Meeting Notes and Next Meeting

Tucson-Area Physics Teachers,

We has a fantastic meeting Saturday! Thanks to all who attended. 

Many, many thanks to our wonderful and gracious speaker, Dr. Brenda Frye. She was mesmerizing, and we not only learned a lot, but were basically entranced by the subject and the presentation.  Dr. Frye is an astronomer at Steward Observatory and an Assistant Professor in the Astronomy Department. Her enthusiasm for her research and for science in general is infectious! 

Dr. Frye talked about gravitational lensing and how she and others have used it to map dark matter. There were also some wonderful stories about the difficulty of doing science, for example, during WWI when communication between Germany and England was forbidden, and Einstein was in Germany and Eddington was in England. Some other threads concerned Vera Rubin, the first to notice rotation curves that led to the idea of dark matter - what an admirable scientist she was! Also Dr. Frye discussed some future Citizen Science possibilities. She ended her talk with the question, what is a galaxy? Her answer basically exploded everyone’s mind. There are some very deep mysteries, and a big reason is the presence of dark matter. She made the point that we know less about dark matter now than we did 10 years ago. It was fascinating!

Also, there was an amazing breakfast, sponsored by the U of A Physics Department and planned by J.D. Thanks to both!  We also had an attendee from Phoenix: Jim Ward, who has served for the last few years as the President of the Arizona section of AAPT. AzAAPT had a great meeting in Phoenix last week, Sept 30th. The AzAAPT's next meeting (next April) is planned for Bearizona, near Flagstaff. I am attaching Jim's report from the September meeting, in case you want details. It was a really good all-day meeting - lots of great information, and I'd love it if more Tucson teachers got involved.

Our next TAPT meeting is November 11^th; it is tentatively scheduled to be at Pima Community College West Campus. We’ll have a free-for-all discussion about scheduling your class: how to cover everything you need to cover, how to fit in all the subjects, how deep to go, when to do lab and when to go deeper, how to know if your students know enough for you to move on. It will be relevant to AP as well as regular physics and college physics. Helen Reynolds, TAPT member and British physics teacher extraordinaire, will be leading the discussion, but I think it will be a discussion among everyone. Helen has several books in publication, and she will be telling us about one in particular that she uses for a one-year curriculum. Recert hours are available. More info to follow.

I hope your year is going great! Thanks for participating in TAPT - I hope it's helpful and enriching. I hope to see everyone at the next meeting. Please email me if you have any questions.

Best,

Meeting on Saturday

Tucson Area Physics Teachers,

Don't forget that our yearly opening meeting is Saturday, October 7th, at the U of A. We'll meet at 8:30 for breakfast, generously supplied by the U of A Physics Department. At 9:00 the talk starts, given by Dr. Brenda Frye of the Steward Observatory:

Title:  "Finding the Best Natural Telescopes in Space”

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Abstract:  In this talk we will review the phenomenon of how mass bends light, or gravitational lensing.  We will recount the early gravitational lensing experiment in 1919 that established how mass bends light. We will then move on to discuss work in the present day, including the discovery of images of distant galaxies that appear in multiple positions as a result of lensing.  We will see in which way these galaxy “photocopies” enable measurements of the mass of the dark matter.  And along the way we will discuss the numerics of lensing to achieve a better insight into this powerful tool of astrophysics.  

It promises to be super interesting.

Details: We'll meet in PAS 218. PAS is on 4th Street between Highland and Park, on the south side of the road. Only the West doors of the building will be open. Park either at the 6th Avenue garage or the Tyndall Garage. A map is here. Parking is free on weekends. Breakfast at 8:30, talk at 9:00, we aim to finish by 10:30.

If you haven't been to TAPT before, this is a great meeting to attend. Come and meet fellow science and physics teachers at all levels. We try to be a low-key organization - there's a lot of sharing and no pressure to speak. At most meetings, there is some information you can use in your classroom. 

Everyone is welcome! Feel free to pass this to other teachers that you know will be interested in this subject.

Hope to see everyone Saturday!

Best,

Karie

Planning Meeting This Saturday

Just a reminder, we meet Saturday, August 26th, at 8:30 am at J.D. Garcia's house [use blog contact form to request address]  for our semester planning meeting. There will be toys there. Also, breakfast - bring a dish to share if you have time to pick something up. If not, don't worry about it, we always have plenty. We will be planning our fall schedule, including our kick-off breakfast at the U of A.

All are welcome at this informal meeting.

Hope to see you there! 

Karie Meyers, Ph.D.

AzAAPT Meeting April 8th

TAPT-ers,

Our April meeting will be in conjunction with the AzAAPT semi-annual meeting, and this spring it's HERE in Tucson. We are meeting at the U of A and there is a great program - see the email copied below from Jim Ward, AzAAPT president.

Some highlights:

Roger Angel will give the keynote address, and he is a good friend of physics teachers, as well as Tucson's own brilliant scientist and inventor. There will be a session by Chris Ubing on the IO lab, and lunch from eegee's. The meeting starts at 8:30 am with registration and a business meeting at 9:00. Consider getting involved in the AzAAPT. There are lots of great physics teachers in the state.

The Mirror Lab tour is after lunch, at 1:00. 

I hope you'll all come and participate in this activity. Registration is online. It's not free, but it will be worth paying for! See details below.

Best,

Karie

It’s March Madness now but it will soon be April Madness!

That’s right, the Spring 2017 meeting of the Arizona Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers is almost here. (Yea, I know, kind of a lame introduction but is still going to be a great meeting.)

Saturday, April 8

University of Arizona

Tucson

Sing-in and continental breakfast starts at 8:30am.The Business Meeting starts at 9:00am.

Look for maps and parking info coming soon.

We have a great line-up of speakers and presentations and we will be touring the Mirror Lab at U of A.  As I said before, not to repeat myself but I think it is an occupational hazard for teachers, if you have not toured the lab before you are in for a real treat and if you have toured the lab before you know it is worth seeing again.  The tour fee has been reduced for our group.

The meeting is packed so to save time we will be bringing lunch in from the world famous Eegees. People travel for miles just to get an Eegee.

Ø Keynote speaker – J. Roger P. Angel – Regents' Professor of Astronomy and Optical Sciences, and Director, Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab. He is also the founder and CTO of Rehnu, Inc., and he is an inductee into the Inventors Hall of Fame.

Ø Tour of the mirror lab at UofA. Awesome tour!

Ø IO Lab on magnetic forces on a wire and Faraday’s Law. We have had a few of these IO labs and they are always very good.

Ø Forces First presentation

Ø Science Standards update

And of course,

Ø Door Prizes (maybe your own personal 8m mirror)

Ø Certificate of Attendance

So don’t wait, click the link and register today.  http://www.azaapt.org/membership.html

Don’t forget about the Arnold Meister Book Award

If you have not submitted a nomination for the Arnold Meister Book, you really should think about it. Just nominate an outstanding High School Senior who will be going on to study Physics in college. The nomination deadline is Wednesday April 5. Include the name, high school attended, and a brief bio of the student you are nominating. You can read more about the award at: http://www.azaapt.org/Arnold%20Meister%20Book%20Award.pdf.  All nominations should be sent to: jward@veritasprepacademy.org

I hope to see you all there!

Best,

Jim ward

President

Arizona Section, American Association of Physics Teachers

Karie Meyers, Ph.D.

Physics Instructor and Chair, Physics and Geosciences Department

Pima Community College West Campus

Meeting Tomorrow!

Sorry, I got very busy this week after I was gone last week, and didn't send out my usual reminders. We meet tomorrow at Pima West Campus, F102. The topic is the AP 1 exam - how students should answer, how to review, other questions that people have. Other discussion has come up in previous meetings:

The different aspects of AP Physics 1 and 2, compared to the old physics B exam.

Should all eligible students take the exam?

Should the AP exam replace students’ college physics class?


Easiest way to get to the room: Park on the north side of Pima, past the solar panels. Walk up the main steps near the J building and the F building and F102 will be right in front of you.

I'll bring coffee and hopefully some cookies, other treats welcome but there won't be a full kitchen like there is at J.D.'s


Hope to see you there!

Karie

Meeting This Saturday

TAPT-ers,

By request, we are having a meeting on Saturday (March 4) organized around the subject of the AP exam. I’d like to meet at Pima West Campus in room F102 — I will send directions later in the week. We will meet at 9:00, ending at about 11:00. If you would like a certificate for re-cert hours, please let me know. I’ll bring coffee, bring a breakfast item to share if you can. 

If you would like to contribute to this session, please let me know. Some topics that we will discuss:

Hints for students taking the exam.

The different aspects of AP Physics 1and 2, compared to the old physics B exam.

Should all eligible students take the exam?

Should the AP exam replace students’ college physics class?

Any other questions that you come up with.

I hope this will be a lively session, but if you have any comments or suggestions to make it better, I would love to hear them. 

Also, this is a reminder that the AZ section of the AAPT will be meeting in Tucson on April 8th, on the U of A campus. Dr. Roger Angel will be giving the keynote address, and after an eegee’s lunch, there will be a tour of the Mirror Lab. More details to come. Pleas support our section and put it on your calendar.

On February 4th, we had a great meeting with friend of TAPT Jim Housley. Thanks Jim! I will be sending out more information about that meeting and some of the surplus items that Jim is willing to part with, but I just haven’t had a chance to write it up.

Feedback on any of the above items appreciated. 

Hope to see you Saturday,

Karie

Meeting Tomorrow

All,

Just a quick reminder: we meet tomorrow at 9:00 at J.D. Garcia's house [use contact form for directions]. Bring a dish to share if you can, don't worry about it if you don't have time.

Our guest is Jim Housley, retired physics teacher and current demo and equipment developer. We will be talking demos.

Hope to see a lot of people there!

Karie