1996 Annual Report of the Committee on International Education
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Availability of electronic mail and the World Wide Web on a wide scale
has recently enabled the committee to expand its services to the AAPT
membership. We have reassessed our goals and have begun and completed
projects to support both our short and long range objectives. Our short
range goals are to continue to bring teachers from around the world to
give plenary and invited talks, contributed papers and offer workshops.
We have also taken steps to ensure that committee business is
efficiently conducted and information regarding committee projects is
disseminated to members, friends and the AAPT staff. The main emphasis
of our long range goals is to establish a communications link around
the world for the purposes of: (1) disseminating information regarding
committee work and world-wide events relating to physics teaching and
(2) encouraging more international collaborations and exchange of ideas
in physics teaching. The following is a status of the projects we have
undertaken in the past year.
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Completed projects:
(1) The committee's "Mission Statement" has been updated and approved.
A copy is attached.
(2) To make the transition of new members into the committee easier, we
have created an "introduction package" for new members, including the
mission statement, lists of continuing projects and recent sessions
sponsored by the committee, and AAPT committee information.
(3) We have established a "Friends of the Committee" database,
including all of the US and international teachers who are interested
in committee activities. This keeps teachers informed about committee
and AAPT activities. It also serves as a list of potential committee
members. From this list, an "e-mail database" has been created to make
communication faster for those who have access to electronic mail.
(4) In response to the leaders of committee-sponsored workshops (C.
Worner and E. Martinez), Al Menard drafted a set of "Workshop
Guidelines" for future workshops at AAPT meetings. These are general
enough to be used by any workshop leaders. A copy is attached.
(5) The committee initiated and submitted a list of International
Conferences to AAPT, which appeared in the July Announcer. G. Ramsey
will keep this list updated. We will continue to disseminate this
information through the AAPT Announcer and the new committee Web page.
(6) We have created and are maintaining a running list of possible
nominations for future committee members, to make submission to the
Nominating Committee more timely.
(7) Al Menard and Gordon Ramsey constructed complete list of eligible
countries for the Fuller Fund and submitted it to B. Sears and B.
Fuller. A. Dickison, AAPT Treasurer, presented a list of six nominees,
which will be offered the complementary AAPT membership from the Fuller
fund.
(8) An American contingent of high school and college physics teachers
attended the LFMK conference in Linkoping, Sweden, from 25 July to 3
August, which also included participants from Denmark and the other
Scandinavian countries. It was part of a reciprocal invitation
involving the AAPT and the Danish APT, partially planned by the
committee. Jeffry Mallow and AAPT Executive Officer Bernie Khoury
helped obtain a $20,000 NSF grant to partially fund the delegates who
went to the conference.
(9) In response to the success of the committee-sponsored reception for
international visitors at Maryland, we are planning to host more at
future meetings.
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Status of continuing projects
(1) The committee has initiated a project to establish "Contacts Around
the World". We are seeking physics teachers in all countries to begin a
communications link with us for the purpose of exchanging information
about meetings and ongoing projects in each of our geographic areas. We
presently have about 25 countries represented.
(2) L. Baksay and G. Ramsey have initiated contact with the APS Forum
on International Physics for potential cooperation on joint projects of
interest involving an international scope. Laszlo Baksay is a member of
both committees.
(3) G. Ramsey, G. Aubrecht and C. Moore have initiated a "Committee on
International Physics Education" home page on the World Wide Web. The
URL is: http://www.unl.edu/physics/cie.html
Items to be posted include: committee member list, upcoming sponsored
sessions at AAPT meetings, call for papers, international conference
list and information on teaching programs sponsored by international
centers for science. The committee will be responsible for updating and
maintaining the Web page. We would like AAPT to establish a link
directly from the AAPT home page to our committee website. Browsers
would then have access to international physics teaching information
from the AAPT home page.
(4) We will continue to urge AAPT staff to send welcome letters to
international registrants prior to the national meetings.
(5) The committee is continuing to construct a long-range list of
possible standing and future sessions for AAPT meetings, including: (a)
poster sessions, (b) "standing" session topics similar to our "Physics
Teaching Around the World" series, (c) M. Alonso suggested a "History
of Physics Around the World" series, in which successive sessions would
focus on areas of the world and their contributions to physics.
(6) The AAPT staff is interested in working with the committee to
formulate a "mission statement" to better define AAPT's role in
coordination of international joint conferences. We would like to see
more teaching conference collaborations such as those which have
already been established, namely the US-China-Japan, Inter-American and
USA-Scandinavian conferences. The committee is in the process of
maintaining contacts with the teachers who were involved in these
conferences for further possible "exchange meetings". NOTE: the Inter-
American Conferences are continuing, with the next in Cordoba,
Argentina (July, 1997).
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Submitted by G. Ramsey
September 3, 1996
atch:
1) List of committee-sponsored sessions at Reno and Maryland with
planned future sessions
2) Mission Statement
3) Workshop guidelines
4) Committee meeting minutes from Reno and Maryland

Sponsored Sessions:

Reno:
"The Historical Development of Scientific Thought Throughout the World"
Workshop - "Humor as a Teaching Tool" (C. Worner)
Workshop - "Forensic Applications of Physics and How to Use Them in
Your Classroom (E. Martinez)
Follow-up session on US-China-Japan Conferences
Follow-up session on Inter-American Conferences

Univ. of Maryland:
Cracker Barrel on International Physics Education
Physics Teaching Around the World
The Stray Cats Return: We will request PTRA materials for the members
of stray cats as an exchange for materials that they provided.
International Education Reception - very well attended - more planned
Follow-up session on US-China-Japan Conferences
Follow-up session on Inter-American Conferences

AAPT Winter 1997 meeting at Phoenix:
1. Sponsored sessions:
a. "Physics Teaching Around the World: Personal Perspectives" --
Highlights of international conferences in 1996 - G. Aubrecht, chair
(Invited and contributed)
b. Highlights of the LFMK conference in Sweden - G. Ramsey, chair
(Invited)
c. Physics Conferences around the World: Individual reports - B.
Preece (For those papers not included in the above sessions). (Invited
and contributed)
2. Joint reception (with High School, Pre-High School, Minority
committees). For international and local visitors, who do not normally
attend AAPT meetings- to meet members and AAPT staff.

AAPT Summer meeting in Denver, August, 1997:
1. Sponsored session: Progress in International Physics Teaching
(Poster)
This will facilitate international participation and national
contributions as well.
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Gordon P. Ramsey