April 24, 2009: Six Flags Physics Day!
Note: This year Physics Day is an exclusive day for only physics students! (Math and Science day has been moved one week earlier.) This is fantastic news for your students, improving access to experience the rides and to collect data.
Order your tickets now! Order form.
Take advantage of the broad range of Six Flags Physics Day resources available on the SLAPT website to make Physics a valuable summative activity in your physics course (including revised materials as of 3-20-09 for Mr. Freeze, Rush Street Flyer, Superman, and Highland Fling.) You'll also find new math-focused curriculum materials contributed by Steven Williott.
Volunteer to help at the data collection station by emailing Bill Brinkhorst, bbrink2@charter.net.
April 25, 2009: SLAPT-SIUE Physics Contest and Wii Workshop
The Physics Department of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville will sponsor the Twenty-third Annual SLAPT High School Physics Competition to be held on our campus on Saturday, April 25, 2008. There will also be a SLAPT workshop occurring during the exam. Dr. Lenore Horner of SIUe will lead us through several exercises using a Wii Remote and physics-specific software to take dynamics measurements.
The contest itself, open to all high school students, will be having two different exams. Students can only take one of the tests. The first exam will be only mechanics and consist of 50 multiple-choice questions. The cash prizes for this exam will be: First Prize of $100, Second Prize of $50, and Third Prize of $25. We will present Certificates of Honorable Mention to the next highest scoring twenty percent of the contestants, and we will award certificates to the top three scoring schools.
The second exam will consist of 50 multiple choice questions with one or two tiebreaker problems, and will include both qualitative and quantitative questions. The numbers of questions covering the various topics will be: mechanics (18), waves (5), sound (3), fluids (1), thermodynamics (4), electricity and magnetism (11), optics (5), and modern physics (3). The cash prizes for this exam will be: First Prize of $150, Second Prize of $75, and Third Prize of $25. We will present Certificates of Honorable Mention to the next highest scoring twenty percent of the contestants, and we will award certificates to the top three scoring schools.
As an added incentive, you might want to consider allowing those students who place on their physics contest exam to become excused from their final exam in your course. The test is also an excellent practice opportunity for students who will be taking the AP exam.
For both exams we will again allow calculators of all types. It is the responsibility of the teacher to ensure that all calculator memories are cleared. We will supply the values of physical constants, but no equations. The students are not allowed to bring a formula sheet. Each contestant may keep a copy of the test, but we will not return the graded answer sheets. We will send a list of all winners to teachers with students participating in the competition along with statistics on the test results. Individual scores will be kept confidential, except that we will report the score of each contestant to his or her teacher.
The tests will run from 9:00 AM until 11:00 AM followed by a 1-1/2 hour lunch break and an award ceremony lasting from 12:30 until 1:00 PM. Students should arrive at 8:40 am. The test and awards ceremony will take place in the Science Building on SIUE's campus in the first floor auditorium (SL1105). Parking is free in Lot A, which is directly north of the science building. A map of nearby restaurants will be provided.
There will be no fee for entering the competition. To register, please send an email to Tom Foster, tfoster@siue.edu, with your full contact information and a list of student names (and which test they will be taking) by April 24, 2008. We will be able to accommodate 200 students.
May 9, 2009: Planning Meeting
The May SLAPT meeting will be our annual planning meeting for the ’09-’10 school year. Join us on Saturday, May 9th at Alberici’s Green Building. It will also be a wonderful opportunity to tour and learn more about this unique building. Directions and information are posted at http://www.slapt.org/events/Alberici_HQ-InfoMap.pdf. We will meet at 8:30 a.m. for bagels and coffee. We begin with a tour at 9 o’clock. Following their tour we will meet to discuss events for next year. We will have sandwiches and fixin’s after the meeting. Please bring $5 to cover the cost of the meal.
--Please let me know if you plan to come.
--Can’t come but have ideas? Would like to host a meeting next year? Please let me know
Gail Haynes - SLAPT President Elect
haynesgail@rockwood.k12.mo.us
Here's several things to think about as we plan for next year:
1. Submit your nominations for president elect (beginning the three year leadership cycle) and AAPT section representative to Gary Taylor, gary.taylor@fhsdschools.org. Section representatives can get some financial assistance from AAPT to attend national meetings.
2. Submit your nominations for the Gene Fuchs award to Gary Taylor. Learn more about the award at http://www.slapt.org/awards/index.html
3. Submit your ideas for next year's activities: What would you like to see offered? What would you be willing to offer? Send your ideas to our president elect, Gail Haynes at haynesgail@rockwood.k12.mo.us
4. Joint meeting with MAPT: In the fall, we have an opportunity to hold a joint meeting with the Missouri Association of Physics Teachers. MAPT's upcoming president, Pat Gibbons of Washington University, will be great for us to work with. Let Gail Haynes know if you are interested in helping coordinate the planning for the meeting.
5. Joint meeting with ISAAPT: The Illinois section is planning to meet in the spring of 2010 at Blackburn College, Carlinville IL, which is about and hour and a half from St. Louis. Let's see what we can offer and what we can learn from our colleagues! Send your ideas to Gail Haynes, especially if you are willing to help coordinate.
6. Joint meeting with the St. Louis ACS chapter. Our past meetings have been enjoyable and productive. What would you like to see in our future meetings? Let Gail know.
News from the National AAPT Meeting in Chicago
Valentine's day was a sweet day for the St. Louis Area Physics Teachers. At the national AAPT meeting in Chicago, the council approved our request for section status! SLAPT was well represented by Val Michael, Gary Taylor, Jen Goldsberry, Jim Borgwald (also representing MAPT) Igor Proleiko (with family!) Tom Foster, and Mark Schober.
As a new AAPT section, I highly encourage you to become a member of the American Association of Physics Teachers.
For a short time, AAPT is offering FREE one-year memberships to new members! Take advantage of this fantastic deal, and encourage your colleagues to do the same. Renewing or lapsed members can also use the form below.
Download and print the form:
http://www.aapt.org/Membership/upload/Section-Application-2009-Free.pdf
Fill it out.
Mail it to AAPT. (Okay, it will cost you a stamp.)
Why should you become a member?
There are nice tangible benefits: you will receive both Physics Today and either the Physics Teacher or the American Journal of Physics (your choice) in addition to online access to the magazines. AAPT sponsors contests, awards, pre-college and college teacher training programs, programs for physics students, two national meetings each year, facilitates collaborations between all sorts of physics teachers, and provides grants to sections.
Perhaps more importantly, though less tangibly, is that AAPT is our professional organization, and that membership is a professional responsibility. AAPT supports what we do, recruits and trains new teachers, voices our concerns to legislators, and boosts the prestige of our profession.
Additionally, our new AAPT section status gives SLAPT greater visibility and recognition in the national physics teacher community. Our involvement in AAPT through membership and participation in national meetings will further boost the strength and quality of service SLAPT provides to our members.
2008-2009 SLAPT President's Welcome
Jim Cibulka, jacibulka@gmail.com , President - Saint Louis Area Physics Teachers
Greetings and welcome to another exciting year with the St. Louis Area Physics Teachers! I am honored and excited about helping lead our organization this year. We are going to be ambitious this year in who we are and what we do as an organization. Three themes for the year are:
• Developing closer ties with the American Association of Physics Teachers
• Making our professional development much more in-depth and on-going by offering three workshops in a row on the same subject (electricity and magnetism)
• Offering more purely social activities
Debbie Rice and Mark Schober are working on SLAPT gaining section status with the American Association of Physics Teachers. By gaining section status, we will be better integrated with the physics education community at large. SLAPT is one of the largest, most active physics education organizations in the nation; thus, our inclusion in AAPT will strengthen both organizations.
Debbie Rice met with members of the Missouri Association of Physics Teachers (MAPT) at their spring meeting in Joplin, and they were agreeable to selecting a region of zip codes that would be transferred from MAPT to SLAPT. Ultimately, we would like AAPT's new section structure to facilitate collaboration between SLAPT, the Missouri section, and the Illinois section. By gaining section status, we will have input at the AAPT national level.
Our October, November, and December meetings will be workshops based on electricity and magnetism. The first is an introduction to CASTLE (Capacitor-Aided System for Teaching and Learning Electricity) hosted at Villa Duchesne. If you have not had experience with CASTLE, come find out for yourself why teachers who use it love it! Additionally, you can make-and-take circuit kits for your classroom, so remember to email your order in early! In November, Debbie and Rex Rice's workshop at Clayton High School builds upon the CASTLE view of electric circuits with electrostatics materials developed by Robert Morse. Our final workshop in the series features an Electric and Magnetic Field Apparatus Make-and-Take Workshop. Mark Schober has designed an inexpensive device that can be used to observe many different E&M interactions. Though the workshops build upon one another, they also stand alone--allowing you to participate in any combination that fit your schedule and needs.
While workshops are fun, they also provide a great opportunity to hang out and talk to the other members. With that in mind, we have planned two trips this year. On August 23 rd , grab your swimsuits and beach towels and meet us all up at Mark Twain Lake for some swimming, boating, and good times. Email Gary Taylor soon, and remember: the more, the merrier! In February of 2009, we are going to hop on a train to Chicago to attend workshops, presentations, and talk with AAPT leaders about cultivating dynamic physics teacher alliances like SLAPT! The trip should be as much fun as the convention itself.
While a lot is changing, we will continue to have perennial favorites such as the Six Flags workshop, the joint meeting with the American Chemical Society, a Physics Teacher Resource Agent (PTRA) workshop from Val Michael on Geometric Optics, a Lab Practicum workshop, the SIUE physics contest, and our spring planning meeting.
Our veteran members' involvement and effort, combined with membership growth, have enabled diverse offerings of high quality. I hope to see many of you this year so that we can be even more ambitious in the future!
