University support

Bellarmine (San Jose) on April 22, 2023

Photo showing building with students walking in front.

Our spring meeting will be at Bellarmine College Prep in San Jose on April 22. We are happy to announce that we’ll have Zeke Kossover from the Exploratorium and Beth Callaghan from the Monterey Bay Aquarium as our invited speakers. In addition we’ll have share & tell, a poster session, opportunities for networking and more.

Pre-registration has closed. Walk-ups can pay at the door.

Here is a campus map:

Tentative Schedule:

8-9 Registration/Poster Session

9-9:15 Welcome

9:15-10:15 Breakout Groups

10:15-10:30 Break

10:30-11:45 Keynote #1: Zeke Kossover

11:45-12:00 Short Business Meeting

12:00-1:15 Lunch & Network

1:15-2:30 Keynote #2: Beth Callaghan

2:30-3: 15 AAPT Updates (Summer meeting, news from National)

3:30-4:30 Share & Tell

There are also subsidy opportunities for those who need help with dependent care in order to join us: https://ncnaapt.org/dependent-care-grants/

Fall Meeting at Merritt College on Nov. 5

photo of Barbara Lee Center for Science and Allied Health Center at Merritt College

Three dimensional science education

We’ll be at Merritt College in Oakland for our next meeting, Saturday November 5. Doors will open at 8 and we’ll have our official start around 9. The highlights of the day will include an invited talk by Paul Bergeron from Pasadena City College titled “Transforming Classrooms into Science Gateways through 3 Dimensional Learning.” Online registration is closed, walk-ups can pay at the door.

Spring Meeting at PASCO April 22/23

We’ll be holding our next NorCal/Nevada AAPT meeting at PASCO’s factory in Roseville in late April. On the night of Friday the 22nd we’ll meet for an optional social event from 6-9, and on Saturday the 23rd we’ll have a full meeting. A big thank you to PASCO for also covering food costs for this meeting.

Links from AAPT Jan 2021 Make, Take, Do & Share Discussion Room

The January 2021 AAPT National meeting was held virtually. In the Make, Take, Do & Share ‘session,’ members shared links to 5 minute videos describing their share. We have added these resources below.

Active Learning in Introductory Physics Courses: Research-Based Strategies that Improve Student Learning

July 15-17, 2019, Portland, Oregon (Monday-Wednesday)

Designed for those who teach introductory physics at universities, colleges and high schools. Graduate credit will be available through the University of Oregon.

Instructors: David Sokoloff, University of Oregon and Ronald Thornton, Tufts University

Participants will be introduced to research-validated, classroom-tested strategies for each component of the introductory course that have been demonstrated to improve learning. These include Interactive Lecture Demonstration (ILDs), RealTime Physics (RTP) labs, Collaborative Problem-Solving Tutorials, Workshop Physics (WP), Physics with Video Analysis (PVA), and related online video analysis exercises. The course will also include the use of video analysis to identify analytic functions describing real data. Among other more recent developments are: