The Physics Education Research Community continues to show an amazing level of vibrancy and activity. At AAPT meetings committee-sponsored sessions describe exciting new avenues of research with implications for curricular and instructional reform. Sessions are often filled to capacity, with conversations and committee meetings continuing well into the night.
The community’s growth has resulted in the need for more democratic representation in a decision-making body. Stamatis Vokos chaired the PER Election Organizing Committee that proposed the formation of the PER Leadership Organizing Council (PERLOC). Members of this council will be elected from within the PER community and will assume many of the duties beyond the scope of the RIPE committee. These include, but are not limited to, organizing the PER Conference, overseeing publication of PERC Proceedings, compiling periodic newsletters informing PER members of events and relevant news, and organizing internal committees. The AAPT Executive Board has endorsed the formation of PERLOC with elections to be conducted by the end of the 2006 AAPT Summer Meeting.
For the last several years the community has struggled with the question of publication venues. Edward Redish investigated the possibility of an electronic PER journal with an aim towards review articles. A mechanism for this already exists, in the joint AAPT, AAS, AIP, and the APS project, comPADRE. Robert Beichner is the editor and articles for the first volume are due by Nov. 1. The Proceedings of the Physics Education Research Conference published its third volume, the first to be published by the American Institute of Physics, containing 46 peer-reviewed papers. A record 52 papers were submitted to this summer’s fourth volume. Beichner initiated a discussion with Physical Review editors with the result that an electronic Physical Review will likely be published within the coming year. The importance of the Physical Review name associated with PER cannot be overstated.
The Physics Education Research Conference (PERC) held this summer in Sacramento dealt with the theme "Transfer of Learning." Organized by Sanjay Rebello with assistance from Michael Wittmann and Rachel Scherr to rave reviews, the conference drew 219 attendees. PERC continues to expand the community’s vision, with invited talks from Andrea diSessa and Daniel Schwartz, both from departments of Education. PERC’s experience with alternatives to traditional contributed talk sessions will be of use to AAPT as future meetings also experiment with different formats.
Also held over the summer was a Gordon Research Conference on Nonlinear Dynamics and Physics Education. The third in a series (Thermal and Statistical Physics, held in 2000 and Quantum Mechanics, held in 2002), the conference was organized by David Jackson and Harvey Leff. This conference brought together teachers of classical mechanics and nonlinear dynamics, forefront researchers in these areas, and physics education researchers. The goals were to identify ways to effectively teach courses in classical mechanics and nonlinear dynamics at the undergraduate level. The next conference in this series, to be held in the summer of 2006, is being organized by Kerry Browne and will focus on Physics Research and Education—Electricity and Magnetism.
Scott Franklin, Chair
