March 2026: Alma Robinson

About Alma

“Elbows Up! Elbows up!” My swim coach’s voice echoed across the pool as our technique began to break down from exhaustion. “Oh yeah!” I thought. “That would reduce my arm’s moment of inertia!” It was at that moment, surprised by my inner nerdiness, that I decided to become a physics major. Physics tapped into my curiosity in a way academics hadn’t in a long time, and I couldn’t help but see it everywhere around me. Before taking physics, I usually skimmed my textbooks to find the information I needed, but Paul Hewitt’s Conceptual Physics was different. I read each chapter from start to finish and loved that his conceptual questions challenged my intuition and connected what I was learning in the classroom to my real-world experiences. When my friends started asking me for help with their physics homework, I discovered how fun and rewarding teaching physics could be.

As an undergraduate at Virginia Tech, I joined the Physics Outreach program and began sharing the joy of science with K–12 students. Those experiences cemented my decision to teach. During my senior year, our Outreach program received an award, and we were invited to present at my first AAPT meeting! I was amazed by the community of physics teachers surrounding me and their deep commitment to enhancing physics education and supporting new and aspiring physics teachers like me. I even met my physics teaching hero, Paul Hewitt, who encouraged me to pursue my teaching goals and invited me to keep in touch.

I began my teaching career in Arlington, VA, at Wakefield High School, a vibrant, diverse school with students from over 80 countries and a range of socioeconomic backgrounds. I had decided to become a teacher because I loved physics and wanted to spark students’ interest in science. But I quickly learned that the deepest rewards in teaching lie beyond the subject matter. Instead, they are found in building relationships with students and empowering them with confidence, resilience, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.

Today, as an Advanced Instructor and PhysTEC Teacher in Residence at Virginia Tech, I have the privilege of teaching Foundations of Physics to our first-year physics majors and training our Learning Assistants, future physics teachers, and Enriched Physics Outreach students in effective pedagogy. I now have the unique joy of teaching my “physics grandchildren,” the students of my former students. Many of those former students once served as my Learning Assistants, and they are now inspiring a new generation of physics majors!

Throughout my career, I’ve learned a tremendous amount from my AAPT physics teacher colleagues and from the communities of physics teachers in PhysTEC and STEP UP Physics, programs that AAPT champions. Surrounding myself with dedicated physics teachers has pushed me to grow, whether it’s learning a new demo at an AAPT meeting, reading about a novel way to approach content in The Physics Teacher, or refining my teaching practices to encourage my students’ physics identity and sense of belonging in the classroom through my involvement in STEP UP.