”
•     Dick Zitto—“OS- AAPT Shirts”
•     Peter Hoekje—“Energy Before Acceleration”

• Bob Brown: How Do We Go About Riding Our Tricycle?
• Harvey Leff: What Is AAPT Supposed To Be?
• Mary Kay Patton: Physics of the Electric Guitar
• Bill Reitz:  Using Children’s Literature To Teach Physical Science

The Fall Meeting of the Ohio section will take place Saturday October 13 at John Carroll University. To access the registration form, click here. To update your email with the section, send it on to Charlie Reno.

Submitted by Jim Andrews.
Email comments/requests to Charlie Reno, List Administrator.

Summer Meeting (2007)

Guest speakers scheduled at this meeting include Bob Brown of CWRU and current AAPT president, Harvey Leff.

Current section president, Jim Andrews of Youngstown State University, will convene the fall Ohio Section meeting at John Carroll by introducing our two guest speakers.

Bob Brown, physics professor at Case Western Reserve University,plans to share some of the wisdom provided at the national AAPT Summer Meeting in Greensboro, North Carolina. Many sessions at the national meeting this summer involved physics education research.

Bob’s plenary talk and workshop both center around a question: “How Do We Ride Our Tricycle – What’s the Latest on Teaching by Revisiting?”

Dr. Brown explains: “After decades of agonizing (at CWRU) over students’ lack of retention, we began four years ago to reorganize our freshman course so that all concepts were introduced in a simple context in the first third of the course, and then revisited in two more increasingly sophisticated, interesting, and interconnected cycles.” Thus, he establishes the source of his “tricycle” theme.

Harvey Leff will offer a plenary session talk entitled, “What is Entropy?”  Leff’s background includes over twenty years of research in thermodynamics at Cal Poly’s Pomona College of Science. His plenary session talk will begin with the idea that, although early models in thermodynamics established by Boltzmann and Clausius have “stood the test of time, (these models) have failed as introductory teaching tools.”

Dr. Leff was elected to the succession chain of national office, and currently serves as president of the national AAPT in College Park, MD.

In his workshop at the section meeting later in the day, Harvey Leff will don his AAPT “presidential hat” and open the discussion about how the national AAPT can best serve its members. The full title of his workshop is: “What is AAPT supposed to be, what is it to YOU, and what would you like it to be?”

John Carroll University will host a barbecue at lunchtime, and included will be a demonstration of Vernier Software’s new interface, called LabQuest. One LabQuest unit will also be provided as a door prize.

During the afternoon, workshops by the following presenters are planned:

1)     Bill Reitz: Using Children’s Literature to Teach Physical Science

2)     Harvey Leff: What is AAPT Supposed to Be?

3)     Bob Brown: How Do We Go About Riding our Tricycle?

     4)     Mary Kay Patton: Physics of the Electric Guitar


For further information about the Ohio Section fall meeting on October 13^th at John Carroll University, please contact section president Jim Andrews.

Submitted by Ken Kane, OH Section Recording Secretary