Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

This may be of interest to many on this list



From: SMTP%"info@opus.aapt.org" 21-AUG-1998 07:37:43.15
To: JLU
CC:
Subj:

Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1998 08:29:44 -0400
From: info@opus.aapt.org (AAPT FYI)
Message-Id: <199808211229.IAA12518@opus.aapt.org>
Apparently-To: JLU@HEP.ANL.GOV

August 20, 1998

Dear Colleague:

We are writing to invite you to send a team of two or three physics faculty
members to participate in the conference "Building Undergraduate Physics
Programs for the 21st Century," to be held October 2-4, 1998 at the
DoubleTree Hotel in Arlington, VA. The conference is being organized by the
American Association of Physics Teachers with co-sponsorship from the
American Institute of Physics, the American Physical Society, and Project
Kaleidoscope. Building on the successful (and oversubscribed) May, 1997
Physics Department Chairs Conference, which focused on undergraduate
physics, the October conference will bring together teams from physics
departments across the country to

*** learn about physics departments that have successfully revitalized their
undergraduate physics programs with innovative introductory physics courses
and multi-track majors programs,

*** discuss directly with an ABET engineer, a leader in business and
industry and a recent physics graduate how physics programs can better serve
all of their students and help prepare their majors for the diverse careers
pursued by physics majors,

*** work with the other conference participants to articulate the goals of a
revitalized undergraduate physics program, to identify resources needed for
revitalizing a department's program, to develop guidelines and
recommendations for a major funding program for collaborative efforts among
physics departments in carrying out enhancements of their undergraduate
programs, and to develop a set of revitalization efforts that can be carried
out without substantial external funding.

*** develop plans for your department to begin an undergraduate physics
revitalization program.

We will also make arrangements for you to visit program officers at NSF both
in your research areas and in undergraduate education during the afternoon
(1-3 PM) of Friday, October 2.

The conference registration fee will be $195 per person (covering all
conference meals, breaks, and materials) for teams registering before 1
September 1998. After that date, the fee will be $300 per person.

Teams will be asked to bring informal posters describing the current
situation in their departments and their plans for improving undergraduate
physics at their institutions.

The preliminary program schedule is included below. You can find further
information about the conference, along with an on-line registration form
and background documents at the AAPT web site www.aapt.org/programs/rupc.html.

Please feel free to contact AAPT or any member of the Steering Committee if
you have questions about the conference.

We hope that you and your colleagues will join a dynamic group dedicated to
bringing the physics community together to improve undergraduate physics.

Steering Committee:

Robert Beichner, North Carolina State University
Don Burland, National Science Foundation
*Robert C. Hilborn, Amherst College
Donald F. Holcomb, Cornell University
*Ruth H. Howes, Ball State University
Leonard Jossem, Ohio State University
Barry Klein, University of California, Davis
Priscilla Laws, Dickinson College
Diandra Leslie-Pelecky, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Ramon Lopez, American Physical Society and the University of Maryland
John K. Lowell, Applied Materials, Austin, TX
Mary Beth Monroe, Southwest Texas Junior College
Thomas O'Kuma, Lee College
*James H. Stith, Director of Physics Programs, American Institute of Physics
Bernard V. Khoury, (ex officio) American Association of Physics Teachers

* co-chairs

Preliminary Program

Friday, October 2
1-5PM NSF visits with program officers
3:00-5:00 Facilitators and presenters meet
5:00-5:45 Posters and Reception
6:00-6:45 Why are we here?
Len Jossem, Ohio State
6:45-7:45 Dinner
7:45-8:30 Educational Change in a Research Department???
Howard Georgi, Harvard University
8:30-9:30 Small groups meet to discuss issues raised by speakers

Saturday, October 3
7:45-8:15 AM Continental Breakfast
8:15-9:00 How to plan, implement, and sustain change: What works.
Jeanne Narum, Director, Project Kaleidoscope
9:00-10:30 Presentations by case study departments
10:30 - 10:45 Break
10:45 - 12:00 Small group discussions-- planning, implementation, evaluation
12:00-1:00 Lunch
1:00-1:45 Listening to our customers:
Dan Hodge (ABET), industry person and recent physics graduate.
2:00-3:30 Repeat presentations by case study departments
3:30-3:45 Break
3:45-5:30 Analyzing and understanding the planning and
implementation of change: A model.
5:30- 6:15 Role of Physics Education Research in Undergraduate Reform
Joe Redish, University of Maryland
6:15-7:15 Dinner
7:15 - Teams begin formulating plans, put together informal posters

Sunday, October 4
7:30-9:30 AM Continental breakfast and poster session with discussion
9:30-10:30 Small groups write recommendations for funding program
10:30-10:45 Break
10:45-noon Pulling it all together
Bob Hilborn, Ruth Howes, Jim Stith


Case Study Physics Departments

Approximately ten physics departments will be invited to serve as "case
study" programs for the conference. We are looking for departments that
have instituted significant change in their undergraduate programs
(including service courses, courses for majors, and extracurricular
professional development) with substantial support within the department and
within the institution. Suggestions for "case study" departments should be
sent to Jim Stith at AIP (jstith@aip.org).



"I scored the next great triumph for science myself,
to wit, how the milk gets into the cow. Both of us
had marveled over that mystery a long time. We had
followed the cows around for years - that is, in the
daytime - but had never caught them drinking fluid of
that color."
Mark Twain, Extract from Eve's
Autobiography