Area Committee Reports Archive - 2007
PublishedSeptember 12, 2008, 2:46 p.m. EST
Below are the 2007 committee annual reports and the respective comments of the Review Board. Links to previous years can be found below.
2007
Apparatus
Educational Technologies
Graduate Education in Physics
History and Philosophy of Physics
International Physics Education
Laboratories
Minorities in Physics
Physics in High Schools
Physics in Pre-High School Education
Physics in Two-Year Colleges
Physics in Undergraduate Education
Professional Concerns
Research in Physics Education
Science Education for the Public
Space Science and Astronomy
Teacher Preparation
Women in Physics
Interests of Senior Physicists
2006 Area Committee Reports Archive
2005 Area Committee Reports Archive
2004 Area Committee Reports Archive
2007Committee on Apparatus
The focus of the Apparatus Committee is instructional apparatus used for teaching physics. We acquire and transfer the associated knowledge so practitioners may implement the apparatus in the physics laboratory, lecture classroom, and physics outreach events. Towards this mission, in 2007/2008 we sponsored numerous competitions, workshops, paper and poster sessions, and cracker-barrels.
One example is the PIRA Resource Room, which has become legendary for its success during the AAPT Summer Meetings. Each year we strive to improve this tremendous resource. The Resource Room is not simply a place to “get free stuff”, but has instead become a hotbed of idea sharing, networking, meeting the AAPT membership. This last year was no exception. Also at the summer meeting held at Greensboro in 2007, a crew of 10 or so PIRA members organized two full-day workshops (Lecture Demonstrations 1 & 2) with a total attendance of 95 split evenly between the two days. Historically, this has been one of the most consistently successful and highly rated workshops ever offered by AAPT.
The Advanced and Intermediate Laboratories Workshops also had a strong turn out as well as a high rate of participant satisfaction. Attendees had the opportunity to speak with presenters, gain hands on experience with the equipment, and actually take data. The aim of this workshop is to show others involved in physics laboratories, at all levels, what others are doing across the world and encourage the growth, usefulness and pedagogy of every facet of physics laboratories.
The Apparatus Committee, in conjunction with support from PASCO Scientific, also sponsored a very successful Apparatus Competition. This competition has been a very useful tool in promoting the variety of ideas and equipment used in labs and lecture demonstrations over the years. Special thanks should go to PASCO Scientific for the amazing support they give to the development of physics apparatus through this and their many other efforts.
The Apparatus Committee and PIRA were also featured in a local morning news program which advertised the AAPT's summer meeting and the annual public physics demonstration show to the local citizens of Greensboro, NC. This session generated much positive press for the AAPT as a whole, and exemplified the value of the particular talents which PIRA brings to the organization.
The 2008 Baltimore Winter Meeting was no less active, with three sponsored workshops. One, “Franklin and Electrostatics” workshop, was taken by about 20 registrants. Another coached participants through the construction of their own Elihu-Thompson Coil (PIRA 5K20.30). The last, “Laboratories with Biomedical Applications” workshop was so well received, the committee is considering expanding this to two workshop sessions—one for introductory biophysics labs, the other for advanced labs.
Also at the Baltimore Meeting, two paper sessions were organized which further explored the current union of biology and physics. One was “Medical /Health Physics Research and Education” and the second was “Upper Level Labs for the Biosciences”. Both were well received.
The coming meetings to be held this summer in Edmonton, Canada, and this winter in Chicago, Illinois, should prove to be no less exciting and invigorating to the practice and craft of physics demonstrations and laboratories. The Apparatus Committee will continue its successful programs, i.e, the laboratory and lecture demonstration workshops, and strive for successful growth and evolution of its other efforts. Special attention will be paid toward the partnership with other committees in advancing the goals of the Apparatus Committee and AAPT.
Submitted by Dave Maiullo and Sam Sampere
Review Board Response
The Committee on Apparatus (COA) has provided numerous excellent workshops and sessions to our members, and for actively working to achieve its mission. It has often gone “above and beyond,” especially in its work with PIRA. The COA's co-sponsorship of the Apparatus Competition has been a highlight of national meetings and has given participants an opportunity to showcase some very creative instrumentation. In future annual reports, it would be good to include the names of winners. The COA continues to demonstrate its willingness to provide activities that meet the needs of our meeting participants. Its role in the TV ads for Greensboro was outstanding, and the COA was featured in the Univ of Alberta Physics Department newsletter for Edmonton.
2007 Committee on Education Technologies
The Committee on Educational Technologies (CET) identifies, communicates, and promotes new developments in educational technology and their applications to physics teaching and learning. Our primary means to accomplish these goals are sponsoring sessions, workshops, and tutorials, and operating our two competitions at the national meetings of the AAPT. During 2007, the Committee sponsored 14 sessions and 9 workshops and co-sponsored 11 other workshops. During the summer meeting in Greensboro, the committee sponsored its annual Photo competition.
The committee continues to consider its workshop offerings to be among its most important contributions to the AAPT. Our workshops have introduced participants to a variety of basic educational technologies including Web technologies (HTML, XML, JavaScript), and programming tools (Vpython, Excel, Open Source, Easy Java Simulations-EJS). Other workshops have focused on technological products and collections developed by the presenters, including TIPERS, TELS, Physlets, WebTOP, LAAPHysics, PhET, LT3, and comPADRE. In addition, many of our workshops have introduced participants to best practices and supporting technologies for classroom and lab courses, e.g., personal response systems (“clickers”), video analysis tools and online courseware. We encourage any AAPT member with an interest in learning a new technology to contact the committee to suggest workshop topics.
The AAPT/Lexmark Photo Contest continues to be an annual highlight of our activities. We now receive over 500 entries each year, many from students outside the US. Each year, the top 50 photos in each of two categories are displayed and judged at the summer meeting. Top entries have been featured in AAPT posters and calendars on the AAPT web site (http://www.aapt.org/contests/pc07.cfm), and this year were featured in a monthly planner. Winners have also graced the covers of The Physics Teacher, and the Announcer. The committee wishes to express its sincere thanks to our contest sponsor, Lexmark International, Inc. It donated over $10,000 worth of cash and photo printing equipment to the winners, their teachers and their schools. A search is currently underway to find a sponsor for the 2008 Photo Contest. [Postscript: Vernier Software & Technology will sponsor the 2008 Photo Contest.] We would also like to recognize Mary Winn, a longtime friend and sometime member of the committee who has handled all of the efforts associated with this project for many years.
The committee continues to sponsor sessions that cover a range of educational technology topics. We have concluded that each national meeting should have a contributed session on “Best Practices in Educational Technologies.” We encourage members who have developed beneficial applications of educational technology to consider presenting in this session. In addition, we have recently sponsored sessions on particular technologies (clickers, video, web-based, virtual labs, blogs, wikis, forums, video and audio podcasting, audio analysis…) on assessment of educational technology, on use of educational technologies for informal education, etc. This year, we continued offering a session on Computation in the Undergraduate Physics Curriculum. The session consisted of a mix of invited talks and posters. The Committee also tried an electronic poster session which was well-received.
The AAPT community is encouraged to attend the Committee's meetings during the national meetings, and to forward suggestions or requests to the committee chair (Michelle Strand).
Submitted by Michelle Strand
Review Board Response
The Committee on Educational Technology (CET) has continued to offer numerous helpful workshops and sessions on cutting edge technology and has actively encouraged the participation of presenters with new, untested ideas, that might be of use to our members. Its development of the electronic poster session has been a popular addition to recent meetings. The CET's willingness to co-sponsor the High School Photo contest is commendable.
Back to top.
2007 Committee on Graduate Education in Physics
The discussion of the 2005 joint report of the AAPT-APS Task Force on Graduate Education in Physics in the committee continued this year. Michael Thoennessen, as the chair of the committee, together with Janet Tate and Chandralekha Singh from the APS Education Committee and Ted Hodapp, APS Director of Education and Outreach, is organizer for a conference on "Graduate Education in Physics: Which way forward?" where the status and future of graduate education in physics will be discussed. The conference, originally scheduled for the summer of 2007 will now take place at the American Center for Physics in College Park, MD, January 31 – February 2, 2008. The program is posted at
http://www.aps.org/programs/education/conference.cfm
The organizers received a grant from the National Science Foundation to support the meeting.
The committee organized panel discussion sessions addressing topics of the Task Force Report at both National meetings. In Seattle, the session concentrated on “The Future of the Core Curriculum in Graduate Education” and “Demonstration of Mastery: The Future of the Exams” was discussed in Greensboro. Both sessions resulted in good ideas and suggestions that will be presented at the upcoming conference.
At the summer meeting, a new session “Cutting-Edge Physics Research in Simple English” was organized for the first time on a very short notice. The goal is to give graduate students the opportunity to explain their research to a general public audience. Due to the short time available to advertise the session only a few students participated. The committee regards this session as a great opportunity to involve more graduate students in AAPT meetings and hopes to continue these sessions in the future.
In 2007 the committee did not have a graduate student as a member. Ari Turner, who was a very active member for the previous three years has not been replaced. We would like to stress again the important contribution a graduate student can make as a member of the committee and would like to encourage the appointment of a graduate student for the next year.
Submitted by Michael Thoennessen
Review Board Response
The Committee on Graduate Education in Physics (CGE) has organized interesting panel discussion at national meetings. Its collaboration with APS to provide the conference on "Graduate Education in Physics: Which way forward?" in January 2008 is also praiseworthy. The committee's encouragement of graduate students to present their research results in a non-threatening environment is an excellent idea. After a request from the CGE, a graduate student, Joseph Manzo, was named to serve on this committee.
2007 Committee on History & Philosophy of Physics
The traditional role of the committee has been to supply sessions and workshops for national AAPT meetings. We will continue to do this, but wish to note that our past and present members and the many friends of the committee are well positioned to give talks at section meetings. We would like to suggest the formation of a list of speakers, nominated by the area committees, who are available to give invited talks at section meetings of the association. At a recent committee meeting it was noted that this could have been done in the past by looking at the pages of the Announcer.
We are fortunate to have sponsored a series of workshops at winter meetings on Benjamin Franklin's researches in electrostatics organized by Robert Morse. These have always filled up to the maximum, and participants report that they are electrifying. Bob will repeat this workshop in Chicago, and Donald Metz will present a new workshop on Historical Experiments at the Edmonton meeting. This topic will reappear in an invited session organized by Zoltan Berkes.
At the committee meeting in Greensboro Esther Zirkel of Tufts University asked if there was time during committee meetings to talk about the use of the history of physics in the classroom. We followed her suggestion at the meeting, and asked her to sponsor a cracker barrel session at the Baltimore meeting on this subject. This was scheduled for the afternoon of the last day of the meeting – not a good time – but we did have four people in attendance. Earlier we had decided to organize a similar session at the Edmonton meeting, devoting it to the high school course. The proliferation of cracker barrel sessions seems to be leading to scheduling problems that might be alleviated by limiting them to one hour in length.
The present chair, having a strong interest in historical apparatus, would like to see a slight modification to the Mission Statement of the committee, to the end of encouraging the preservation of historical physics teaching apparatus as well as the preservation of “current happenings.”
Submitted by Thomas B. Greenslade. Jr.
Review Board Response
The Committee on the History and Philosophy of Physics (CHPP) has continued to present AAPT meeting participants with exciting and informative presentations on the history of physics. CHPP-sponsored recent talks by "Ben Franklin" and about Ben Franklin were very interesting and well attended. Adding presentations about historical apparatus, which the CHPP proposes, is an excellent idea and would be a welcomed addition to future programs. It is also noted that the CHPP's recommendation of developing a speakers' list and having speakers available for section meetings would also enrich AAPT and should be considered by the Executive Board.
2007 Committee on International Physics Education
We see an opportunity to expand the membership of our organization. We are working on the following:
1. Develop a Section for Mexico based in Monterey, Mexico. An organizational meeting is planned for the 6th of March 2008.
2. Help identify teachers in the International Membership that can come to our PTRA training program, return to their countries to conduct workshops to train other teachers. As part of the program to help fund the teachers attending the PTRA workshop, the home country will be asked to develop an organization that will be aligned to AAPT. (“AAPT is at our country”)
3. Develop a dialog with teachers in Cuba, Iraq, Zambia, Mexico and China. The major idea is “learning from each other, best practices in our country.”
4. Advertise to members in our country who have backgrounds and friendships in other countries that can act as an “International Advocate”.
5. Develop the International Advocate program to the point that they will be able to translate an article per month in their native language to be posted on Compadre.
6. Help Mexico apply for a winter meeting date for AAPT. Videoconference ready rooms in Monterey
Submitted by Don Franklin, Chair 2007-2008 and Genaro Zavala, Chair 2008-2009
Review Board Response
The Committee on International Education (CIE) is undertaking projects to increase the outreach of AAPT to the international community. CIE's work developing “best practices,” enabling teachers in different countries to learn from one other, and the development of “International Advocates” is acknowledged and encouraged. The extension of PTRA and dialog with other countries on physics teaching is noteworthy. An important role of CIE is to monitor which countries are eligible for Fuller Funds, and for the 60% discount on AAPT membership dues.
The CIE is encouraged to help other countries to develop Sections and Affiliates. This will be mutually beneficial in creating new AAPT members and enabling AAPT to offer more services to physics teachers internationally. The International Advocate program should be expanded to aid physics teachers to make traveling to international countries for teacher conferences easier. Translation of selected journal articles for ComPADRE into many languages is now technically feasible and provides a valuable service to the physics teaching community worldwide.
CIE's report does not allude to session sponsorship at national meetings, to promote understanding of international physics education.
2007 Committee on Laboratories
Dates of Committee meetings:January 8, 2007; July 31, 2007
Date of report submission:3 June 2008
Committee goals for past year:The Committee members with help from Friends of the Committee reviewed and discussed features and details of Workshops and Paper Sessions that were offered or will be offered at the Summer 2007 meeting in Greensboro, NC; Winter 2008 meeting in Baltimore, MD; and Summer 2008 meeting in Edmonton, Alberta.
The workshops and paper sessions, often sponsored in cooperation with the Apparatus committee and the Committee on Undergraduate Education, involve a wide range of topics:
Workshop titles include: “Laboratories with Biomedical Applications,” "Teaching Assistant Training,” and “Photon Quantum Mechanical Labs.”
Paper Session titles include: “Physics First,” “Incorporating Writing in the Laboratory,” and “Unconventional Labs.”
Summary of the Committee's discussions and outcomes:
There has been some discussion and there will be continued discussions regarding:
- a statement of “Goals for K-8 Activities”
- a document titled: “Goals of Upper Division Laboratory Experiences”
A list of new ideas and issues to be discussed:There has been some discussion of development of a web site that would be of value to physics laboratory teachers. The development of such a site would make it possible for the Committee on Laboratories to help the many teachers who do not attend the national AAPT meetings.
Context and justification for any Committee recommendations:Not applicable
A list and corresponding rationale for any board action requested by the Committee:Not applicable.
Committee goals for 2008:
- Determination of workshops and paper sessions for future meetings
- Continued discussion and possible refinement of statements of “Goals for K-8 Activities” and “Goals of Upper Division Laboratory Experiences”
- Consideration of possible web site development
Submitted by James Mallmann
Review Board Response
The Committee on Laboratories (COL) has sponsored and co-sponsored a diverse set of workshops and sessions at national meetings. The development of a website dealing with laboratories is a good idea that could benefit physics teachers throughout the USA and beyond. We encourage the committee to prepare a statement on "Goals for K-8 Activities" and a document on "Goals of Upper Division Laboratory Experiences." We expect the numerous communications on the AAPT Advanced Labs Listserv will provide useful ideas for the latter. We also recommend that COL coordinate efforts with ALPHA to enhance the advanced undergraduate labs. Finally, COL might also consider extending its reach by establishing a web page on comPADRE.
2007 Committee on Minorities in Physics
Committee meetings:July 30, 2007 and January 20, 2008
Date of report submission:June 27, 2008
Committee's goals for past year:The Committee on Minorities (COM) has pursued activities in accord with its mission to seek more effective means of recruitment and retention of minority members of society in physics classes and physics related careers; seek methods of aiding minority physicists to overcome barriers to career development; and communicate to the AAPT membership and to the community at large COM's findings.
Accomplishments:In Greensboro, the COM-sponsored workshop, “Reaching, Keeping and Teaching Under-represented Minorities” went well with 19 participants. The session, “Physics Research at HBCUs and MSIs” was good, though its attendance was likely affected by Neil deGrasse Tyson's excellent, but lengthy, Klopsteg Award talk, which ate into some of the time. COM member Floyd James visited HBCU institutions in North Carolina to to encourage physics teachers to come to the Greensboro meeting.
At the Baltimore meeting, COM sponsored sessions on “The Minority Science and Engineering Program” and “Closing the Gap between Understanding and Action II: Institutional Policies that Promote Change.” In Edmonton, COM sponsored a Cracker Barrel on “Recruiting and Retaining Underrepresented Minorities in Physics Cracker Barrel: Recruiting and Retaining Underrepresented Minorities in Physics” Session attendance varied from 9-14. We also sponsored a program to bring minority students to the meeting (coordinated by Betty Preece).
Plans for 2008:For the Chicago meeting, we are planning a workshop on “Working with High School Teachers Especially Those Working with Under-represented Groups”, plus sessions on “Successful Teachers of Minority Students,” “Innovations in Biophysics”(co–sponsor, Women in Physics); and “Recruitment and Retention of Underrepresented Groups: What works and what doesn't?” (Co-Sponsor, Women in Physics).
New Ideas:We have submitted a few biographies of minority physicists/engineers to the AIP History Project and expect to make this an on-going project of the Committee.
Committee Concerns:In Baltimore, there were unfortunate delays in learning speaker times, and the meeting program arrived late (in some cases after speakers had left town for the meeting!).
Submitted by Harvey S. Leff (from minutes and agendas provided by John Hubisz)
Review Board Response
The 2007 report shows that the Committee on Minorities in Physics (CMP) has continued to have accomplishments in accord with its important mission. The efforts for the Greensboro meeting in reaching out to the MBCU in North Carolina were excellent and much appreciated. The program in Baltimore to encourage minority students to come to the W 2008 meeting is also praiseworthy. The CMP's plans for the Chicago meeting sound promising. The submission of biographies of minority physicists/engineers to the AIP History Project is a great idea.
2007 Committee of Physics in High Schools
An over-arching goal of the high school committee is to help teachers be better teachers, students be better students, and schools be better schools. In 2007, the committee contributed towards this goal by sponsoring sessions and workshops at the National meetings, supporting special programs to encourage innovation in teaching practices and student learning, and working collaboratively with other AAPT committees to promote best teaching practices to excite students and teachers about learning through science.
Significant progress was made in 2007 with the revision of the “Role, Qualifications, and Education of High School Physics Teachers”. A joint project between the High School Committee and Teacher Preparation, the end product will be a pamphlet and on-line resource that will help principals and policy makers decide on effective methods to help prepare physics teachers prior to entering the classroom and support them once they are teaching.
Three high school programs focused on recognizing outstanding teachers and achievements by students include the High School Photo Contest (Mary Winn), the High School Video Contest (Trina Cannon), and the High School Teaching Grant. While scheduling conflicts prevented the video contest from being judged at the Summer Meeting in Greensboro, the program will continue with entries anticipated for the Summer 2008 in Edmonton. The High School Photo contest continues to grow in popularity and number of photos submitted. The dissemination by AAPT of the award winning photos as postcards, posters, planners, on the AAPT website, and as a calendar is appreciated by the committee and is major reason the program continues to expand.
The High School Teacher Grant also continues to attract more proposals each year. Revamped in 2006, nine proposals were received in 2007 and three were selected for awards of $500 each to support innovative teaching ideas to impact student learning.
The High School Committee commends the initiative of John Layman who helped to organize a High School Physics Teacher Recognition Day at the Baltimore Winter Meeting. This event, which included several engaging sessions on high-interest physics topics for high school teachers, is a model the committee recommends be considered for future AAPT meetings to complement the sessions and workshops normally planned for each meeting.
Looking to 2008, the High School Committee will continue to make progress towards providing resources to the high school physics community to help improve physics education at the high school level, encourage best practices and professional development, and to help inspire future generations of physics teachers.
Submitted by Wayne Fisher
Review Board Response
The Committee on Physics in High Schools (CPHS) has sponsored good sessions, contests and workshops at national meetings. The high school teacher recognition days should be continued, as this will bring recognition to deserving teachers and AAPT’s efforts to support them. The resource for administrators to prepare physics teachers for classroom teaching will be a valuable tool and should be made available online, perhaps through ComPADRE. We suggest that the materials developed through grants that support innovative teaching ideas be disseminated through AAPT publications, including those online. The CPHS should continue to develop and disseminate materials useful to in-service high school physics teachers, which is consistent with the mission of AAPT. Finally, we encourage continuation of a joint effort with the Teacher Preparation Committee to develop materials for pre-service teachers as well.
2007 Committee on Physics in Pre-High School Education
The Committee on Physics in Pre-High School Education undertook several projects at the request of the Executive Board in 2007. We reconsidered our mission statement, which we felt still reflects the essence of the committee. We considered the summary report from the Retreat and our concerns were forwarded to the Executive officer. Finally we reconsidered the need for this committee, especially in light of the new Teacher Preparation committee. The Committee strongly feels that special attention needs to be paid to physics taught before high school, after all it is this foundation that prepares physics in all later grades. As such the committee remains active in sponsoring workshops which highlight physics for young learners and best practices for their teachers.
Submitted by Thomas Foster
Review Board Response
The Committee on Physics in Pre-High School Education has an important role in the mission of AAPT. It is at this level that we must keep students motivated about science. To this end, we recommend that the committee remain active in the following areas: continue sponsoring workshops for pre-high school teachers; develop materials for pre-service middle school teachers; establish a network for middle school science/physics teachers for exchange of ideas, curriculum and teaching methods (a listserv would be a good start); and contact local teachers to invite them to a national meeting at reduced cost, with a cracker-barrel session for the exchange of ideas. This committee has an important role in AAPT as a bridge to prepare students for high school physics programs. Joint efforts with the High School and Teacher Preparation Committees are strongly encouraged.
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