Month: March 2013

AAPT Idaho-Utah Section Meeting Report March 2013
Section Representative: Brian A Pyper – Brigham Young University-Idaho Department of Physics
The Section Meeting for the Idaho-Utah Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers was held at Utah Valley University March 15-16 2013. The meeting was excellently organized by Phil Matheson, the section President-Elect, and was attended by 64 people, 4 HS Faculty, 26 College/University Faculty/Staff, and 34 students some of whom were jointly attending the combined SPS Zone 15 meeting.
The program included the ever-popular Demonstration Show, and a collection of contributed talks, a make-and-take ferro-fluids activity, and the section business meeting and annual section officer election.
The results of the election were as follows, with terms from 3-17-13 to 5/31/14:
Farhang Amiri from Weber State rotated off the presidential chain.
Brian Pyper, also the section representative, rotates from President to Past President.
Phil Matheson, of Utah Valley University rotates from President-Elect to President.
Kathryn Devine, of College of Idaho, rotates from Vice President to President-Elect.
Larry Smith, of Snow College was elected Vice President.
This means that the section meeting next year (2014) will be held at the College of Idaho in Caldwell, with Kathryn Devine as the local organizer, and the following year (2015) the section meeting will be held at Snow College in Ephraim, UT, hosted by local organizer Larry Smith.

ID-Utah AAPT Meeting, March 15 and 16, 2013 Utah Valley University.
Program Outline:
Friday, March 15th
4:00 – 6:00 PM Registration Science Building Atrium (by SB 134)
6:15 – 7:15 PM Dinner Golden Corral 225 W. University Parkway
(Meet as a group to be seated as a group – $10.99/meal)
7:30 – 9:00 PM Physics Demo Night Science Building SB 134
Participants:
Wayne Peterson, BYU Two Demos: The Siren Disk; Creating a Plasma in a Microwave Oven
Brian Pyper, BYU-I Miscellaneous Demos
James Coburn, USU Several demos and a new way to make them visible.
Adam Beehler, U of U Eyeglass Diagnostics
Richard Hills, WSU Galileo’s Regret, Newton’s Rocker, & Bossie’s Stutter-Step
Blake Centini, U of U Fun with magnetism and light
Paul Mills, UVU “Run of the Mills Demos”
Phil Matheson, UVU “Finger demos”
Saturday, March 16th
8:00 – 9:00 AM Registration Science Building Atrium (by SB 134)
(All talks are held in:)
9:00 – 9:10 AM Welcome Pope Science Building PS-202
Session Chair: Bonnie Andersen, UVU
9:15 – 9:30 AM Brent Bargeron, UVU Exit Interviews, a Useful Component of Departmental
Outcomes Assessments
9:30 – 9:45 AM Bill Evenson, UVU/BYU Improving Student Learning Through “Tuning”
9:45 – 10:00 AM Sarah Young, BYU-I Higher Test Scores Achieved by Students who Learn
Physics for the “Big-Picture”
10:00 – 10:15 AM Hector Davila, Joe Jensen, UVU Learning in Bigger Classes
10:15 – 10:30 AM Snack Break, Science Building Atrium
10:30 – 10:45 AM Tracianne Neilsen, Kent Gee, BYU The Physics of the Voice
10:45 – 11:00 AM Kent Gee, Tracianne Neilsen, BYU Teaching Sound Propagation at BYU
Football Games
11:00 – 11:15 AM Paul Weber, UVU Enhancing Modern Physics by Including Waves
11:15 – 11:30 AM Steve Wasserbaech, UVU In Class Demo: Solving the Schroedinger
Equation with an Excel Spreadsheet
11:30 – 11:45 AM David Ludlow, BYU Eliminating Algebra Mistakes in Physics Homework
With the Math Drag’n Application
11:45 – noon Dallin Durfee Exploring the Physics of Musical Scales with a MIDI
Noon – 1:30 PM Lunch/AAPT Business Meeting/ SPS Poster Session/Raffle Prizes
(Pick up your lunches in the Science Building Atrium, and eat in PS 202)
(SPS posters are in the Science Building Atrium)
(AAPT business meeting and raffle at 12:45 in PS 202)
(GROUP PHOTO AT 1:15 SHARP – In the Science Building Atrium)
AAPT continuing:
1:30 – 1:45 PM Rondo Jeffery, Fahrang Amiri , WSU Jumping Ring Levitation and other
Recent results
1:45 – 2:00 PM Bonnie Andersen, UVU Teaching LabVIEW with the Vernier SensorDAQ
2:00 – 2:15 PM Bonnie Andersen, UVU Applying Principles of Team Based Learning
In Lower and Upper Division Physics Courses
2:15 – 2:30 PM Dan Schroeder, Weber AJP and the Future of Physics Journals
2:30 – 2:45 PM Phil Matheson, UVU What should be taught in an “Energy Course”?
2:45 – 3:00 PM Cameron Summers, BYU-I Physics Attitudes Influence Learning
SPS Breakout meeting:
1:30 – 2:15 PM SPS leadership Pope Science Building 206
(Planetarium)
Optional Event: Hands on Workshop
1:30 – 3:00 PM Julie Callahan Cheap Ferro-fluids
Location to be announced

Optional Event: Planetarium Show
2:15 – 3:00 PM UVU- Planetarium Pope Science Building 206
List of SPS Posters
Monica Cervantes, UVU Real-time pathology with high-frequency ultrasound. A feasility study
using bovine tissues
Joseph Chandler, Merideth Gold, BYU BYU SPS Outreach Team
Margaret Jensen, USU Annual Solar Motion and Spy Satellites
Darren McKinnon, USU Mapping the Milky Way: Seeing the Galaxy at 1420 MHz
Rachel Nydegger, USU Effects of Light Pollution at Utah State University
Kelby Peterson, USU Simulation of UV Induced Discoloration on Space Polymers
Jordan Rozum, USU Modeling Spiral Galaxy Surface Luminosity to Explain – Non Uniform
Inclination Distributions
Laurel Thompson, UVU Methods for identifying aerosols by light scattering techniques
David Pease, UVU Testing Regions of Frequency Hysteresis of a Variable-Depth
Thermoacoustic Prime Mover

Just at reminder that Tuesday, March 5th is nominally the last day to submit abstracts for the March 15/16 ID-UT AAPT meeting. However, late submission may still be accepted up to March 12th. Please email any late submissions directly to phil.matheson@uvu.edu.

Registration begins Friday, March 15th at the UVU Science Building Auditorium, SB 134 at 4:00 PM. Saturday registration will begin at 8:00 AM at the same location. Regular registration is $15 and includes a box lunch and break-time snacks. Please pay with cash or check. We have no means of processing credit or debit.

A no-host dinner will be held at Golden Corral, 225 W. University Parkway, immediately adjacent to the UVU campus. Because it is a Friday night, the restaurant asks that at least a majority of the party be there at 6:15 sharp in order to be seated together. Stragglers will still be able to join us as long as there a sizeable group up front. We are planning for about 25.

The Friday Night Demo show will begin at 7:30 PM in the Science Building Auditorium. If you are able to present, please contact phil.matheson@uvu.edu to arrange for any supporting materials that you might need. Bring your local friends and relatives.

Saturday’s meetings begin at 9:00 AM

Julie Callahan will be conducting a hands-on workshop to manufacture low cost ferro-fluids Saturday afternoon. Please contact her directly to register for that event by email cosmic.callahan@gmail.com. Nominal workshop cost is $20.

We’re looking forward to seeing you then!

Here’s some information sent in by Phil Matheson about the upcoming section meeting: