Meeting of the Idaho-Utah Section American Association of Physics Teachers; Provo, Utah, March 6-7, 2009

The Idaho-Utah Section of the AAPT held its annual meeting, March 6-7, 2009, at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. Duane Merrell, section president elect, organized the meeting. Many thanks to Duane for a very successful event!

Printed Program

There were 73 attendees (those who paid the registration fee). These included 35 students, 8 high-school teachers, and 30 college and university faculty and staff.

Session Presentations

There were total of 16 oral presentations given in three sessions on Saturday. These included 4 students, 1 high-school teacher, and 11 college and university faculty.

Workshop

On Saturday morning, Duane Merrell and John Ellsworth (BYU) held a workshop which was attended by 20 high school teachers and students preparing for a high-school teaching career. At this workshop, the participants each constructed an induction-coil jumping ring apparatus. Many thanks to Robert Beck Clark, Freeman Andersen, and Scott Daniel who designed the apparatus and assembled the materials needed. The materials were donated by the BYU Physics Department.

Physics Demonstration Show

Friday evening, following dinner, we gathered for a physics demonstration show. The following are video clips from the show:

Following this show, we gathered in the planetarium for a star show presented by Matt Divelbliss, a BYU undergraduate student.

Business Meeting

We conducted our business meeting following lunch

We held elections of section officers. The officers of our section are now constituted as follows:

  • President: Duane Merrell, Brigham Young University (former president elect, automatically succeeded our former president, Gary Hunt.)
  • President-Elect: Steve Shropshire, Idaho State University (former Vice President. He will organize our annual section meeting in 2010.)
  • Vice President: Farhang Amiri, Weber State University (elected)
  • Treasurer: Adam Beehler, University of Utah (re-elected)
  • Section Representive: Harold Stokes, Brigham Young University (re-elected for another three-year term)

We also elected a section web master: Steve Turley, Brigham Young University.

Door prizes

At the close of the meeting, we gave away prizes, drawing names at random. Most of the prizes were “physics toys” and books. The grand prize was an all-expense paid trip to the national AAPT meeting in Ann Arbor, Michigan, July 25-29, 2009. The donor providing this prize specified that it be awarded to a high-school teacher who has never attended a national AAPT meeting. The winner was Brad Talbert, a teacher at Pleasant Grove High School, Pleasant Grove, Utah.

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