Statistics
Attendees: 899
Exhibitors: 22
Workshops: 24
Commercial Workshops: 5
Abstracts: 340
Posters: 169
Program Committee Chair: Debbie Andres
Meeting Planning Committee: Nathan D. Powers, Jason Sterlace, Bob Brazzle, and Marie Lopez Del Puerto
AAPT Chesapeake Section
In this rapidly changing scientific environment for AAPT, our community, and the federal agencies with which we interact. Washington, D.C. was the perfect place to gather. Understandably, physics educators are concerned on many levels, both professional and personal. Board members and meeting attendees were able to schedule visits with representatives and agencies to voice those concerns and lobby for support of science and education.
The 2025 AAPT Summer Meeting took place at the Grand Hyatt Washington, centrally located in the heart of the nation's capital, close to historic and cultural attractions, and world-class dining, Washington, D.C. offered a dynamic setting for professional learning and exploration.
Plenaries
PhysTEC National Teacher of the Year 2024: Lynn Jorgensen
Jorgensen spent the past 10 years at Gilbert High School in Gilbert, Arizona teaching Physics, AP Physics 1, and AP Physics 2. She started off with very limited supplies and no curriculum. This allowed her to create a curriculum from scratch for the physics program that relies heavily on modeling instruction-with lots of hands-on activities and an inquiry-based approach, taking the program from 2 sections of on-level physics to 9 sections this year. The AP Physics has grown as well in that time, from 2 sections up to 4, with 50% of the students from underrepresented groups. Most of her students have gone on to study science or engineering related fields in college.
Jorgensen’s goal is for every student to feel like they belong in her classroom, whether or not physics is their “best” subject. Students who feel a sense of belonging are better adept at trying harder things, one of the reasons that the number of AP sections have grown in the past 10 years. Having long been a supporter of women and underrepresented students in STEM classes, she has been a STEP UP advocate for several years. These experiences have been published in a journal with support from the International Teachers Education Network.
In her talk, Cultivating a Sense of Belonging in the Classroom, Jorgensen emphasized that Belonging is more than just being included, when students feel a sense of belonging they are able to achieve more. When teachers feel a sense of belonging in their professional communities, they are able to reach further than before. So how do we cultivate a sense of belonging for both our students and ourselves? How do we seek out a community of belonging?
AAPT Chesapeake Section Public Lecture
A free public lecture was hosted by the Chesapeake Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers, and presented by Nobel prize laureate Dr. John Mather from NASA. He was awarded the prize for his work with George Smoot (of Big Bang Theory cameo fame) in NASA's COBE satellite mission, a real triumph of science and technology in the 1990's. Mather led the science teams for the cosmic background explorer satellite and for the James Webb Space Telescope. He described his personal journey in science and told how our universe evolved, how galaxies, stars, and planets form, and what to expect in the next frontiers of astronomical observatories. He said a number of profound things about success:
“How do you get something to work? You test it and test it and test it again. If you don’t, failure is not an option; it is guaranteed.”
“It’s not impossible, let’s work on it. That’s kind of my motto.”
In response to a question from the audience about how he achieved the great heights that he did and what advice he would give to others looking to emulate some of that: “Great heights happen by accident a bit. Work on things that you think are interesting.”
“Be alert for opportunity. It may not come from where you think it will.”
Pannel Session on Advocacy in Physics Education sponsored by AIP
This session focused on the major issues facing science and science education with the new administration. Topics such as the FY26 Federal research and development budget and the Department of Education were discussed. The panel delved into practical strategies for interacting with state and national legislators, issues coming up in the next year, resources to stay informed and actively advocating, etc. The panel included an opportunity for attendees to ask questions and get more insight into the policy and funding issues that the science and education community is facing.
Much anticipated features of the Summer Meeting, The AAPT Fun Run/Walk, The High School Physics Photo Contest, Demo Show, Career Speed Networking, Game Night, and the First Timers and Early Career Meetup, are always highlights and this year they were exceptional.
Awards
Dr. Nadya Mason received the 2025 Richtmyer Memorial Lecture Award. Mason, who currently serves as Dean of the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, was recognized “For her outstanding communication to physics educators and wide-ranging impact on students and faculty across the country, particularly those from underrepresented groups in physics, and for her pivotal work in launching the APS National Mentoring Community, and for her work with the National Quantum Initiative Advisory Committee.”
In her talk was Graphene NanoElectronics she noted that we are in the midst of a great revolution in miniaturized electronics, with nanoscale electronic elements now ubiquitous in products from washing machines to automatic dog groomers. But what does the next generation of nano-electronics look like? In this talk, she addressed that question by discussing electronic devices made from a single atomic layer of carbon, or graphene, focusing on strained graphene devices, where controlling the strain leads to entirely new and useful electronic states.
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The 2025 Paul Zitzewitz Excellence in K-12 Physics Teaching Award winner was Bree Barnett Dreyfuss, Science teacher at Amador Valley High School, Pleasanton, CA. This award was in recognition of her exceptional work in diversifying physics and making classrooms more inclusive and accessible to all students, her empowerment of girls and underrepresented groups to pursue careers in physics, her enrichment of the AAPT community with her expertise and passion for inclusive teaching, and her significant contributions to the STEP UP Physics project.
In her talk, Getting By With A Little Help From My Friends, she reflected that all humans are formed by their prior experiences, and physics teachers are no different. Our early years, mentors and training drastically shape the teachers we start out to be. After that, our colleagues and students further form what kind of teacher we want to end up being. While often misjudged as isolated geniuses, physicists and physics teachers are arguably at their best when they come together. She noted that she has been fortunate to be lifted up and pushed forward by mentors and friends in the physics teacher community and she is a better teacher for it. Supporting each other, and our students, ensures physics is enjoyable for future generations of physics students and teachers.
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Sean Carroll, physicist, teacher, and writer, was the 2025 recipient of the Klopsteg Memorial Lecture Award. Carroll was recognized specifically “For his significant efforts sharing the excitement and promise of modern physics with a broad audience, his work in conveying intricate aspects of contemporary physics clearly and thoroughly without cutting corners or oversimplifying, and for his innovative efforts in science outreach spanning almost two decades.”
In his talk, The Many Worlds of Quantum Mechanics, Carroll reflected that one of the great intellectual achievements of the twentieth century was the theory of quantum mechanics, according to which observational results can only be predicted probabilistically rather than with certainty. Yet, after decades in which the theory has been successfully used on an everyday basis, most physicists would agree that we still don't truly understand what it means. He talked about the source of this puzzlement, and explain why an increasing number of physicists are led to an apparently astonishing conclusion: that the world we experience is constantly branching into different versions, representing the different possible outcomes of quantum measurements. This could have important consequences for quantum gravity and the emergence of spacetime's explore some of the successes and potential futures of these connections.
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Bruce Mason was the 2025 recipient of the Lillian McDermott Medal. He was specifically recognized “for his pioneering work on digital libraries and curriculum development, including ComPADRE as well as Physlet-based and Open Source Physics-based curricular development, all of which has influenced hundreds of teachers and thousands of students around the world.”
In his plenary address, Com is for Communities. Mason recognized the connected communities of researchers, developers, authors, teachers, and students involved in the many different levels of physics education as a superpower of the AAPT and explored some of the successes and potential futures of these connections.
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Sea Change Bronze Award
The 2025 Sea Change Bronze Award was presented to The College of New Jersey Physics and Eastern Michigan University Physics and Astronomy Earns Award
AAPT Fellow Award: Manjula Davi Sharma
SPS-AAPT-ALPhA Award
Alison Koval (Awardee) & Emily Wilson (Advisor)
We thank PASCO for sponsoring the badge holders, Vernier for their support of the 5K Fun Run Walk and Physics Photo Contest, the AAPT Chesapeake Section and Washington D.C. for a warm welcome.
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