Minutes for the AAPT CIE meeting in Syracuse, July 2006

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Minutes for the Syracuse meeting of the Committee on International Education

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Members Present: G. Ramsey (Chair), J. Drenchko, D. Franklin, D. Gewanter, P. Johnson, M. Manivannan, G. Zavala

Guests Present: K. Cecire, E. Chesick, C. Chow, V. Evans, J. Fitzgibbons, L. Jossem, P. Laws, B. Preece, C. Robertson, G. Salinger, E. Valadares

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The meeting was called to order at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 23, 2006. Members and friends present introduced themselves. The minutes of the winter meeting at Anchorage were unanimously approved. (Moved: D. Franklin, second: B. Preece). Valerie Evans, our AAPT staff representative, was welcomed.

Chair's report and Announcements:

1. Report from the Programs committee- 1077 attending this meeting (200 non-members)
2. The committee sponsored session, DD (Physics Teaching Around the World) was announced for Tuesday evening (8:30 p.m., HL 207).
3. Meeting in Seattle AAS and AAPT: the following procedures will be in place.
4. Online registration is implemented to minimize lines when we arrive at conference.
5. The 8 minute + 2 minute rule for papers will be used for the next two years.
6. A speaker room to pre-load all power point presentations will be available from 7:30 AM to 7:30 PM each day.
7. Posters are to be displayed all day.
8. There will be a joint job center for AAS and AAPT.
9. Update on AAPT meeting structure: report from the committee on meetings. Some of the recommendations from the committee include
10. Seek an appropriate balance between posters and papers,
11. Suggestions were made regarding site selection,
12. The cost of meetings to attendees and the AAPT staff should be a primary consideration in choosing meeting sites and
13. Meetings in 2010 and after will be moved from January to February or March.
14. International conferences - Upcoming
15. 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/
16. GIREP Conference in "Modeling in Physics and Physics Education", August 20-25, 2006 in Amsterdam. For more information see http://www.girep2006.nl
17. "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
18. IACPE - next conference in 2009 i n Medellin, Columbia
19. Report on Past Conferences

IACPE - J. Fitzgibbons - 10 AAPT members attended, but no members from the executive board. The next meeting will be in 2009 in Medellin, Columbia - we should make sure the AAPT executive committee sends a representative to enhance contacts with international colleagues.

1. Other announcements
2. J. Fitzgibbons - Teddy Halpern from N.J. did translations for many Latin-American conferences. JF suggests that he be recognized by AAPT. Perhaps he should be nominated for an outstanding service award.
3. Carol Heimpel (AAPT) will retire next March.
4. Gerhard Salinger (NSF) talked about Engineering programs to help students
5. Fuller Fund - a list of present candidates and past winners was sent to G. Ramsey by V. Evans. The present candidates are: Eduardo Molto (Cuba), Revaz Zaridze (Tbilisi, Georgia) and Diego de Jesus Ortega (Cuba). These individuals have been notified and AAPT is awaiting response for confirmation.

Old business:

1. Announcer articles - J. Fitzgibbons: No progress as yet from Don Franklin and JF.
2. Web based journal access for underdeveloped countries - G. Ramsey This project has the endorsement of B. Khoury (AAPT CEO), K. Mamola (TPT editor) and J. Tobochnik (AJP editor). Rob Headrick was contacted by the Chair and will coordinate efforts with Amy Flatten of APS. There is a simultaneous project being pursued by APS in Africa. They have reported some logistical difficulties with Web speeds. An alternate approach involving journals on CD-ROM is being pursued.
3. International contacts update - G. Ramsey We need to list our contacts once they agree to be the AAPT- International reps for their country. web-links with foreign Physics Teachers. G. Ramsey will create a form letter to describe the role of international contacts and the reciprocal nature of the agreement.

New business:

1. Sponsored sessions at future meetings and deadlines
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)

Sessions at UNC-Greensboro: All co-sponsored sessions have been coordinated with the Chairs of the respective committees. Deadline for submission to the Chair is September 1st. All input from the committee is requested by the 15th of August.

1. Invited/Discussion session: Physics Teacher Preparation around the World (co-sponsored by Teacher Prep Committee). First invited speaker Marco Morea from Brazil [Patsy Ann Johnson and John Fitzgibbons, coordinators]
2. Poster/Discussion session: Successful Implementation of PER-based Strategies Around the World (co-sponsored by the PER committee) [Genaro Zevala, coordinator]
3. Poster/Discussion: Reports on the IACPE Meeting in Costa Rica, 2006. [Liz Chesick and John Fitzgibbons, coordinators]
4. Paper: Physics Teaching Around the World (with call for papers in the Announcer). [Gordon Ramsey, coordinator]
5. Reports on international activities by our members
6. World conference on Physics and Sustainable Development-P. Laws "About 10 AAPT members attended the World Conference on Physics and Sustainable Development (WCPSD) held in Durban S.A. on October 31 and November 1 & 2, 2005. They participated in the development of the following physics education goals: To establish a website and physics education centers, develop supplemental instructional materials for secondary physics courses and develop model workshops for teacher-trainers. More details of this and follow-on projects are in the appendix to these minutes.
7. UNESCO workshop in Brazil - P. Laws
8. Science Education (People to People Ambassador Program, S. Africa) - C. Chow "A team of 22 people of science education visited South Africa last Spring with PTPAP. The trip was about 50% professional and 50% social and cultural. We visited two universities, three high schools, and science groups in Pretoria, Johannesburg and Cape Town. We also visited the famous Kruger National Park. A detailed journal of professional proceedings was prepared after the trip. Since PTPAP is international and well organized, I am offering my time/energy to be a leader to China on physics education next June, 2007.
9. Efforts in Zambia - K. Cicere Contact K. Cicere for a CD with recent conference proceedings in Zambia. In addition, two graduate students traveled to Zambia to do training there.
10. International Olympiad-Bratislava & Perimeter Institute - D. Franklin Olympiad- 2nd place results for the USA team. IYPT- USA tied for third place. The Perimeter Institute expanded their program with two sessions hosting 20 Canadian students and 20 International students in each session.
11. Reports on efforts in Central & South America (IACPE)- P. Johnson and E. Chesick
12. Outreach to other APT organizations

There was little time left to discuss outreach activities. Some of the ideas included: having Web links to other international teaching organizations, posting annotated conference proceedings on the website and establishing topical working groups with our international colleagues in common areas of interest. These will be discussed further in the January meeting in Seattle.

Thee meeting adjourned at 8:00 p.m. - Motion: P. Laws, 2nd: M. Manivannan ------------------------------------------------------------------ Submitted by Don Franklin and G. Ramsey

Appendix: Details on Sustainable Development [P. Laws] "About 10 AAPT members attended the World Conference on Physics and Sustainable Development (WCPSD) held in Durban S.A. on October 31 and November 1 & 2, 2005. They participated in the development of the following physics education goals:

(1) To establish a website and physics education centers for the dissemination of high quality physics education materials in Asia, Africa and Latin America;

(2) To develop supplemental instructional materials for secondary physics courses that help students understand how the mastery of physics concepts can enable them to contribute to sustainable development in their own countries

(3) To develop model workshops for teacher-trainers in Asia, Latin America and Africa that exemplify how active learning methods can be adapted to help meet the needs of students in developing countries.

David Sokoloff and Priscilla Laws are working on goal 3 with Minella Alarcon of UNESCO. In the next year active learning workshops are being planned for teacher trainers from Africa, Latin America and Asia. In addition Dean Zollman and Priscilla Laws are starting work on goal 2 by planning the small working conference on the development of low cost equipment that teachers and students in developing countries can build."