Loyola University Chicago

Department of Physics

Annual Report

The International Committee Annual Report for 2006

Our mission is to provide communication and cooperation between AAPT and physics teachers throughout the world and to participate in joint activities with international groups involved in physics education.

COMMUNICATION

The committee continues to sponsor sessions on international physics education at the national meetings. These include physics teachers from around the world and American physicists teaching abroad. Virtually every area of the world has been represented. We have sponsored both paper and poster sessions with each working best for different types of presentations.

We have coordinated efforts with the AAPT staff to send welcome e-mail messages to international attendees of AAPT meetings. Thanks to Toufic Hakim and the Board, we offered complementary registrations to some of the international registrants to Seattle. We will send a committee representative to the “First Timers Meeting” to greet the first time international attendees. Others will be invited to our committee meetings via the welcoming e-mail message.

We are expanding our list of international contacts that inform the committee on physics related events in their country and to be a resource for any physics teacher traveling to their country. An e-mail letter describes the role of international contacts and the reciprocal nature of the agreement.

ONGOING PROJECTS

We have solicited articles for the Announcer by authors from outside the US. This consists of a call for approximately one-page articles on international education topics to be published in the Announcer.

Bernie Khoury and the editors of AJP and TPT have endorsed the idea of providing Web based journal issues to underdeveloped countries, selected by the same criteria as for the Fuller Fund awards. There is a precedent provided by the American Institute of Physics (AIP). Rob Headrick was contacted by the Chair and will coordinate efforts with Amy Flatten of APS. There is a simultaneous project being pursued by APS in Africa. An approach involving journals on CD-ROM is being pursued.

We continue to nominate international physics teachers for the Fuller Fund Award, a two-year complementary AAPT membership to a teacher in an underdeveloped country. The AAPT staff has notifies the committee the Committee Chair as to the nominees and awardees.

We are planning outreach activities with international physics teaching organizations. These include: establishing Web links to other international teaching organizations, posting annotated conference proceedings on our website and establishing topical working groups with our international colleagues in common areas of interest.

We continue to build a committee nominations list for the AAPT Nominating Committee. This allows CIE participants who are interested in committee membership to be recommended for consideration.

PARTICIPATION

Our members and friends have participated in international physics teaching conferences in India, China, Costa Rica, Japan, Holland, Greece and Hungary. It was suggested that the Executive Board send a representative to the Inter-American Conference on Physics Education in 2009 in Medellin, Columbia. This would enhance our contacts with international colleagues in Latin America.

Many of the conference participants reported on their experiences in our sponsored sessions. Some provide copies of CDs including papers and events held at these conferences.

Members and friends of the Committee have been involved in ongoing international programs and activities in Asia, Africa, Central & South America as well as the International Olympiad, which rotates locations annually.

OTHER ACTIVITIES & DISCUSSIONS

We have discussed a Chair/Vice Chair structure for the committee. The Vice chair would be appointed in the year prior to taking over as chair. This would provide the Chair with additional assistance and would be a training period for the new appointee. This topic will be brought before the Executive Board.

The feedback on use of the listserve for committee business has been positive. It stimulates discussion and feedback on issues pertinent to the committee and expedites committee business.

We continue to make progress in extending our activities and outreach to all areas of the world. Our members and friends are to be commended for their contributions to the committee. Further information can be found on our website, linked from the AAPT home page: http://physics.luc.edu/aapt

Submitted by: Gordon P. Ramsey, Chair