Education Corner

Save the date: 2014 PhysTEC Conference
The 2014 PhysTEC Conference will be held in Austin, Texas on May 19-20 in conjunction with the UTeach Conference. The PhysTEC Conference is the nation’s largest meeting dedicated to physics teacher education.

This year’s Conference theme is “Building Leadership” and the Conference features workshops, panel discussions, presentations by national leaders, and a contributed poster session. There will be a PhysTEC-UTeach joint plenary session by Arthur Levine (Woodrow Wilson Foundation). Other plenary speakers include Nicole Gillespie (Knowles Science Teaching Foundation); David E. Meltzer (Arizona State University); and Susan Singer (National Science Foundation).   

Registration will open in mid-February; the registration rate for  attendees from PhysTEC member institutions is $150 and rate for the non-member attendees is $295. Faculty from minority-serving institutions are eligible to apply for travel grants.  Additional Conference information can be found at the PhysTEC 2014 conference page.

ALPhA’s 2014 Laboratory Immersions Program 
During the summer of 2014, the Advanced Laboratory Physics Association (ALPhA) will be offering a record number of sites for its popular “Laboratory Immersions”. The Immersions offer an opportunity for faculty and teaching staff to spend two to three full days, with expert colleagues on hand, learning the details of a single experiment well enough to teach it with confidence. This year there are 14 sites offering a total of 28 different experiments, including new sites at Vanderbilt, Harvard, Sewanee, and the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. For details, including topics and registration, please visit the ALPhA website. 

Interested in hosting a future Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics? Apply by February 15 to host a site
Applications for future host institutions open in January 2014 for Conferences for Undergraduate Women in Physics to be hosted over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend in mid-January of 2015. If you are interested in applying to host a conference, please visit the Application to Host a Conferences for Undergraduate Women in Physics web page.

New K-12 Statement Passed
The American Physical Society calls upon local, state and federal policy makers, educators and schools to:

• provide every student access to high-quality science instruction including physics and physical science concepts at all grade levels; and
• provide the opportunity for all students to take at least one year of high-quality high school physics.

Read more at the APS Statements web page.