Saturday's Meeting Notes

TAPT,

We had delicious baked goods at our last meeting and we decided on a format of some talks and some workshops for this semesters’ program. Here are some dates we plan to meet this semester:

September 17^th: This will be our Kick-off breakfast, kindly sponsored by the U of A Physics Department. J.D. is working on a speaker, possibly in the area of the neuroscience of learning. We’ll meet for breakfast in the PAS building.

October 22^nd: Chris Ubing will teach a workshop on using Mathematica as a teaching tool. The workshop will be at Pima Community College West Campus, 8:30 – 11:00. Recertification hours will be available.

November 19^th: Another workshop is planned. Depending on leader availability, topic will be Using Arduinos, or Physics websites update. More details to follow.

December 10^th: Planning meeting/holiday cheer at J.D.’s house. Breakfast potluck with a holiday theme. At this meeting we will decide on more workshops and activities for the spring semester.

Also please note: the AZAAPT meets September 24^th in Phoenix. Details to follow.

We had a lot of ideas for workshops, and those given above sort of floated to the top through a combination of people available and most popular ideas. Some other workshops that could be offered in the next semesters: 

• Group tests and quizzes/group dynamics in the classroom
• TAAA overnight at their Chiracaua site– still in the works
• CASTLE workshop
• Solar energy and making solar ovens
• How we learn
• Videophysics: analyzing video motion graphically
• Google apps tutorial
• Best practices for getting/keeping girls in physics

Any other suggestions are welcome; just email me, or Chris Ubing, ubingc@cochise.edu, who has volunteered to be our co-organizer. Yay, Chris! Also, Chris will start a Facebook page for us!

Fritz’s book report:

The Gardener and the Carpenter, by Alison Gopnik – I think the author is the wife of a friend of Fritz’s.

Are we Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? By Frans DeWall . The name says it all. This author also wrote The Bonobo and the Atheist, which Fritz also brought along.

Universe and Life, two anthologies edited by Brockman. Big topics.

The First Chinese American, by Seligman.

Hope to see you all at the next meeting, at Pima. And I hope everyone’s school year started off great.

Karie

Karie Meyers, Ph.D.
Physics Instructor and Chair, Physics and Geosciences
Pima Community College West Campus
Office E224
phone 520-206-6695
kameyers1@pima.edu