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Here's a message from Daniel Marble from Tarleton State University:
If you are teaching IPC or middle school science or are helping teachers then you might be interested in the following website supplied by John Hubisz. http://www.science-house.org/middleschool/. As many of you know, John is the past president of the AAPT and was very active in the Texas AAPT section before he moved to North Carolina.
John will be giving a plenary talk on middle school science at the Joint Spring Texas AAPT/APS/SPS Meeting in Stephenville. High school and middle school science teachers needing details on the conference including registration, hotels, etc can find the information at the following link: http://www.math.tarleton.edu/physics/Conference/main.htm
If you plan to attend the meeting, you should begin making your hotel reservations as soon as possible. Conference hotels will release the block of rooms after March 1. It will probably be difficult to get rooms at the last minute due to other events in the area. Also students should register before March 1 to take advantage of free lunch tickets and reduced banquet tickets via the generosity of the Texas American Physical Society. Registration for high school students is required and is free until March 1.
In addition to contributed talks on physics research and physics and physical science education, there are 13 teacher workshops scheduled as well as seven invited talks by nationally known experts on topics ranging from physlets, teaching science by inquiry, the Mars Exploration program, the joint strike force fighter, and teaching quantum mechanics. Robert Resnick will be giving a humorous talk on the trials and history of writing his famous physics textbook. High school students are welcomed to submit talks on class or research projects to the student section For high school and college students, a panel discussion with industrial and academic experts on careers in physics and engineering is planned. There is also a student get together on Thursday evening before the conference. The conference is also interested in recognizing outstanding work by high school physics students. HS Teachers may nominate two students from their physics class for recognition. The award certificates will be presented to students attending the conference during the Friday luncheon.
Note: AAPT members should also remember to nominate their outstanding student to the national office for recognition.
Meeting Home Page:
http://www.math.tarleton.edu/physics/Conference/main.htm
Workshop Abstracts:
http://www.tsaapt.org/2004Spring/WorkshopAbstractS'04.doc
Workshop Registration:
http://www.tsaapt.org/2004Spring/WorkshopRegForm.S'04.doc
Texas K-12 Schools on the Web
Physics Departments at Texas Universities
Physics Departments at Texas Community Colleges
Colleges, Community Colleges, & Universities
Texas Regional Education Service Centers (ESCs)
What is a Fermi Question?
Fermi Question: How many physics teachers are there in Texas?
Answer by Larry Shepley: I thought there were 254 counties in Texas, not 507. [Corrected above] More important for your Fermi question, however, is how many school districts are there, or how many high schools are there? However, I'll ignore all of these figures and concentrate on population alone. There are 2.1x107 people in Texas, and about 28% (5.9x106) are under 18. I would guess that about 1/4 of these take a year of physics at some level (I'd say all take physical science, so that wouldn't help in the estimate). Hence, in any given year (1/18)x(1/4)x6x106 = 8x104 students are taking physics. I would guess that this means about 4^10^3 classes are being taught in Texas. If each teacher accounts for 4 classes, then there would be 103 physics teachers in Texas. Estimated error: 100%.
Answer by Tom O'Kuma:
I assume the Fermi question is on the number of high school physics
teachers there are in Texas and I assume you mean anyone who teaches high
school physics and not just full-time high school physics teachers.
Based on population, then number of HS students who probably take a high
school physics course in Texas (and not physical science), I estimate the
following:
Number of TX HS students taking physics annually: 60,000-80,000, say
70,000.
Number of TX teachers who teach a course in physics: 1800 - 2000, say 1900.
[I've misplace the other solutions to this Fermi question. Feel free to send or re-send your solution by replying to this message.]
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Mars Rover Status
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html
Impressive Color Images of Mars - Private Image Processing
http://lyle.org/mars/
Astronomy Picture of the Day
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/
A New Form of Matter
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/12feb_fermi.htm?list942833
Hubble Images
http://wires.news.com.au/special/mm/030811-hubble.htm
What If Dark Matter Really Doesn't Exist?
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/09/128223&mode=thread&tid=134&tid=160
High-voltage lines, negative ions and rats
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/159773_ratzone07.html
One step closer to superconductors
http://www.christiansciencemonitor.com/2004/0202/p12s01-stss.html
Oxygen at Extrasolar Planet, a First
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/extrasolar_blowout_040202.html
Physics Demos: NCSU Physics Demoroom
http://demoroom.physics.ncsu.edu - descriptions and movies
Physics Question of the Week
http://www.physics.umd.edu/lecdem/outreach/QOTW/active/questions.htm
PBS has made available online all three hours of the NOVA program on unified theory. Watch it online.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/program.html
Physical Science Resource Center (PSRC)
http://psrc.aapt.org
AAPT Teaching Resources
http://www.aapt.org/Resources/
What's new at APS?
http://www.aps.org/WN/
The American Association of Physics Teachers was established in 1930 with the fundamental goal of ensuring the "dissemination of knowledge of physics, particularly by way of teaching." In addition to helping you learn more about traditional teaching methods, we can help you learn new teaching methods and use modern technology to entice your students with the wonders of science. AAPT Home Page: http://www.aapt.org/
Established in 1954, the objectives of the Texas Section of AAPT "shall be the advancement of the teaching of physics and the furtherance of appreciation of the role of physics in our culture. These objectives shall be carried out exclusively for education and scientific purposes." TSAAPT Home Page: http://www.tsaapt.org/
Most of the members of TSAAPT are physics and physical science teachers at high schools, colleges, and universities. These newsletters will be used to share information and web links that can be helpful in the classroom for the challenging job of teaching physics.
Thanks to Tom O'Kuma, Larry Shepley, David Donnelly, Dan Marble and others for the links and information above. Thanks to TSAAPT officers Antonio Elizondo, Beth Ann Thacker, James R. Crawford, Karen Jo Matsler, Jerry O'Conner, Mike Sadler, David W. Donnelly, and Tom O'Kuma for their review of this newsletter. Feel free to send any interesting links that you find. This email message is sent to Texas physics teachers, students, alumni and friends of TSAAPT. If you would like to be removed from the emailing list or are getting multiple copies of these newsletters, then feel free to reply to this message with your request.
Clear skies,
Dan Bruton
astro@sfasu.edu