2019 Meeting of
the Southeast PA Section
of the American Association of Physics
Teachers
(SEPS-AAPT)
Hosted by the Department of Physics at
Villanova University
March 29-30, 2019
Meeting Registration Link Directions and Parking
Meeting Program Abstracts for all Presentations
Act 48 credits: Act 48
credits available for PA high school teachers, through the auspices of
the Philadelphia Regional Noyce Program (PRNP).
PRNP members:
Bryn Mawr College, Haverford College, Drexel University,
La Salle University, Saint Joseph’s University, The University of
Pennsylvania, Temple University, Arcadia University, West Chester
University, and The Philadelphia Education Fund.
Friday evening, March 29, 2019
5:00 Registration Desk Opens Mendel 247
6:00 - 7:15 Dinner + Registration
Mendel 247
dinner catered by Maggiano’s, King of Prussia
Maggiano’s Pasta Buffet including salad,
rolls, pasta bar (with choice of pasta / 3 types of sauce / 4 toppings:
chicken, sausage, meatballs and vegetarian), assorted miniature desserts
7:15 - 7:30 Welcome and Introductions Mendel 115
7:30 - 9:00 Invited Speaker Mendel 115
Bill Berner,
University of Pennsylvania
Educational Boundary Conditions: A Report
from the
High School – College Discontinuity Zone
A distillation of insights, highlights and hindsights gleaned from 50 years in high school and college physics classrooms. Or more to the point, an embarrassed admission that I could have done this job a lot better if I had lived my life backwards.
9:00 - ??? Astronomical Observing (weather
permitting)
Saturday, March 30, 2019
8:00-9:00 Registration/Breakfast
Mendel 247
Hot breakfast catered by Villanova University
Hot Breakfast Buffet - eggs, home fries, waffes, bacon, bagels, muffins, fresh fruit, assorted juices, coffee/tea/water.
9:15-10:30 Invited Speaker Mendel 115
Eugenia Etkina,
Rutgers University.jpg)
Investigative Science Learning Environment
(ISLE):
Learning Physics by Practicing It
Success in the 21st century is determined by one’s ability to pose problems and seek multiple solutions, to evaluate assumptions, and to cope with uncertainty in the answer. Around the world the knowledge of content (conceptual and quantitative) stops being the only goal of education. The engagement in the processes of science emerges as another equally important goal. How do we help our students achieve both? In this talk I will describe a learning system for physics courses that naturally and seamlessly engages students in the above practices, helps them develop the 21st century abilities, and can be implemented without major revisions to the infrastructure. The learning system, called Investigative Science Learning Environment (ISLE), helps student learn physics by systematically engaging them in the processes that mirror the practice of physics. It is based on the findings of brain research, history of physics, and physics education research and is supported by a set of comprehensive curriculum materials and numerous studies of student learning. In this talk I will discuss elements of ISLE and show how to use ISLE framework to design curriculum materials with examples from DC circuits and optics.
10:30 - 10:45 Coffee Break Mendel 247
10:45 – 11:45 Invited Speaker Mendel 115
Angelo Armenti,
Villanova University
The Physics of Sports and Excel
Spreadsheets
The physics of many sports—including e.g., baseball, softball, tennis, soccer and golf—requires solving coupled differential equations in order to predict the trajectories of those various projectiles. Because of their strong math backgrounds, physics and science majors can readily handle air-resistance forces compounded with Bernoulli lift forces that affect the motion of all spinning objects. The students in my Physics of Sports course for arts majors typically lack strong math backgrounds but are receptive to learning how to solve those same real projectile motion problems using difference equations to calculate and plot the various trajectories quite accurately using Excel software. Spreadsheets appear well suited to calculate and project the trajectories of spinning baseballs, tennis balls, and golf balls.
11:45-12:15 SEPS Business Meeting Mendel 115
12:15-1:30 Lunch / Informal Tours of Villanova Labs (led by
VU faculty members)
Mendel 247
Lunch catered by Villanova University
Luncheon Buffet – build your own sandwich
masterpiece (rolls, cheeses, vegetables, hummus, pickles), pasta salad,
fresh baked cookies, bottled water, coffee)
Concurrent with lunch: Poster Session hallway outside Mendel 247
“Why Doesn’t Every
Cloud Bring Rain?” Andrei Blinkouski, Penn
State – Abington
“A Reason Why 1st
Year Students Fail” Gordon Thomas, New Jersey
Institute of Technology
1:30 – 3:00 Saturday afternoon workshop Mendel 259
Barry Feierman,
Westtown School
Eight Challenging Labs for High
School / College
Barry Feierman will set up eight tables of
demos/labs that will be challenging for the best of your students. Over
a forty year career, teaching at both the high school and college
levels, he has managed to come up with some labs that are a challenge
conceptually or mathematically (or both). Topics will include motion,
dynamics, conservation of energy, electric circuits, thermodynamics, and
resonance.
1:30 – 3:00 Contributed Papers and Demos (abstracts contained in link at top of page) Mendel 258
1:30-1:45 “Extracting Astrophysics from Gravitational Waves" Amber Stuver, Villanova University
1:45-2:00 “Teaching Special Relativity” Anne Tabor-Morris, Georgian Court University
2:00-2:15 “The Democratic
Imperative for Inquiry Physics”
2:15-2:30 “Project Based
Learning in High School Physics”
2:30-2:45 "An LED Trick" Harriet Slogoff, University of Pennsylvania
2:45-3:00 “Droned”
Jay Bagley,
Temple University
3:00 - ??? Post-Conference Discussion / Wrap-Up
Mendel 258
Please contact meeting host, Jeremy Carlo, with any questions.