Meeting Notes and Semester Schedule

Hi Tucson-Area teachers,

We had an interesting meeting Saturday, and I will give a few takeaways. First, here is a schedule that you can put into your calendar.

September 14^th: Regular meeting, subject tba

October 19^th: Regular meeting, possibly our yearly U of A meeting. Still being worked out.

November 9^th: Regular meeting. The discussion will be new AZ science standards. Antonio  Solazzi has worked on some of the state committees and will be sharing the information that he has.

Other dates of interest:

September 7^th: Working meeting on helping non-physics teachers, including middle school teachers, meet the new standards. Anyone who is interested in this topic is welcome. Helen Reynolds and I are both part-time this semester, and we hope to develop a mechanism to reach teachers. As most of you know, Helen had the job of educating physics teachers in England.

September 28^th: AZAAPT meeting at Phoenix College. The theme is amusement park visits, including Castles and Coasters and Magic Mountain. There will be talks on logistics as well as the physics that can be illustrated and measured. Bruce Bayly would like to have a group to carpool to the meeting. Start thinking about whether you would like to attend.

Our discussion Saturday had a few interesting points. First of all, it’s not that easy to find a physics teaching job in Tucson or Arizona. That’s because a lot of schools have taken physics out of their curriculum. If a physics teacher leaves, and they can’t replace her/him right away, they often stop offering physics. It’s kind of a feedback effect. We had some discussion about whether to this can be remedied. If you’re in a school that has physics, it’s nice if you can chat up the counselors, and let them know how important it is. Many counselors advise against physics as being too hard.

Our other discussion was about the new science standards and the end of AIMS science testing. A new exam is being rolled out in 2 years. I don’t fully know the details, but Antonio is up-to-date and was very informative. More at our November meeting.

More information will follow about the various dates above. Hope you all are having a great start of the school year.

Best,

Karie