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2026 Idaho/Utah Section Report

2026 Idaho/Utah Section Report

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

The 1983 section bylaws had been lost for decades. A copy was recovered and examined. It was determined they needed updating, so Larry Smith wrote a draft which was discussed and then approved at the section meeting.

Section Meeting: The 2026 meeting of the Idaho/Utah section was held at the University of Utah on  April 10–11 in Salt Lake City, with about 50 attending. On the evening of Friday, April 10, a banquet was held with a popular demo show afterwards. Demos where shared by many people representing various institutions. A good time was had by all. 

On Saturday, April 11, Rhett Zollinger, section president and planner and organizer of the conference, welcomed everyone. The section meeting was held in conjunction with a regular make-n-take workshop the U of U provides for area high school teachers.

The keynote speaker was Nick Borys who spoke about “Advancing Quantum Technologies Through New Materials.” Parallel workshop sessions were then held.

After lunch a section business meeting was held at 1:00. We approved some revised section bylaws and elected a full new slate of officers (which we’ve previously been unable to do since COVID). A spreadsheet showing the history of all section meetings was also shown.

Cheryl Davis at Brigham Young University will be the new section president and will host the 2027 meeting. 

Two sessions of parallel talks were held in the afternoon.

President Zollinger did a wonderful job planning and hosting the meeting.

Current Officers (terms all start Spring 2026)

Section Representative: Kim Nielsen, Utah Valley University (3-year term)

Section President: Cheryl Davis, Brigham Young University-Provo (1-year term) 

Section President-Elect: Katie Devine, College of Idaho (1-year term)

Section Vice President: Steve Hart, Snow College (1-year term)

Section Past President: Rhett Zollinger, University of Utah (1-year term)

Section Secretary/Treasurer: Adam Beehler, University of Utah (2-year term)

Next Section Meeting: Brigham Young University in Spring 2027, planned by Cheryl Davis.

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2025 Idaho/Utah Section Report

2025 Idaho/Utah Section Report

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

Section Meeting: The 2025 meeting of the Idaho/Utah section was held at Brigham Young University – Idaho on  March 28–29 in Rexburg, Idaho, with about 50 attending. On the evening of Friday, March 28, a banquet was held with a popular demo show afterwards. Demos where shared by many people representing various institutions. A good time was had by all. 

On Saturday, March 29, Matt Zachreson, planner and organizer of the conference, welcomed everyone. 

Lunch was concurrent with a poster session and the section business meeting was held at 1:00. COVID-19 (and the cancellation of section meetings 2020, 2021, and 2022) derailed the planning of future meetings and the list of expected section officers. Rhett Zollinger (U of U) will become the next president and host in 2026.

Next Section Meeting: University of Utah in April of 2026 planned by Rhett Zollinger. We plan to vote on updates to the section bylaws to better plan for section office holders in the future.

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2024 Idaho/Utah Section Report

2024 Idaho/Utah Section Report

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

Section Meeting: The 2024 meeting of the Idaho/Utah section was held at Utah Valley University (UVU) April 12–13, 2024, with about 50 attending. On the evening of Friday, April 12, a banquet was held with a popular demo show afterwards. Most of the demos were done by UVU faculty, but others also brought some demos to share. A good time was had by all. 

On Saturday, April 13, Dustin Shipp, planner and organizer of the conference, welcomed everyone, followed by a message from Duane Merrill, past National AAPT President. President Merrill counseled us as AAPT to focus on physics teaching and not get distracted by peripheral issues. Kent L. Gee of BYU gave a fascinating keynote address about high amplitude acoustics from explosions to rockets to volcanoes. Parallel breakout sessions were held in the morning and afternoon with good attendance. 

Lunch was concurrent with a poster session and the section business meeting was held at 1:00. COVID-19 (and the cancellation of section meetings 2020, 2021, and 2022) derailed the planning of future meetings and the list of expected section officers. At the conference Matt Zachreson of BYU-I volunteered to host the meeting in 2025 if no one else was available. After the meeting that plan of action was confirmed. Matt will be the section President until the end of the 2025 spring section meeting and then Rhett Zollinger (U of U) will become the next president and host in 2026.

Next Section Meeting: BYU-Idaho in spring of 2025 hosted by Matt Zachreson.

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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.