SM17 Program

Sessions, Panels, Posters, Plenaries, Committee Meetings, and Special Events

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Plenaries

  • AAPT Fellows

      • AAPT Fellows

      • PL06
      • Tue 07/25, 10:30AM - 12:00PM
      • Presider:  Janelle M. Bailey
      • Type: Plenary
      • Jon Anderson, Dolores Gende, Ken Heller, Ramon Lopez, Frank Nochese, Bob Powell, Mark Schober, Cindy Schwarz
  • AAPT-ALPhA Award

      • AAPT-ALPhA Award

      • PL03
      • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 6:30PM
      • Awardee: Ryan Scott
      • Type: Plenary
      • Demonstrating Superposition in the Laboratory: The Hong-Ou-Mandel Effect for Undergraduates - It’s no secret that teaching Quantum Mechanics to undergraduate students is challenging. Concepts like superposition and entanglement are typically discussed in a hand-waving fashion—potentially detrimental to the students’ understanding. This undergraduate lab experiment attempts to shine an intuitive light on the theoretical complexities of quantum mechanics through a quantum optics experiment: the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect. The effect demonstrates measurable entanglement and superposition through the creation of entangled quantum states between two photons—via a nonlinear crystal—which are measured at two correlated detectors; coincidence counts were monitored, and as the photons’ polarizations were made indistinguishable relative to the detectors, quantum interference was observed. The experiment was constructed in a collinear fashion in fiber-based optical equipment using periodically-poled potassium titanyl phosphate as the nonlinear crystal, a polarizing beam splitter as the projective device, and two detectors connected by a correlation device to measure coincidence counts.
  • AAPT-ALPhA Award

      • AAPT-ALPhA Award

      • PL12
      • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 6:30PM
      • Awardee: Brandon Thacker
      • Type: Plenary
      • Nonlinear dynamics and chaos are prominent features in nature and deserve a thorough introduction in the undergraduate physics curriculum. For most students at this level, chaos theory is a concept of very little if any exposure. It is not difficult to build a system that exhibits some form of chaos, a simple double pendulum would do the trick! However, it is no trivial matter to create an apparatus that does so while allowing for complete user control over system parameters and precise measurement of the state of the system as time evolves. These are some of the requirements needed for a chaotic apparatus to be successful in the Advanced Lab setting. The “Mechanical Chaotic Oscillator” (MCO) presented fulfills these needs in an effective and elegant way, combining both qualitative and quantitative features to enhance the learning experience.
  • D. Halliday & R. Resnik Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Physics Teaching - Cindy Schwarz

      • D. Halliday & R. Resnik Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Physics Teaching - Cindy Schwarz

      • PL01
      • Mon 07/24, 10:30AM - 11:30AM
      • Awardee: Cindy Schwarz
      • Type: Plenary
      • What Can We Do In The Subatomic Zoo? - For over 30 years I have been teaching a course at Vassar, A Tour of the Subatomic Zoo. You see, I had to give it a catchy name as Vassar has no science requirements and early in my career as a particle physicist I wanted to give some science literacy to those who would otherwise leave without ever taking any science courses. One thing that came out of the course was my book A Tour of the Subatomic Zoo: A Guide to Particle Physics that just came out in a third edition. So what can you do? Many of us are not trained in particle physics but we can all go online these days and become overloaded with information about things like gravitational waves and Higgs bosons. But what can we do with our students once we are motivated to learn (or relearn) about the standard model and beyond. Since the audience that I had for this course was everything but physics majors, I needed to be very creative as the course developed over the years, so as they did not simply walk away with an overview of the last 100 plus years of physics and some of its applications in the real world. I wanted them vested! In this talk I will discuss two parts of the course that were unique and also could be used/adapted by many of you in both high school and college settings; the final project and the debate project. Initially their final project assignment was to write a short story or poem with subatomic particles as characters. There were so many good ones that I published them into a book Tales from the Subatomic Zoo. Then something happened! – Students who were music majors asked if they could write a song, art majors asked if they could create prints, pictures, drawings and even jewelry, then came the plays. I will show you my favorite play “Somewhere on a park bench in heaven” and my favorite song “I am a positron”. The idea of the debate project came later on after the cancellation of the SSC in 1993. Each year, I would randomly select a location to build a new collider in the US. Students were assigned group roles and based on sound research could argue for or against the collider. They would make their arguments to a group of “senators” who volunteered. These senators were my colleagues from Vassar from departments such as economics, political science, geology, English etc. You get the idea! I will show some of the research presentations by the student groups which included local business owners and residents, an environmental impact group, taxpayer lobbyists, foreign and international physicists. Honestly, I never knew which way they would go but they were able to take their other Vassar interests and bring them to the table. I hope you come away from this talk with some creative ideas of your own about how you and your students won’t get lost on the safari through the subatomic zoo.
  • Distinguished Service Citations

      • Distinguished Service Citations

      • PL09
      • Wed 07/26, 10:30AM - 11:30AM
      • Presider:  Janelle M. Bailey
      • Type: Plenary
      • Joseph Kozminski, Duane Merrell, William Reitz, Paul Stanley, and Toni Sauncy
  • Klopsteg Memorial Lecture - John C. Brown

      • Klopsteg Memorial Lecture - John C. Brown

      • PL07
      • Tue 07/25, 4:00PM - 5:00PM
      • Awardee: John C. Brown
      • Type: Plenary
      • Black Holes and White Rabbits: Black holes are the among the most bizarre objects in the universe, possibly even related to how the Universe itself began, and a goldmine of fascinating challenges for physics teachers and researchers alike. This talk discusses the nature of gravity and its extremes across the universe explaining what the term Black Hole means, and discussing how and where they form. It also addresses how we detect them and demonstrates many of their weird properties and effects on their surroundings using the speaker's skills as a semi-pro magician.
  • PERC Bridging Session: Megan Wawro, Virginia Tech

      • PERC Bridging Session: Megan Wawro, Virginia Tech

      • PL10A
      • Wed 07/26, 2:00PM - 3:30PM
      • Presider: PERC PERC
      • Type: Plenary
      • Student Understanding and Symbolization of Eigentheory: Linear algebra is a key course in students' undergraduate education across multiple STEM-related majors. Eigentheory is a conceptually complex idea that builds from and relies upon multiple key ideas in mathematics, and its application is widespread in mathematics and beyond. In this presentation, I will share research results from individual interviews regarding various ways that students in quantum physics courses reason about and symbolize eigenvectors and eigenvalues for a 2x2 matrix. I will also share an instructional sequence from the Inquiry-Oriented Linear Algebra curriculum created to support students' reinvention of change of basis and eigentheory, as well as how the two are related through diagonalization. Data from introductory linear algebra classes using this sequence will illustrate ways in which students build from their experience with stretch factors and directions to create for themselves ways to determine eigenvalues and eigenvectors for various 2x2 matrices.
  • PERC Bridging Session: Michael Oehrtman, Oklahoma State University

      • PERC Bridging Session: Michael Oehrtman, Oklahoma State University

      • PL10
      • Wed 07/26, 2:00PM - 3:30PM
      • Presider: PERC PERC
      • Type: Plenary
      • Quantitative Reasoning and Mathematical Modeling in an Introductory Calculus Sequence: I will report on thematic results drawn from multiple studies of student learning in an introductory calculus sequence pertaining to the nature and roles of quantitative reasoning and mathematical modeling. We investigated calculus students' development of mathematical expressions and equations involving derivatives, definite integrals, and vector-valued functions to represent physical quantities and relationships between those quantities. The presentation will characterize the cognitive challenges that students encountered while constructing these models, how students resolved those challenges, and the resulting conceptual artifacts.
  • Paul W. Zitzewitz Award for Excellence in K-12 Physics Teaching - Mark Schober

      • Paul W. Zitzewitz Award for Excellence in K-12 Physics Teaching - Mark Schober

      • PL02
      • Mon 07/24, 10:30AM - 11:30AM
      • Awardee: Mark Schober
      • Type: Plenary
      • Sharing Your Expertise: Approximately 27,000 people teach high school physics in the United States, and about a quarter of those are AAPT members. The rest? For many, physics is only one of several subjects they teach and nearly 60% of those teaching physics have degrees in fields other than physics or physics education. (www.aip.org/statistics) Such rich academic diversity needs a vibrant professional support community that is accessible, frequent, and relevant. A small fraction of teachers are able to attend and benefit from a national AAPT meeting — but what you take away from these conferences and develop in your classroom can be shared to increase access, develop relationships that provide ongoing support, and meet needs specific to your community. Your expertise is instrumental in building a strong community of physics teachers best able to serve their students. I’ve benefited from AAPT meetings and PTRA workshops and I’ve experienced vibrant professional learning communities through the St. Louis Area Physics Teachers, Modeling Instruction, and STEMteachersNYC. I will share some stories to help you identify and share your expertise, expanding AAPT’s positive influence to the other 75% of high school physics teachers. The stakes are high — the future of science literacy, and physics’ foundational role in scientific understanding, depends upon us.
  • Plenary - Francis Slakey

      • Plenary - Francis Slakey

      • PL08
      • Wed 07/26, 10:30AM - 12:00PM
      • Speaker: Francis Slakey
      • Type: Plenary
      • The Effective Force: After a decade of crisscrossing the globe and witnessing social challenges, I restructured my physics classes at Georgetown University to enable students to take meaningful action on social issues. One powerful lesson has emerged: a science student, inspired by a sense of social purpose, is one of the most effective forces we have to build a better world. I’ll review a few illustrative recent examples of student projects including: establishing a company that addresses invasive species, advocating to the federal government to promote pre-med “shadowing”, and making a viral video to generate industry action on microfiber pollution.
  • Plenary - Julianne M. Pollard-Larkin

      • Plenary - Julianne M. Pollard-Larkin

      • PL04
      • Mon 07/24, 7:30PM - 8:30PM
      • Speaker: Julianne M. Pollard-Larkin
      • Type: Plenary
      • The Future of Image-Guided Radiotherapy will be MR-Guided: Advances in image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) have allowed for dose escalation and more precise radiation treatment delivery. Each decade brings new imaging technologies to help improve radiotherapy patient setup. Currently, the most frequently used method of 3D pre-treatment image verification is performed with cone-beam CT. However, more recent developments have provided radiotherapy with the ability to have on-board magnetic resonance (MR) imaging coupled to the Tele-radiotherapy unit. This latest tool for treating cancer is known as MR-guided radiotherapy (MR-gRT) . Several varieties of these units have been designed and installed in centers across the globe. Their prevalence, history, advantages and disadvantages will be discussed. Also, we will consider the possibilities of where MR-gRT might be heading in the near future.
  • Robert A. Millikan Medal - Ken Heller

      • Robert A. Millikan Medal - Ken Heller

      • PL05
      • Tue 07/25, 10:30AM - 12:00PM
      • Awardee: Ken Heller
      • Type: Plenary
      • Can We Get There from Here?: The AAPT was founded on the recognition that the progress and support of physics required improved physics instruction. Almost 90 years later, that is still our mission and we have come to recognize the complexity of the problem. There is now a reasonable understanding of the goals of physics instruction and why it needs improving. Efforts within the past half century have produced multiple examples of instruction that demonstrably meet many of those goals. Those pedagogies result in educational improvement because they have a foundation anchored in modern learning theory and neuroscience, often recognized in retrospect. However, despite their proven effectiveness, these modern pedagogies have had minimal impact on physics instruction throughout the country. Too often only their surface features survive when they are adopted beyond isolated outposts on the educational map. Even when adopted with fidelity, their implementation is often snuffed out by changing personnel, constraints, or shifting instructional priorities. This talk explores the current reality and examines practical possibilities that could lead to widespread and lasting effects within the next half century.

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