The STEP UP project, which mobilizes teachers to inspire young women to pursue physics in college, held its 2020 Summit—virtually! And now our 80 STEP UP Ambassadors are trained and ready to run workshops on the STEP UP Lessons for teachers in your area—check out the map on the homepage (stepupphysics.org) and get in touch with us at STEPUPphysics@aps.org to learn more about working with one of these amazing educators.
Physics and Astronomy “New” Faculty Workshop, October 15-17, 2020
Register now for the virtual 2020 Physics and Astronomy “New” Faculty Workshop, October 15-17 from 11am-5:30pm ET each day. All faculty and soon-to-be faculty members are invited to attend (no matter how “new” you are!). Space is limited so that participants may engage in creative online interactions with their peers and with experts in teaching physics. Registration is $45. Details will be available at the New Faculty Workshop page.
Innovation Fund
Earlier this year, in response to new and evolving personal and professional challenges imposed on the physics community by the COVID-19 pandemic, we announced the re-launch of the 2020 Innovation Fund for a condensed cycle to fund projects that address critical needs of the global physics community. We are pleased to announce the two projects receiving Innovation Fund grants, which both have an education and diversity focus, are:
Modern Physics in the Latin-American Classroom
Project Lead: Nathan Berkovits
During the pandemic, high school physics students and teachers in Latin America are lacking interesting classroom material that can be taught online. The Perimeter Institute (Waterloo, Canada) has developed 15 volumes of material on modern physics for high-school students, which is available online in English, French, and Portuguese. This project will translate the material into Spanish so that it can be used throughout Latin America.
Departmental Admissions Practices that Maintain Excellence and Diversity in the Face of COVID-19
Project Leads: Geoff Potvin, Christopher Porter, Galen Pickett
This project will generate critical knowledge to support physics departments to effectively adapt their graduate admissions in 2021 and beyond to the emerging constraints imposed by COVID-19 and associated uncertainty (travel restrictions, safety/health concerns, disrupted instructional modalities, etc). It will particularly focus on practices in graduate admissions and student on-boarding that support continuing efforts to promote diversity, cohort size, and student success through these challenges.
For more information on the Innovation Fund, please visit the web page.
