Working Together

AAPT is dedicated to enhancing understanding and appreciation of physics through teaching. We often carry out this mission by working closely with other organizations whose roles and missions complement our own. By combining our efforts, we are each able to advance our particular objectives while contributing to the objectives of the other groups.

Let me mention some of the activities, some new and some long-standing, in which we cooperate with other groups.

AAPT Sections. Although they are closely allied with AAPT, in spirit as well as in name, our sections are quite distinct from the national organization. For one thing, many people belong to an AAPT section, but don’t belong to the national AAPT. Conversely, some national members elect not to participate in section activities.

Through their elected or appointed section representatives, sections contribute advice and suggestions to the AAPT Council. The Council sets the times and places of our national meetings. Regularly AAPT national officers make presentations at section meetings. On virtually every significant issue, the AAPT Board relies heavily on the advice and comments by the section representatives; this is especially true as we consider moving to one national meeting per year.

The most important way the national AAPT and the sections work together is in the strong overlap in membership between the two groups. Those active in the national bring programs and activities back to the sections; conversely, those in the sections bring programs and activities back to the national. New

Faculty Workshop. This is one of AAPT’s most visible and successful programs. Although AAPT initiated the program 10 years ago, the American Physical Society (APS) and the American Astronomical Society (AAS) have more recently joined with us to co-sponsor this annual event. The three groups also organize follow-up events and reunions at their respective national meetings. This cooperation assures that even more department chairs and faculty recognize the value of this workshop in assisting new faculty begin their careers well aware of the many innovative and successful ways to encourage student learning.

Department Chairs Conference. For more than 20 years AAPT and APS have worked together to organize this conference. Each year, we alternate between inviting chairs from all physics departments and chairs from a few research-intensive departments. Its success over the decades, as represented by the heavy attendance, testifies to the value of the conference.

ComPADRE. This is the physics community’s contribution to and participation in the National Science Digital Library. While AAPT has administrative responsibility for the project, we work closely with APS, AAS, and the American Institute of Physics (AIP). Of course, each of these societies in turn draws upon the skills and contributions of its staff and members.

PhysTEC. This major effort to improve participation by physics departments in preparing future K-12 teachers is spearheaded by APS, though AAPT and AIP play major roles in leading and organizing this national effort. Working to assure excellence in the preparation of teachers in our nation’s schools may be one of the most important tasks undertaken by the physics community.

SPIN-UP. The National Task Force on Undergraduate Physics, organized jointly by AAPT, APS and AIP, issued the widely acknowledged report, "Strategic Programs for Innovations in Undergraduate Physics," which identifies important characteristics of physics departments with strong enrollments and a deep commitment to improving the quality and the quantity of their undergraduate students.

World Year of Physics. All organizations with interest in the physical sciences are cooperating in this worldwide effort to bring to the public’s attention the many ways that physics and other related sciences offer profound benefits to our culture, economics, health, and understanding of the world around us.

Physics Education Research. AAPT has long provided a home for this fledgling area of research in physics departments. Our journals have published this research for many years. AAPT’s first "topical group," devoted to those interested in PER, is being formed. Just this summer a new journal, Physical Review Special Topics – PER, was launched under the joint sponsorship of AAPT and APS.

These are only a few projects by which we advance our mission through cooperation with like-minded groups. When we all strive to embed our own objectives within a broader constituency, we often discover synergies and serendipities that enable everyone to succeed. When individuals join AAPT, each of us advances our personal agenda. When AAPT allies with other groups, we likewise advance our common goal.