Loyola University Chicago

Department of Physics

Minutes for Anchorage - Jan 2006

Minutes for the Anchorage committee meeting, January 2006

Minutes for the Anchorage meeting of the Committee on International Education
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Members Present: G. Ramsey, (Chair), G. Aubrecht, J. Drenchko, D. Franklin, D. Gewanter, P. Johnson, H. Manos
Guests Present: L. Adair, K. Cecire, E. Chesick, V. Evans, J. Fitzgibbons, L. Jossem, N. Maasha, K. Mamola, R. Mualem, R. Pam, C. Robertson, A. Sihvola, B. Waggoner, X. Xie, G. Zavala
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The meeting was called to order at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 24, 2006.
Members and friends present introduced themselves. The minutes of the summer meeting at Salt Lake City were unanimously approved as corrected. (Moved: Aubrecht, second: Gewanter). Valerie Evans, our AAPT staff representative, was welcomed.

Chair’s Report and Announcements:
A. The Chair briefed the committee about sponsored & related sessions at this meeting.
Session BF: Physics Teaching Around the World: Talks included Kazakhstan, Israel, India, Polynesia, South Africa, Vietnam & China.
Session ED: (Sponsored by Minorities Committee): Physics education in Africa

B. Chairs’ Meeting report:
1. Deadlines for session/abstract submissions are: March 1 (abstract, Syracuse), May 1 (session, Seattle) and October 15 (session, UNCG).
2. Paper formats for the Syracuse and Seattle meetings will be ten minutes (8 minutes talk + 2 minutes for questions). This is being done on a trial basis to fit more papers in the parallel sessions. More poster sessions are being encouraged.
3. Our workshop from the Salt Lake City meeting (Conservation Laws, Symmetries & Reaction Diagrams by Ed van den Berg) received favorable evaluations.
4. Phone conferencing through AAPT is available for committees to reserve. We will use this as needed for urgent business to be conducted in between committee meetings. Most of our business will still be carried on by e-mail. Video conferencing is also available (V. Evans).
5. The idea of a Chair/Vice Chair structure was discussed. The Vice chair would be appointed in the year prior to taking over as chair. This would provide the Chair with additional assistance and would be a training period for the new appointee. This issue was discussed by the committee, who generally favored the idea. J. Fitzgibbons suggested that friends and new members also maintain the continuity of committee activities.
6. AAPT will have a Board retreat in June to discuss future AAPT activities and meeting structure. Karen Johnston will be coordinating the efforts there. She has solicited feedback from all committees. The Board is seeking to be involved in broader issues. This could include international activities that our committee could coordinate. Please send your ideas to the Chair at gpr@hep.anl.gov as soon as possible.
7. Money for projects is available through AAPT. A two to six month lead-time is necessary for the Board to be able to approve funding. Submissions must be in writing. J. Fitzgibbons recommended that we use funds for a reception for international visitors. V. Evans mentioned that although this cannot be done in general, perhaps a visit by a committee representative to the First Timers Meeting would be appropriate.
8. Winter meeting formats will be discussed by the Board and by an ad hoc committee appointed at the Chairs’ meeting. Issues to be discussed include dates, locations joint meetings and paper/poster format. Gordon Ramsey (CIE Chair) is the Chair of this committee. Please send him any ideas by e-mail.

C. Annual report: The 2005 Annual Report for the committee was submitted to the AAPT Board in December and has been posted on the CIE website: http://physics.luc.edu/aapt/. Copies were distributed.

D. Future AAPT meetings:
1. Summer – July 22-26, 2006, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
2. Winter - January 6-11, 2007, Convention Center, Seattle, WA (with AAS)
3. Summer – July 28-August 1, 2007, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC
4. Winter – January 19-23, 2008, Marriott Waterfront, Baltimore, MD
5. Summer – July 2008, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
6. Winter – February, 2009, Chicago, IL (with AAAS)

E. Upcoming conferences:
1. IX InterAmerican Conference on Physics Education, July 3-7, 2006 in San Jose, Costa Rica. For more information see
http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~aubrecht/council2000.html
http://www.efis.ucr.ac.cr/IXIAEF
2. ICPE Conference on Physics Education, "Toward Development of Physics for All", August 13-18, 2006 in Tokyo. For more information see
http://www.nyc.go.jp/e/
3. GIREP Conference in "Modeling in Physics and Physics Education", August 20-25, 2006 in Amsterdam. For more information see
http://www.girep2006.nl
4. 2nd ICIETE: "International Conference on Institutional Evaluation Techniques in Education", June 30-July 2, 2006, Samos Island, Greece. For more information see http://www.ineag.gr/iciete
5. "11th Workshop on Multimedia in Physics Teaching and Learning", September 20- 22, 2006 at the University of SZEGED, Hungary. For more information see
http://titan.physx.u-szeged.hu/~mptl11/index.html

F. website update: The committee website has been updated. Any information to be included should be sent to gpr@hep.anl.gov for inclusion on the site.

G. Member/Friend announcements:
1. Bill Waggoner called for nominations for committee membership on behalf of the AAPT Nominating Committee. The following were submitted for consideration: Joe Drenchko, Lei Bao, Perry Tompkins.
2. X. Xie asked about support for international graduate students to attend AAPT meetings. The Chair informed the committee that generally funds are not available through AAPT for such purposes. The AAPT Bauder Fund has been used to bring groups of international teachers to AAPT meetings for demonstration presentations (Stray Cats from Japan and Third Eye from China). G. Aubrecht suggested that the Gates Foundation has supported similar travel funds for undergraduates. However, since many undergraduates do not have credit cards, they cannot take advantage of the Early Bird registrations. We should check on alternate methods of payment.
3. D. Franklin updates the committee on the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo Canada. Information and pictures can be found at http://www.youngphysicists.ca

Old Business:
A. Past conference reports: L. Jossem reported on conferences in India and China. He passed out copies of a CD with papers and events held at these conferences.

B. Articles for Announcer by authors from outside the US. (J. Fitzgibbons and D. Franklin). We are going to have a call for brief articles on international education topics to be published in the Announcer. The length would be approximately one page long. Submissions should be sent to Rob Hedric or Daryl Malloy at AAPT.

C. Web based journal articles for underdeveloped countries (G. Ramsey): B. Khoury (AAPT CEO), Jan Tobochnick (Editor, AJP) and Karl Mamola (Editor, TPT) have all endorsed the idea of providing Web based journal issues to underdeveloped countries. The countries would be selected by the same criteria as for the Fuller Fund awards. There is a precedent provided by the American Institute of Physics (AIP). The chair will contact Judy Franz of AIP to obtain information on how this may be accomplished.

D. International contacts: We are expanding our list of contacts around the world. The idea is to have contacts inform the committee on physics related events in their country and to be a resource for any physics teacher traveling to their country. Any recommendations should be sent to the Chair. A list of contact names with their country will be posted on the website.

E. Listserve feedback (CIE-L@lists.aapt org): Feedback on use of the listserve for committee business has been very positive. It stimulates discussion and feedback on issues pertinent to the committee. It also expedites committee business on issues that require immediate action.

New Business:
A. Sponsored sessions at future meetings
Sessions for Syracuse (Summer 2006)
1. Physics Teaching Around the World
2. Poster session

Sessions for Seattle (2007)
1. Physics Teaching Around the World
2. Poster session

Proposed changes in the meeting format: AAPT Board
Ideas floated: One meeting per year, regional meetings replacing one national, extra day in the summer meeting, formats, expanding poster sessions; they are soliciting ideas via the Web and the Announcer. Exhibitor concerns were also discussed.

Discussion ensued on the advantages of poster sessions to discuss recent international conferences, addition of posters to speaker sessions (combined sessions) and possible guidelines for presenting posters.

Chuck Robertson mentioned the possibility of inviting Asian teachers to an AAPT meeting, should it be held in Hawaii. This decision is pending by the Board.

B. Fuller Fund (Chuck Robertson): Soliciting names for Fuller fund - C. Robertson notified the committee as to the awardees. We have a list from 1999-present. This will be posted in the committee website. A copy of the procedures was distributed.

C. E-mail welcome messages to international attendees – discuss procedure and task delegation. The Chair will coordinate efforts with the AAPT staff to send welcome e-mail messages to international attendees of AAPT meetings. Procedure and task delegation will be discussed.

Notes for information:
Information on international conferences and Fuller Fund nominations should be sent to G. Ramsey at gpr@hep.anl.gov. Information can be found at the committee website at: http://physics.luc.edu/aapt/. The page is also accessible from the AAPT home page: http://www.aapt.org/.

The meeting was adjourned (Motion: Aubrecht, Second: Gewanter) at 6:30 p.m.
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Submitted by G. Ramsey