United States

Our introductory astronomy courses have made use of our planetarium for the &quot;standard&quot; lessons, such as teaching students about celestial coordinates, the ecliptic, etc. We have several advanced courses in our minor in astronomy, including a sophomore-level course on the solar system and exoplanets, and introductory astrophysics, and junior courses on observational astronomy, stellar astrophysics, and galactic astronomy. We recently began thinking about using the planetarium to help with instruction at these higher levels.

In the fall of 2019, we started teaching lessons for our solar system course in the planetarium, which would have been modified and expanded upon in 2020, but for the COVID-19 shutdown. We will present our initial work from 2019 and plans for improvements and additions for fall 2021, and preliminary ideas for our stellar astrophysics course planned for spring 2022. We hope to spark a further discussion on the use of planetaria for higher-level courses.


AAPT SM 21

Planetaria beyond the Introductory Level

planetarium

advanced

introductory

astronomy

This meeting is a great opportunity to explore sessions and workshops designed with your professional development in mind. Present your research and exchange ideas on the latest in teaching and pedagogy. Participate in a wide range of events, activities, plenaries, and so much more, connecting you with peers and colleagues who share your commitment to excellence in physics education.

AAPT WM 22

Our introductory astronomy courses have made use of our planetarium for the "standard" lessons, such as teaching students about celestial coordinates, the ecliptic, etc. We have several advanced courses in our minor in astronomy, including a sophomore-level course on the solar system and exoplanets, and introductory astrophysics, and junior courses on observational astronomy, stellar astrophysics, and galactic astronomy. We recently began thinking about using the planetarium to help with instruction at these higher levels.

In the fall of 2019, we started teaching lessons for our solar system course in the planetarium, which would have been modified and expanded upon in 2020, but for the COVID-19 shutdown. We will present our initial work from 2019 and plans for improvements and additions for fall 2021, and preliminary ideas for our stellar astrophysics course planned for spring 2022. We hope to spark a further discussion on the use of planetaria for higher-level courses.


technical paper

Join AAPT and Physics Educators worldwide in developing and strengthening your professional connections by attending the 2021 AAPT Virtual Summer Meeting. AAPT meetings are a great way to reflect on your teaching, recommit to best practices and re-energize your career with new research, products, and techniques.

Listen to internationally known plenary speakers, attend sessions, workshops, and special activities. Attending the virtual summer meeting is an excellent opportunity to share your expertise and learn from and network with leaders in the field.

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Facilitating discussions on pedagogy and content among high school teachers with different backgrounds can be a challenging undertaking. By becoming attuned to the mechanisms by which discourse moves in expert-novice teacher pairs successfully elevate conversations about content and pedagogy, facilitators of physics teacher professional development (PD) can better design activities and support teacher groups in advancing toward a conversational mode in which all parties feel comfortable contributing. Last summer, the Illinois Physics and Secondary Schools (IPaSS) partnership offered intensive PD workshops for high school teachers. This talk presents a case-study of an expert-novice pair solving problems from a Content Knowledge for Teaching Energy (CKT-E) assessment. Via video analysis, we examine the question: What conversational moves facilitate conversations about physics content and pedagogy between teachers with different backgrounds? In the case study, moves by both teachers minimize apparent disparities in power, creating conversational space and setting the stage for content-specific discussion.

Enabling content-specific discussions among expert-novice teacher pairs: A case study

I have been serving as an AAAS-Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the National Science Foundation in the Division of Undergraduate Education for the last two years. I will share lessons learned from this experience about communicating with government officials. Specifically, I will focus on reframing STEM education and education research as multifaceted tools for science advocacy. I will also discuss program and project evaluation as underutilized tools for the promotion of STEM. Improving the way educators and educational researchers collect and share project and program results can facilitate communication among researchers, educators, nonprofits, and government and assist these entities in promoting STEM and STEM education.

STEM Education and Education Research as Tools for Science Advocacy/Communication

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) provide independent, science-based, non-partisan policy advice to federal agencies and Congress. The Committee on Planetary Protection (CoPP), a discipline committee of the Space Studies Board, provides advice to NASA on the critical issue of planetary protection. Planetary protection includes measures devised for robotic spacecraft and human exploration missions to protect the biological and environmental integrity of extraterrestrial bodies for future scientific studies as well as life on Earth against potential “backward” contamination. Through discussions with scientists across the world, the CoPP endeavors to ensure that space missions can answer fundamental questions about life and the history of our Solar System without jeopardizing future science through harmful contamination of pristine extraterrestrial sites. I will discuss how CoPP and similar committees demonstrate science advocacy and communication with government officials, and how CoPP uses science to promote and protect future studies and exploration.

NASEM's Committee on Planetary Protection: Advocating With and For Science

As with any form of communication, advocacy for science and science policy requires identifying key audiences and opportunities. In this presentation, some of the main opportunities for advocacy with the Executive and Legislative Branches are identified and illustrated. As a preface and because of the tight coupling with advocacy opportunities, the Federal budgetary cycle is briefly reviewed. The speaker participated in science advocacy and policy development from multiple perspective as a member of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and with responsibility for university federal relations at Northern Illinois University.

Perspectives from Inside and Outside: Advocating for Science and Policy

In this presentation, simulations of some physics experiments will be presented. The simulations are based on mathematica.

Simulation lab with mathematica

The APS Effective Practices for Physics Programs (EP3) project team surveyed department chairs nationwide to assess the status of physics-degree-granting departments. The results give insight into how chairs view the current state of their undergraduate programs. The findings cover a range of areas, including the problems departments face, the departmental cultures of assessment, and attitudes towards program review. Recruitment and retention of minoritized students and overall student enrollment and preparation were the most prevalent and severe departmental problems reported. Note, pandemic related issues were not addressed as at the time of this survey as it was unclear what the total effect of the pandemic would be. Additionally, there is substantial misalignment between chairs’ current and ideal departments, indicating room for improvement in departmental practices and change processes. In this talk, I will share these survey results and discuss the implications for the EP3 project and the larger physics community.

Department chairs report misalignment between their current and ideal departments

Collecting effective practices across all areas of a physics department’s operations is a daunting task for any chair or faculty member bent on improving their program. EP3 (Effective Practices for Physics Programs) is a community-sourced guide to help chairs and members of their department improve. The guide includes sections on topics including recruitment, retention, introductory-courses, laboratory and computational skills, undergraduate research, culture and climate, equity and inclusion, leadership, program review, capstone experiences and much more. Guide development is ongoing, but a substantial portion is now available at EP3guide.org and the national task force is set to complete all sections by early 2022. This talk will provide an overview of the guide, its design, and how to begin to use the practices. Our interactive session will provide an opportunity for attendees to provide feedback on design and content, and to see how you can use the guide most effectively.

EP3: A Comprehensive, Community-Sourced Guide for Improving Departments

APS has recognized that physics programs and departments have increasingly come under threat in the current climate in higher education, a circumstance exacerbated by COVID. This has particularly impacted regional public institutions and private colleges. In response, APS tasked the authors to develop a resource that could aid departments experiencing such pressures. We conducted over 50 interviews with faculty and administrators, gathering practices that worked, or did not work. These practices served as feedstock for the resulting web-based resource: the Toolkit for Departments Under Threat. The Toolkit provides guidance on effective practices, and presents these findings in structures that can easily be adopted by departmental leaders. While each individual program constitutes a unique ecosystem, thematic elements emerged, forming the backbone of the Toolkit. We will describe the structure and content of the Toolkit, and invite any feedback.


Toolkit for Departments Under Threat

The APS Effective Practices for Physics Programs (EP3) initiative aims to help physics programs respond to challenges with a collection of knowledge, experience, and proven good practice disseminated via the EP3 Guide. As part of the project, we are piloting Departmental Action Leadership Institutes (DALIs), which support faculty members and their departments in implementing significant changes to their undergraduate programs. Starting in January 2021, two faculty members from each of five departments joined the first DALI. These faculty members were charged with leading cross-constituency teams in their departments to engage in a change effort, following the Departmental Action Team (DAT) model. This DALI started with an intensive virtual kickoff workshop, followed by twice monthly meetings and the opportunity for individual consultations with the DALI facilitators. These activities were designed to to help the DALI participants learn about and implement critical aspects of engaging in a change effort, of supporting a high-functioning team, of interfacing with stakeholders outside the team, and of growing as change agents. These are all practices that align with the literature on organizational change and effective teams, both within and beyond the higher education context. In this presentation, we will describe the goals, structure, and curriculum of the pilot DALI. We will also present some initial feedback from our participants about their experiences with the DALI and with leading their change efforts.

Supporting departmental change efforts with Departmental Action Leadership Institutes (DALIs)

In March 2020, all teachers were asked to shift to a virtual world of instruction. While there were resources available, it was overwhelming to decide what to do, who to listen to, and try to figure out how students would respond. The 2020-2021 school year was no less challenging with various combinations of remote, hybrid, and in-person instruction. Deciding how to mix online activities instruction with face to face instruction that still had to be socially distanced became an opportunity for two teachers at different schools in one Ohio district to collaborate closer than they had before. Doug Forrest and Kevin McChesney will take you through their journey while providing details of the unique challenges and opportunities available in their school district. With collaboration, perseverance, and grace we feel we provided a year to students that was meaningful and will have long-lasting impacts on our instruction.

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Planetaria beyond the Introductory Level

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