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2023 Idaho/Utah Section Report

Section Representative: Larry K. Smith, Snow College Department of Physics

The Idaho/Utah Section of AAPT had a good year in 2023, post-COVID. 

Section Meeting: We had our annual section meeting at the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls, Idaho on April 14–15, 2023, with the ever-popular demo show in the afternoon, some telescope viewing and a planetarium show in the evening.

The next morning there was an invited talk from a biologist with ties to physics and then parallel breakout sessions. 

At the business meeting Brian Pyper ran an election to replace himself and Larry Smith was elected as the new Section Representative for 3 years. 

Next Section Meeting: Dustin Shipp is planning a section meeting at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah on March 14–15.

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Short Course in Active Learning

Short Course: Active Learning in Introductory Physics Courses: Research-Based Strategies
that Improve Student Learning (Including Virtual, Distance Learning)
See: http://pages.uoregon.edu/sokoloff/CHAUT.htm


July 29-31, 2024, Portland, Oregon

Designed for those who teach introductory physics at universities, colleges and high schools. Graduate credit will be available through the University of Oregon*

Instructors: David Sokoloff, University of Oregon and Ronald Thornton, Tufts University

Participants in this two and a half day course will be introduced to research-validated, classroom-tested strategies for each component of the introductory course that have been demonstrated to improve learning. These includeRealTime Physics (RTP) labs (including a distance-learning version), Interactive Lecture Demonstration (ILDs) (including Clicker ILDs and Home-Adapted ILDs—for distance-learning), Collaborative Problem-Solving Tutorials, and Physics with Video Analysis (PVA). Participants will be introduced to the latest, versatile data acquisition and video analysis software that—in addition to Mac OS and Windows—is compatible with Chromebooks, tablets and smartphones. Physics topics will be chosen from both semesters of introductory physics. Research on the effectiveness of these strategies will also be discussed.

Complimentary printed copies of and online access to curricula (published by Wiley and Vernier) will be distributed. (These are also available for high school use at a special price as the ABP High School E-dition.)

The course fee is $250. (Early bird registration until June 10 is $225.)

* Up to three graduate credits from the University of Oregon will be available for an additional $150/credit.

For more information and to register: http://pages.uoregon.edu/sokoloff/CHAUT.htm

David R. Sokoloff
Professor of Physics, University of Oregon

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Idaho-Utah Section Meeting March 2024 Save the Date


American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT)
Idaho-Utah Section

Save the Date: April 12–13, 2024

Location: Utah Valley University

Time: Friday evening through mid-afternoon Saturday

Please invite your colleagues including:

  • physics teachers at the high school, college, and university level
  • undergraduate and graduate students interested in teaching physics

More information coming soon!

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Spring Section Meeting 2023 Announcement!

Update 1FEB23

Dear Friends,

After much and long-awaited effort, we are planning on renewing the Idaho-Utah Spring Section Meetings this coming spring!

Mark Daily at the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls has agreed to help host this year, which will represent the first time we’ve held the meeting in Twin Falls since 2000.

The dates are set for Friday and Saturday April 14-15, 2023. Feel free to tell anyone you think may be interested.

Here is a link to the reserved hotel block Mark set up.

American Association of Physics Teachers UT & ID Conference

https://www.hiexpress.com/redirect?path=hd&brandCode=EX&localeCode=en&regionCode=1&hotelCode=TWNFS&_PMID=99801505&GPC=AAT&cn=no&viewfullsite=true

Put it on your calendar and we’ll hope to see you then!

Regards,

Brian A Pyper PhD

Professor, Director of Physics Education

Department of Physics

Brigham Young University-Idaho

Section Representative, Idaho-Utah Section

American Association of Physics Teachers

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Spring 2019 Section Report

Spring 2019 Idaho Utah Section report

The annual meeting of the Idaho-Utah Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers was held Friday/Saturday March 1-2 at the Utah State University campus in logan, Utah. The local organizer and current president was James Coburn, and the meeting was wonderful, and well-attended by college and high school teachers and students. A local sandwich shop catered dinner Friday evening, followed by the ever popular demo show, where several attendees showed off their favorite physics demos for a packed house in the science building lecture hall.

Saturday morning a light breakfast led to a morning session of talks and presentations, followed by a mid-morning snack and student poster session. A second session of contributed talks got us through to the luncheon and business meeting, where A spate of elections and announcements were on the agenda. The announcements included a reminder of all the programs and benefits available through AAPT and a reminder that the National Meeting will be held in our section in Provo this year, for the first time since 2005. Initial plans were made about garnering section help for the various responsibilities associated with hosting a national meeting. We also made plans for updating the mailing list and encouraging more younger faculty to be involved with the section. The business meeting elections resulted in Phil Matheson from Utah Valley University volunteering Dustin Shipp to be elected as president-elect and host the meeting in 2020. That means the current list of section officers stands as follows:

Past President: Matt Zachreson – BYUI

President: James Coburn – USU

Vice-President Elect: Daryl Macomb – BSU

President Elect: Dustin Shipp – UVU

Section Rep: Brian Pyper – BYUI

The section meeting next year will be hosted at BSU with Daryl Macomb as the local organizer, and two years from now it’ll be held in Orem at UVU with Dustin Shipp as the local organizer.

After lunch there were a few more talks and a handful of short workshops, and the day finished with a tone tube make-and-take organized by Chase Goddard from Box Elder High. A concurrent meeting of the SPS Zone was also popular and fairly well attended. James Coburn did a fine job with the meeting and everyone who came had a great time.

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2019 Spring Section Meeting Announcement!

the 2019 Spring section meeting is planned and scheduled for March 1-2, 2019, at Utah State University in Logan.

The website for this year’s Idaho-Utah Section Meeting can be found at:  www.physics.usu.edu/AAPT 

More information will be added soon.  

Registration is ready to go.  It is set up as an all in one registration process, so be ready to register for demo share, contributed talk and/or student poster when you register for the meeting.  The deadline for registration is Monday the 25th of February.

The cost is $10 and all meals are included.

If there are any problems or questions, email me at:  james.coburn@usu.edu

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Spring 2018 Section Report

Spring 2018 Idaho Utah Section report

 

The annual meeting of the Idaho-Utah Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers was held February Friday/Saturday 23-24 2018 at the BYU-I campus in Rexburg, ID. The local organizer and current president was Matt Zachreson, and the meeting was wonderful, although sparsely attended mainly due to some weather concerns (we had a fairly significant winterstorm come through the area both during the week before and the weekend of the conference). A no-host dinner Friday evening at a local pizza and pasta buffet was followed by the ever popular demo show, where several attendees showed off their favorite physics demos.

Saturday morning a light breakfast led to a morning session of talks and presentations, followed by a mid-morning snack and student poster session. A second session of contributed talks got us through to the luncheon and business meeting, where A spate of elections and announcements were on the agenda. The announcements included a reminder of all the programs and benefits available through AAPT and a reminder that the National Meeting will be held in our section next year, the first one since 2005. The Summer meeting will be held in Provo in 2019. Initial plans were made about garnering section help for the various responsibilities associated with hosting a national meeting. We also made plans for updating the mailing list and encouraging more younger faculty to be involved with the section. Then two important elections resulted in Brian Pyper from BYUI being reelected as the Idaho-Utah Section Representative, and Daryl Macomb from Boise State being elected as president-elect. That means the current list of section officers stands as follows:

 

Past President: Adam Beehler – UofU

President: Matt Zachreson – BYUI

Vice President: James Coburn – USU

President Elect: Daryl Macomb – BSU

Section Rep: Brian Pyper – BYUI

 

The section meeting next year will be hosted by USU with James Coburn as the local organizer, and two years from now at BSU with Daryl Macomb as the local organizer.

After lunch there were a few more talks and a handful of short workshops, and the day finished with a planetarium show. Matt Zachreson did a fine job with the meeting and everyone who came had a great time.

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2018 Spring Section Meeting Announcement

The 2018 Spring meeting of the Idaho/Utah section of the AAPT will be held February 23-24 in Rexburg, Idaho.  While this is earlier than normal, it is the latest weekend I could find that did not conflict with a spring break, finals, or other popular conference/teacher in-service.

More information on registration, abstract submission, etc. is available here: https://content.byui.edu/file/5faef9d2-3f50-4f0a-a853-b04b47326b0d/1/main.htm

Once again, we will be holding a student poster session, so please encourage your students to prepare and participate.

On Friday, we will have our usual demo show.  Then on Saturday will be our annual business meeting, invited and contributed talks, and raffle.

If you know of any teachers not on our mailing list, or anyone else who might be interested, please forward them this message.

Matt Zachreson

Idaho/Utah AAPT Section Vice President

Brigham Young University-Idaho

zachresonm@byui.edu