The Education Corner

Workshop on Building a Thriving Undergraduate Physics Program
June 10-12, 2012 at the American Center for Physics
APS, in conjunction with AAPT and the National Science Foundation, will be holding a workshop to assist departments in developing strategies for increasing the number of physics majors. Institutions are encouraged to come as teams of two or more to help develop effective, workable plans that can be implemented on their campuses. Plenary speakers Carl Wieman, Office of Science and Technology Policy, and S. James Gates Jr., University of Maryland, will contribute their insights along with faculty who have been instrumental in dramatically increasing the number of undergraduate majors at their institutions.
Building a Thriving Undergraduate Physics Program Workshop

2012 Physics Department Chairs Conference
The biennial Physics Department Chairs Conference will be held June 8-10, 2012 at the American Center for Physics in College Park, MD. The conference will begin about 5 p.m. on June 8 and end by noon on June 10. These conferences, co-sponsored by the APS and AAPT, have proven to be valuable to department chairs in bringing them up-to-date on trends in physics research and education while providing an opportunity to meet and learn from other department chairs.
Department Chairs Conference

PAIR Invites Nominations and Applications
Deadline is September 15, 2012
Physics and Instructional Resources (PAIR) is a pilot project in physics teacher professional development designed to support physics teachers in significant need of content and/or material resources. This effort, funded by an APS member donation, will support up to 20 teacher+professional physicist teams to develop and implement new content-rich lessons. A grant of up to $1,200 will be provided to each team to purchase classroom materials required for the lessons. Travel support will also be provided to the team to share their project at a regional professional meeting.

PAIR is seeking high school physics teachers who are in particular need of professional development and material support and professional physicists (including post-docs and graduate students) in academe or industry who would like to work closely with a high school physics teacher. The collaboration will require several face-to-face meetings, so the teacher and professional physicist should be within a comfortable driving distance.  

If you know of high school teachers or professional physicists who might be interested, please let them know about this opportunity, and send their names and contact information to Jacob Clark Blickenstaff (blickenstaff@aps.org).
Physics and Instructional Resources (PAIR)

PRST-PER welcomes Charles Henderson as new Senior Editor
Physical Review Special Topics - Physics Education Research (PRST-PER) is a peer-reviewed online open-access journal of the APS. The journal has been steadily growing since its inception in 2005 and covers the full range of experimental and theoretical research on the teaching and/or learning of physics. Charles Henderson of Western Michigan University has been chosen as the new Senior Editor of PRST-PER.
 PRST-PER Website

Speakers Program
The APS Speakers Lists contain names, contact information, and talk titles of physicists who are willing to give talks on a variety of subjects. Advanced searches allow one to search specifically for women and minority physicists and physics education researchers.
APS Speakers Lists