Under construction April 2026; should be completed soon

The Northern California/Nevada Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers supports physics education and educators. Our section runs from the Oregon boarder on the north and San Luis Obispo and Fresno on the south, and the northern half of Nevada on the east.

The membership of NCNAAPT consists of physics educators from middle school through university. We include active educators, as well as pre-service and retired members.

While NCNAAPT is affiliated with the national AAPT, we are an independent organization.

Links

  • Officers
  • Our Constitution can be found here (coming soon).

Membership

Membership dues are $20/year, and include attendance for two consecutive section conferences (including lunch!). Dues are collected when you register for a conference.

Section meetings/conferences

NCNAAPT is one of the more active sections of AAPT. We generally hold two gatherings every year: one in the fall and one in the spring. Unlike national conferences, ours are low-cost and low-stress. If you haven’t presented at a conference before, we encourage you to share your resources with others.

Meetings include:

  • Poster sessions (usually during registration, but posters are up for lunch and breaks).
  • Keynote speakers featuring the latest in physics and physics education
  • Break out sessions.
  • Free lunch
  • Share and tell (members have five minutes to share their favorite teaching tip/cool demo/etc.)
  • Most meetings include an optoinal no-host gathering at a local restaurant the Friday evening before Saturday.

Dependent Care Grants

Acknowledging the financial hardship that many people have from family connections, we offer dependent care grants for members who have childcare of adult care needs. We con distribute grans of $75 for parents/caregivers with one dependent or $150 for multiple dependents. Application link coming soon.

Other groups for physics educators

Physics Teachers SOS

PTSOS is a free workshop and support program for new high school and middle school physics teachers in Northern California. They offer 3 all-day Saturday workshops during the school year. In addition to learning about the details of the craft of physics teaching from experienced teachers, participants receive a continental breakfast, lunch, and physics equipment for use in their own classrooms. The PTSOS program is recognized as one of the most effective programs for training and retaining new physics teachers.

The Physics Show

The Physics Department at Foothill College enjoys putting on the show each year for our community. This is an event for the entire family – ages 5 and up. Although we target families with elementary school age children, there is enough information to keep the older kids and parents interested also. The younger attendees leave knowing that they saw a show about science and that it was fun (the most important first lesson in science). The older ones may actually pick up on the explanations. Middle school kids always seem to enjoy the show, too. We get very few high school students..

National AAPT

Neighboring Sections