History of the
American Association of Physics Teachers
How it got started:
During the early Fall of
1954, Dr. James Potter, Chairman of the Department of Physics at Texas A and M
University, Dr. Newton Gaines, Chairman of the Department of Physics at Texas
Christian University, and Dr. Herbert C. Schwetman, Chairman of the Department
of Physics at Baylor University, met at the National Science Education
Conference at Lake Texoma (at the suggestion of Dr. Potter) and discussed the
possibility of starting the Texas Section of the A.A.P.T..
Dr. Potter volunteered to
send out the initial letter which produced such excellent results that later
Dr. Potter said: "I have done very few things in my life that have caught
fire the way that did. You nominated me for the Chairmanship the first year,
and with a minimum of nursing, it was picked up and carried by other officers
in succeeding years. People seem generally to enjoy being involved with
it."
The first organizational
meeting of the Texas Section of the A.A.P.T. was held on Saturday, December 11,
1954 at
Dr. Potter announced that
the plan to organize a Texas Section of the A.A.P.T. to meet annually with the
Texas Academy of Science had already received the endorsement of the Executive
Councils of both the Texas Academy of Science and the American Association of
Physics Teachers. A letter from the Executive Council of the A.A.P.T. endorsing
the plan was read by the chairman.
It was then moved: That
those present petition the appropriate officers of the A.A.P.T. for a charter
for the Texas Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers. In the
discussion which followed, two possibilities were examined: first, that the
organization also include members from the states neighboring Texas and be
known, perhaps, as the Southwestern Section of the A.A.P.T., and, second that,
in accordance with the implication of the motion, the organization concentrate
its recruiting of membership within the State of Texas, with individuals from
neighboring states free, indeed, invited to visit our meetings and to
contribute to the programs. The second possibility seemed to meet with greater
favor; at least, no amendment to the motion was offered. The organizational
motion then carried unanimously.
Petition sheets reading
"We, the undersigned, respectfully petition the Council for the authority
to organize a Texas Section of the American Association of Physics
Teachers" were then circulated for signatures; a total of 25 signatures
were obtained.
It was then moved: That the
next meeting of the Texas Section of the A.A.P.T. be
on occasion of the 1955 meeting of the Texas Academy of Science, and that a
program be presented at that time. The motion carried unanimously.
The motion was then
introduced: A. That the officers of the Texas Section of the A.A.P.T. consist
of a Chairman, a Vice-Chairman, a Secretary-Treasurer, and two Council Members,
these five officers constituting the Board of Directors;
B. That the Board of Directors for 1955 constitute a committee empowered to
take, during the year 1955, all further steps necessary for the organization of
the Texas Section of the A.A.P.T. and to carry on the business of the
organization during the year; and
C. That the said committee report to the membership on the occasion of the 1955
meeting. This motion carried unanimously.
Officers for the year 1955
were then elected. Dr. Potter was elected as chairman, Dr. T. N. Hatfield (
It was then moved: That Dr.
Potter be empowered to act as the representative of
the Texas Section at the national meeting of the American Association of
Physics teachers to be held in
Subsequent History:
The charter petition to the
national organization was approved at the 1955 annual meeting of the Council on
January 27,1955. (AJP 23, 398) During the
period between the 1954 and1955 meetings the Board of Directors of the Texas
AAPT served as a committee to write a constitution, which was adopted at the
business meeting held during the 1955 meeting. The new organization attained a
membership of eighty-one during the first year, and the 1955meeting's four
invited and twenty-two contributed papers were heard by as many as 120 persons.
The emergence of the Physical Sciences Section soon resulted in the necessity
of holding simultaneous sessions. As the sessions increased in length, it
became more difficult to find a suitable time for the business meeting, and it
has moved from late Friday afternoon to various Saturday times to the current
Friday luncheon meeting.
In 1965 the Board of
Directors of the Texas Academy of Science voted to change the annual meeting
from early December to March, with the result that no TAS meeting was held
during the calendar year 1966. At the meeting in December 1965, Texas AAPT
members voted to have a meeting in November of 1966 at
The Texas Section has had a
membership fee of one dollar per year during most of its history, but it
recently became necessary to raise the fee to two dollars. Even at the
increased rate, it is apparent that support of the meetings and other
activities has come mainly through the generosity of the officers, their
institutions, and the host institutions.
During the period since its
founding in 1954, the Texas Section has served the physics community through a
variety of activities, including:
1. It has sponsored meetings in all parts of the state where ideas concerning
physics and physics teaching have been shared and exchanged.
2. It has provided an opportunity for faculty members and students of the
colleges and universities to report on the physics research being carried on in
3. It has afforded a common meeting ground for physics teachers from all
levels--university, college, junior college, high school, and junior high
school.
4. It has exerted efforts to improve the average preparation of high school
physics teachers and to improve the certification procedures for physics
teachers. Specific recommendations have been made to the Texas Education Agency
in this area.
5. It has encouraged the coordination of curriculum between the junior colleges
and the universities and colleges of the state.
6. It has attempted to cooperate in the planning of engineering education.
7. It has encouraged the improvement of the ninth-grade physical science course
and the preparation of new materials for this course.
8. It has identified and presented awards to outstanding high school physics
teachers in the state.
9. It has honored, through an emeritus membership program, the retired physics
teachers of
10. It has undertaken studies aimed at making more effective use of government
surplus and excess property.
11. It has published a list of speakers available from physics departments in
the state.
It would be inappropriate
in this brief history to describe each of these activities in detail. However,
concerning item#2, it is believed that the importance of the Texas Section in
providing regional forum for research in physics merits further comment. The
only other organization which has sponsored broad-spectrum meetings has been
the American Physical Society, but it has not provided meetings of reasonable
proximity on an annual basis, and in recent years meetings in
Although year-by-year
membership records in the Texas Section are apparently not available, the
process of sound and steady growth has been apparent to all who have
participated actively in the Section. The current membership (March 6, 1975) is
reported as one hundred and thirty-five, including eleven emeritus members.
A tabulation listing the
meeting places and dates, the names of section officers, and American Journal
of Physics references to reports of meetings is attached as
Geographical
Jurisdiction:
The charter of the Texas
Section, as described above, provided for the boundaries of the Section to be
those of the state. The only modification that has taken place occurred in January,
1963, when the AAPT Council approved a charter petition from the organizational
group for the Southwestern Section. (AJP31, 561) Approval of the
petition has been delayed pending agreement by the Texas Section to release the
Texas Panhandle area for reassignment to the new section; the release was voted
at the Texas Section business meeting in
Constitution:
The constitution and
by-laws of the
Concerning the
Prior to the formation of
the Texas AAPT, the membership and the meetings of the Texas Academy of Science
were strongly oriented toward the biological and earth sciences. Participation
in Academy affairs, including meetings, by chemists, mathematicians, and
physicists was meager, with the result that all three areas shared one Section
of the Academy and held joint sessions at the meetings, a fact which obviously
had an adverse effect on any attempts to increase interest in the meetings. The
success of the Texas AAPT in stimulating interest and activity in physics in
the years following 1954 appears to have motivated some members of the Texas
Section of the Mathematical Association of American to follow a similar
approach to increased activity in mathematics in the Academy meetings, and by
1961 the activity in both fields was sufficient to cause the Academy to create
separate sections, with Section I designated for mathematics and Section II for
physical sciences. Participation by chemists in the activities of Section II
remained rather small, probably because of the strength of the Southwestern
Section of the American Chemical Society. As the result of the leadership of
some interested chemists, however, the reorganization of the Academy in 1969
separated chemistry and physics, with Section II designated "Physical
Sciences and Space Sciences" and Section VII "Chemical Sciences."
The creation in the 1969
reorganization of the Science Education Section (Section VIII) has resulted in
some additional dilemmas for many Texas AAPT members as they attempt to decide
which session they shall attend, and has also produced a few conflicts for
those who are scheduled for nearly simultaneous paper presentations in the two
sections. Because of the overlapping interests, it would appear desirable for
the vice-presidents of Section II and VIII to coordinate their efforts when
arranging the programs for the annual spring meeting. A recent, and related,
development which appears to increase the importance of coordination is the
1973 affiliation of the Science Teachers Association of Texas with the Texas
Academy of Science, with the result that the Section VIII (Science Education)
program for the joint spring meeting has become a dual responsibility of STAT
and TAS Section VIII. The membership of STAT, about 1100, consists almost
entirely of public school teachers and their science supervisors and includes
some persons, both public school and college, who are members of Texas Section
AAPT. An important point is that STAT also holds a fall meeting each year. In
view of the continuing efforts of TSAAPT to promote closer relations between
public schools and college faculty personnel, it would appear that some
cooperation, perhaps including occasional joint fall meetings, might be
mutually advantageous and hence, worthy of consideration.
A Special Note:
Although many persons have
made outstanding contributions to the organization and growth of the Texas
Section AAPT, it is the belief of the committee that two persons whose names
are to be found among the officers listed in Appendix I are due special
recognition. Mary Gourley and Garnett Gray served the Section with unusual
devotion and ability and continued to do so, almost literally, to the moments
of their untimely deaths. Many members of the Section have participated in
memorial funds established in honor of these two beloved former members at
their home institutions of
Respectfully submitted, this date, March 21, 1975.
Roy Biser
Herbert Schwetman
Fred Connelly, Chairman.