Welcome and Introductions
Minutes from the Summer ’01 Meeting
Report and Requests from Area Chairs and Programs I
Discussion Questions
Boise Summer ’02
Austin Winter ’03
Unofficial Minutes
21 January 2002
Philadelphia
Present: Juan R. Burciaga (Chair), Fred Becchetti, Steve Turley, Bob Speers, Alan van Heuvelen, Heidi Mauk, Bill Wehrbeir, Gary White, John Mallinckrodt, Pat Viele, David Cole, Ken Heller, Ruth Howes
The meeting was called to order and the first few minutes were spent in a round of introductions. Steve Turley, the incoming chair, introduced himself.
The minutes from the Summer ’01 meeting were read and a slight correction was proposed to change the phrase "publishing costs’ to "publishing and other costs" in the discussion of the rationale for dropping the inclusion of the abstracts in the Announcer. The amendment passed and the Minutes were then approved.
But the committee again asked the Chair to send word to the AAPT administration to maintain the abstracts in an archival format. Furthermore, the proposed format might be a superior manner of archiving if it is done well and maintained permanently. A suggestion was made that the archive should have PDF documents. Another suggestion was that the archive should be available to all and not just to the members of the AAPT.
Juan Burciaga reported on the issues from the Chairs’ Meeting and from Programs I.
The first question was -- Should we be using a list-serve? The AAPT experiment with an earlier list-serve had revealed problems with the program and so we now had a more user-friendly program and the ability to have 2 list-serves for the committee — one for the committee proper and another that included the Friends as well. The chair of the committee would manage the list-serve. The pros and cons of the list-serve format was discussed and the general feeling was that we could try it and if we used it and liked it we’d keep it. If not then we could dump it later down the line. Steve Turley, as incoming chair, agreed to look into setting up the list-serve.
The next issue raised was the National Digital Library. The AAPT, APS and AIP were combining resources to construct the physics and astronomy sections of the Digital Library and Bob Mason, who is coordinating the efforts for the AAPT, was asking the committees 2 questions.
What did we want in the Digital Library? How would we use the resources of the Digital Library?
Several members expressed concern that the NDL would be in competition with the existing resources. However, other members of the committee familiar with the NDL state that the plan was to incorporate and expand the existing resources into the NDL. Two issues came to dominate the discussion. First, that the NDL have some sort of annotated description of the resources so that those who are unfamiliar with the resources can judge which will be the most valuable for their needs. A second issue centered on the content of the NDL. A key series of documents missing from the present resources was a collection of syllabi, homework, and day-to-day assignments so that faculty can explore how others are managing a course. These documents would be useful to those trying to teach a new course, or by those trying to improve an existing course. Juan Burciaga agreed to forward these concerns to Bob Mason.
The committee turned its attention to a general question — How can we incorporate more physics content into the meetings?
The ensuing discussion brought forth several ideas. The first was to use Workshops for content deliver, i.e., a Workshop on String Theory where the participants would spend a half-day or a full day learning a new field. Another idea was to have more workshop days and to have session days made up of plenary sessions and poster sessions only.
The discussion wandered into another question — How can we more effectively schedule sessions?
Several committee members sated that conflicts were now so bad that they rarely attended sessions and found the workshops the most valuable activity of the meeting. Again the idea of more workshop days and session days made up of plenary sessions and poster sessions was raised.
Due to the time, the committee closed the discussion and began its normal business by examining the Philadelphia meeting.
Alan van Heuvelen reported that the Replicating Science workshop had been well attended and the evaluating comments were very positive. Juan Burciaga agreed reported that when he visited the workshop there had been standing room only and the participants had been active and engaged. But no one had been able to check the other workshops. Juan Burciaga also reported that the Demonstrations night, Saturday, had been well attended with about 200 people in the audience.
The next item on the agenda was the Boise meeting.
Juan Burciaga reported that the meeting had too many workshops — the Area Chairs had been asked to prioritize the workshops and to try and reduce the number from 44 to 35. This sparked a heated discussion on the origins of the limitation. The committee again voiced a strong, collective opinion that the number of workshops not be pre-set but rather the number be allowed to float according to the needs of the membership.
The committee had primary sponsorship for only 1 workshop scheduled for Boise —Order of Magnitude Physics: Lies, Damn Lies and Approximations. John Mallinckrodt spoke in favor of the workshop sating that the organizer had given good talks on the subject and that he had just completed a textbook. The committee voted to give the workshop the highest possible priority.
The committee was listed as co-sponsor of several other workshops. The workshop on Successful Grant Funding request with the TYC was strongly endorsed. Though the committee supported the idea of co-sponsoring (with Teac. Prep.) the session on Undergraduate Research Experience, the committee was puzzled about our involvement with the Mentoring High School Teacher workshops and suggest we withdraw from that sponsorship since both the Teach. Prep. and the HS committees were involved. There was also reservation about he Evaluating High School Textbooks cracker barrel since the High School textbooks had a very different criteria than the College textbooks. Juan Burciaga agreed to speak to the HS committee for more details to see if the committee should withdraw from that session. The Cracker-Barrel on AP Physics (with HS) was endorsed as well as the Explorations in Physics with RPE.
Though it was late in the process the Area Chairs had been given the green light to explore possible new sessions if they related to the Energy theme of the Boise meeting. After a short discussion a suggestion was made that a session on DOE sponsored Research Opportunities for Teachers would be interesting. Juan Burciaga agreed to look up HS and see if there was interest in co-sponsoring the session.
The Austin meeting now took center stage.
Juan Burciaga reported to the committee that he was representing the National Society of Hispanic Physicist in an effort to offer a joint meeting with the AAPT in Austin.
The first item were plenary speakers. A number of speakers were brought up but most of the attention settled on 3 speakers which Juan Burciaga agreed to take to Programs II.
Alan van Heuvelen requested the opportunity to run the Replicating Science Workshop which the committee quickly approved.
Fred Becchetti expressed interest in organizing a workshop or session on the Physics of Magic or a broader Teaching Physics with Entertainment which would include magic and music. He stated that he would look into the matter and get back to the committee with more information.
Ken Heller sated that he would like to offer a workshop on Preparing Graduate TAs.
Fred Becchetti recommended that if the Difficult Topics session in Philadelphia was well attended that he would like to organize another one in Austin. He also was willing to set-up a session on Biological Physics.
Gary White asked if the committee would again sponsor the SPS research sessions and this was approved.
Since we would be in Austin a discussion ensued as to whether we should have a session on Web-based HW. Juan Burciaga agreed to gather more information and report back to the committee.
Another session on homework and Projects for the Upper-level was discussed but no one agreed to organize the session but it remains an interest tot he committee.
The meeting was adjourned but the work continues.