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eNNOUNCER September 2012
New Orleans… And All That Jazz
The American Association of Physics Teachers will return to New Orleans for its Winter 2013 Meeting, January 5-9.  The Big Easy, well known for its cross-cultural and multilingual heritage, provides a lively and entertaining backdrop for physicists and physics educators as they meet to share information and ideas spanning a potpourri of themes (including physics of accelerator applications, physics of space weather, instructional innovations for the laboratory, reducing the achievement gap in physics, and online physics courses). And the meeting in New Orleans, "the birthplace of jazz," would not be complete without special sessions on the physics of sound, music, and all that jazz! Read more.
Submit your abstract.
Watch the videos and read the highlights from the Summer Meeting in Philadelphia.
Congratulations to Andrew Duffy for participating in AAPT's Refer-a-Friend promotion for the 2012 Summer Meeting. The promotion asked meeting registrants to refer a friend or colleague to join them by registering for the summer meeting. Those who successfully referred a new registrant were entered for a chance to win a brand new Kindle Fire®. Thank you to Andrew for simply referring his colleague. Be on the lookout for more email promotions. Next time it could be your turn to win!
Save the Date:
Summer Meeting 2013, July 13-17 (Portland, Oregon)
Winter Meeting 2014, Date TBD (Orlando, Florida)
AAPT National Election
The election of officers for Executive Board service beginning in 2013 will take place between September 17 and midnight (eastern daylight time) November 2. This will be a totally electronic election. If you have an email address on record the information, with instructions on how to access the ballot and vote electronically, will arrive via your email box. If you don't have an email address, watch the mail for instructions on how to vote electronically! You can review the candidate information online at. Review candidate information. Nominations are open for the 2014 election. Information on positions up for the 2014 election, including a link to the Nomination Form, is available at Review candidate information.
2012 China-U.S. Advanced Forum on Physics Education
Organized by the Education Commission of the Chinese Physical Society, the 2012 China-U.S. Advanced Forum on Physics Education was held at Tsinghua University, Beijing China from August 5th to 8th, 2012. Aimed to promote in-depth communication between physics educators and education researchers from China and the United States, AAPT members, David Sokoloff, Eric Mazur, Lei Bao, and Dean Zollman represented Physics Education Research (PER) in the U.S. Read more.
New Faculty Workshop Reunion Meeting
Alumni of the Physics and Astronomy New Faculty Workshops 1996-2009 are invited to apply to attend a reunion workshop to be held November 2-4, 2012 at the American Center for Physics. The workshop keynote speaker will be Nobel Laureate Carl Wieman. The workshop’s NSF grant will pay for participants' travel and hotel expenses. The online application deadline is September 24.
Written in the Stars, Nobel Prize in Physics Poster
"Some say the world will end in fire; Some say in ice…," so reads the first line of the poem Fire and Ice by Robert Frost, and it is a fine introduction to the Nobel Prize in Physics 2011. What is the ultimate fate of the Universe? Probably it will end in ice. This year's Laureates studied several dozen exploding stars, called supernovae, in faraway galaxies and have discovered that the expansion of the Universe is speeding up. The accelerating expansion of the Universe is one of the greatest enigmas in physics today. This poster is now available in The Physics Store. AAPT members pay only for shipping. The poster is complimentary as a benefit of your AAPT membership.
Call for AAPT Awards Nominations
Recognize excellence in physics education! The Awards Committee is seeking nominations for all of our awards, citations, and medals. AAPT members are urged to review the descriptions on the AAPT website and then, following instructions, to nominate individuals who should be considered for any of these awards. Nominations remain active for five years.
Is Your Membership Up-to-date?
It may be time to renew and ensure continuity of your benefits, services and valuable AAPT journal content. Log into your member record at AAPT.org using your ID and password. You can verify your status from your profile page and use the link provided there to renew. If you have any questions, or concerns or need further assistance, feel free to contact Member Services at 301-209-3333, or by e-mail at membership@aapt.org.
If your students ever ask…
• What do physicists do?
• What does this have to do with the "real world?"
• Has anything new been discovered in physics since Einstein?
Then consider participating in Adopt-a-Physicist this fall, a free program for high school physics classes hosted by the physics honor society Sigma Pi Sigma.
Adopt-a-Physicist connects high school physics students to real physics graduates who are eager to share their stories. Working in areas ranging from particle physics research to freelance writing, the participating physicists embody a huge range of careers, backgrounds, interests, and educational levels. Adopt-a-Physicist connects classes with the physicists of their choice through online discussion forums that are active for a set three-week period. Each physicist can only be "adopted" by up to three classes, making lively, in-depth discussions possible. Learn more. For more details on the program and ideas for incorporating it into your physics class, browse the resources for teachers. Teacher registration ends September 12, so sign up now!
Section News
October 2012 Section Meetings
Southern Atlantic Coast Section Fall Meeting - Oct. 12-13
University of South Carolina Columbia, SC
SACS AAPT online
Ohio Section Fall Meeting - Oct. 13
Laurel School, Shaker Heights, OH
Email: Brian Carpenter
Appalachian Section Fall Meeting - Oct. 19-20
Ohio University, Athens, OH
Email: Greg Puskar
Western Pennsylvania Section Fall Meeting - Oct. 20
Mercyhurst University, Erie, PA
WPS AAPT online
Missouri Section Fall Meeting -
Oct. 27
Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, MO
Email: John Tansil
Southeastern Pennsylvania Section Fall Demo Show -
Oct. 27
Harriton High School, Rosemont, PA
SEPS AAPT online
The July 2012 Section News is now online.
To list your section meeting in the AAPT Calendar of Events, e-mail the information to mgardner@aapt.org. See the December 2011 Section News.
Are You a New Physics Teacher? Could You Use a Little Help?
The AAPT eMentoring program is designed to connect pre-college physics educators in need of additional guidance with experienced pre-college physics educators. Learn more.
 The Physics Educator
Earlier this year AAPT introduced an online, members-only site called The Physics Educator (TPE). TPE's mission is to promote interest in and the advancement of physics education at all levels. At members' request, new features have been added including a rating system, a forum, and more. Further suggestions are welcome. Login and try it out.
Don’t Miss Out on the 2012 Quadrennial Physics Congress!
Once every four years Sigma Pi Sigma, the physics honor society, hosts the Quadrennial Physics Congress (PhysCon)—a unique meeting that brings together undergraduate and graduate students, practicing physicists, and physics alumni for a conference packed with cutting edge science and reflection on the role of the scientist in society.  The 2012 PhysCon is themed "Connecting Worlds through Science and Service" and will take place Nov. 8-10 in Orlando, Florida. The meeting combines round-table discussions, distinguished speakers, and tours of NASA's Kennedy Space Center. To learn more about PhysCon, visit www.spscongress.org Register by September 17 to receive an early bird discount!
Learning Assistant Program Workshop
PhysTEC and CU Boulder are co-sponsoring the fourth workshop on the University of Colorado model Learning Assistant program. This is a peer teaching experience that has been shown to improve student learning and attitudes toward math and science in undergraduate lecture courses. LA programs have also had success recruiting talented science and math students into teaching careers.
Registration will open in early September. Get more information.
2013 Fulbright Teacher Exchange Application
The Fulbright Classroom Teacher Exchange Program is a direct one-to-one exchange of teachers from primary and secondary schools. The program operates between the United States and six countries worldwide for a semester or academic year. Read more online.
2013-14 Application Process.
Call for Manuscript Proposals
The Physics Teacher Education Coalition, the American Physical Society, and the American Association of Physics Teachers announce a call for manuscript proposals for a new peer-reviewed book entitled Effective Practices in Preservice Physics Teacher Education: Recruitment, Retention, and Preparation. This book seeks to provide a practical guide to innovative, state-of-the-art programs, and will include papers and case studies covering a wide variety of topics in preservice teacher education. Manuscript proposals are due February 1, 2013. Review call for manuscript proposals.
"BFY" Conference on Laboratory Instruction a Success
The Conference on Laboratory Instruction Beyond the First Year of College (the "BFY" Conference) was held on the campuses of the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University from July 25-27, 2012. Approximately 150 physics laboratory instructors met for invited talks, panel discussions, poster sessions, workshops, and breakout discussions. Organized by the Advanced Laboratory Physics Association (ALPhA) as a follow-up to a conference on advanced laboratory instruction held in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 2009, this conference offered participants the opportunity to learn from one another how to set up environments that promote learning and skill development in the laboratory, and to share new experiments in hands-on workshops. A first-time participant, Ben Stottrup of Augsburg College, said, "The conference was fantastic! It was great to meet a community of educators who have a passion about experimental physics. I will use ideas I learned in the workshops in my courses this fall." Read more online.
Multiphysics Modelling of MEMS Devices
Date: Thursday 20 September 2012
Time: 2.00 p.m. BST / 9.00 a.m. EDT
This free webinar explores how to model a wide range of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices, including thermal, electrostatic, piezoelectric and piezoresistive applications, using COMSOL Multiphysics. Read more.
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Thanks for your readership and your support of AAPT.
© 2012, American Association of Physics Teachers
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