PTSOS – Page 6

Fall 2014 conference at City College of San Francisco

Our fall 2014 meeting will be at the City College of San Francisco this November. There will be a social event on the night of the 14th followed by a full day on Saturday the 15th. Our keynote speaker will be Dennis Wingo of the ISEE-3 Reboot Team, a group of space enthusiasts who are attempting (with good progress) to revive a NASA space probe launched in 1978.

Registration is now open here.

Call for Posters is here

Our draft schedule is below the page-jump

Continue reading “Fall 2014 conference at City College of San Francisco”

Registration for August PTSOS Now Open!

The next PTSOS meeting will be on August 23 at Los Gatos High School from 9 to 4.

Our format is informal, flexible, and friendly. We like to think that everyone leaves the workshop with something they can use right away in their classrooms. Most of the teachers who attend teach regular high-school physics, but we also see many AP Physics teachers, college physics teachers, junior-high physical-science teachers, and even math, chemistry, and biology teachers.

Thanks to our generous benefactors (especially the Karl Brown family), the workshop is free, including a free, onsite lunch and coffee and doughnuts. Continue reading “Registration for August PTSOS Now Open!”

Forces and Interactions: NGSS for Physics and Physical Science Teachers

This is not exactly in our backyard, but worth two weeks if you can make it.

June 16-27, 2014 M-F 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM

The Physics department at the University of Wisconsin – River Falls and the American Association of Physics Teachers’ PTRA program have provided in service teachers with high quality, in depth, and useful educational experiences for nearly 30 years. Continue reading “Forces and Interactions: NGSS for Physics and Physical Science Teachers”

Program for November 15-16 2013 conference at Carondelet HS

The program for our Fall 2013 section conference is now available in PDF format. We should have a web page version up shortly, but here’s the PDF in the mean-time.

Map of locations:

View NCN AAPT at Carondelet High School in a larger map with key to locations.

Don’t forget, registration is encouraged (helps us plan for how many will attend), but not mandatory. Register here.

Accelerometers and Great America: Here’s your ‘permission slip’

Last year, after more than a decade of bringing students (and their accelerometers) to Great America, Phillip Becker of Saint Helena High School was shocked to be informed by park staff that students would not be allowed to bring their accelerometers on the rides. Disappointment ruled the day, but his students made the best of it. Upon returning to school, Mr. Becker typed out a to-the-point letter to Cedar Fair Entertainment Company (the parent company for Great America), expressing his outrage at this change in policy. Shortly thereafter, Cedar Fair Entertainment replied, with a letter notifying him that there had been no change in policy, and apologizing for the mistake by the local park staff/management.

If you are planning on attending a Physics/Math day at Great America, you may want to print out a copy of the letter from Cedar Fair and carry it with you to the park, just in case this year’s staff/management makes a similar mistake.