Gathering of regional physics educators at DSU
The Chesapeake Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers (CSAAPT) had its 2024 spring meeting at Delaware State University on Saturday, March 16. This is the first time in a decade that the CSAAPT has ever held its semi-annual meeting in the State of Delaware.
The one-day meeting was held in the Bank of America Building with six parallel sessions in the morning and two public talks in the afternoon.
Dr. Qi Lu, an associate professor of DSU, chaired the organizational committee of the meeting. She worked alongside Dr. Tatsu Takeuchi (CSAAPT President from Virginia Tech), Dr. Muge Karagoz (CSAAPT Vice President from American Institute of Physics) and the rest of the organizational committee to bring many physics educators in the region to DSU.
The CSAAPT is a regional organization consisting of Delaware, the D.C. area, Virginia, and Maryland. Approximately 50 physics educators and students from high schools, colleges and universities in the region attended the meeting in person and about 50 or so attended via Zoom.
The morning session included presentations and discussions on diverse topics such as physics projects and demonstrations, classroom GPT, K-12 science education standards, programs and pathways, and social dynamics. Tonyea Mead, a Science Education Associate at the Delaware Department of Education, mediated a discussion on the Next Generation Science Standards adopted in 2013, the inadequate science hours across Delaware schools, and the lack of career pathways for high school students to become science educators.
The meeting had its afternoon plenary talks open to the public and drew over one hundred attendees, in-person and via Zoom combined. Dr. Matthew Bobrowsky, Director of the DSU Observatory, talked about the upcoming total solar eclipse. Dr. Diandra Leslie-Pelecky, a renowned physicist and author of The Physics of NASCAR, made a presentation about the physics of motorsports. The meeting concluded with a guided tour in Dover Motor Speedway.
“As one of the top HBCUs, DSU is proud of leading the effort of improving the physics education in the First State,” said Dr. Lu. “The Division of Physics, Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science and the Dean’s Office of the College of Agriculture, Science and Technology provided tremendous administrative and financial support to make this meeting a great success.”
Dr. Lu added that the challenges in science education that Delaware schools are facing can be translated into opportunities for DSU in the preparation of pre-service science teachers.
Learn more about the meeting at https://indico.phys.vt.edu/e/CSAAPT2024S