17
TYC21, the TYC Workshops, and PEPTYC
forged the two-year college community.
However, in 2007 most four-year college
and university physics faculty were still
unaware of the successes that two-year college
faculty were having in implementing physics
education reform and outreach efforts to their
local K-12 schools and the general public.
During a one-day invited writing session
held in tandem with the AAPT national
meeting in Greensboro, NC, Karl Mamola
served as special consultant to six invited two-
year college faculty, including the session’s
organizers, Tom O’Kuma, Dwain Desbien, and
me. Karl was a daylong participant, joining in
the critiquing of first drafts prepared by each
of the TYC participants and serving both as
a resource and a source of encouragement
during the revision of the drafts. He provided
tips on what topics were attractive to
TPT
readers, described what aspects the readers
would want to learn about, and reviewed
the
TPT
criteria for submitted manuscripts.
Following the workshop, two TYC faculty
submitted three manuscripts for publication
to
TPT
and all three were accepted. More
TPT
publications by TYC authors have followed.
Karl spends much time interacting with
faculty at professional conferences and
informal gatherings to keep abreast of the
academic issues facing physics faculty and
students. So he knew and understood the TYC
community’s hesitancy to publish. At the close
of the writing session, Karl asked me to convey
to the TYC faculty that he and his editorial
staff were always available to offer individual
assistance to potential authors. As an active
physics teacher and
TPT
editor, he offered his
time and talent to help TYC leaders convey to
their community that through publications
they would share their experiences with TYC
colleagues and the larger physics/science
community, improve the visibility of the
two-year college community as an important
resource for introductory physics education,
and that, most importantly to this community,
scholarship (such as publication in
TPT
and
other refereed journals) would positively
impact their own classrooms.
Through the efforts of Karl, Don, and Cliff,
such as the one reported above,
The Physics
Teacher
has evolved to a must-have journal
for all teachers of introductory physics.
TPT
,
thank you and happy 50th birthday!
Donald F. Kirwan, Editor 1986-1990
Don Kirwan received his PhD in 1969 from the University of Missouri-Columbia and worked
as professor of physics at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. Originally a theoretical
nuclear physicist, his primary interest changed to finding ways of helping others to better
understand—and become excited about—physics. Most of his work was with elementary
classroom teachers, high school physics teachers, and university faculty who teach courses
for nonscience majors, with the goal of ultimately impacting the greatest number of learners.
Working closely with colleagues, he developed and directed national professional
development programs for teachers, including
Operation Physics
and
Operation Primary
Physical Science
. These hands-on, inquiry-based programs were aimed at enhancing teachers’
understanding of physical science, as well as providing the teachers with improved strategies
and skills for teaching science in their own classrooms. He also collaborated on the development
of
Powerful Ideas in Physical Science
, a model university physical science course. Kirwan
received the Distinguished Service Citation from AAPT in 1981 and retired from LSU in 1999.
