The Summer Meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers is set for July 22-26 at Syracuse University in New York. My registration is in, my deluxe dorm-room accommodations are reserved, and the flights are booked.
This conference is a great chance to meet physics teachers from throughout the land and get a sense of what the hot topics are outside one's own neighborhood. I'm scheduled to attend a few workshops on the first two days; these are usually the best part of the meeting. There are activities for conferees from 8:00am through 10:00pm most days; you have to sneak off to effectively socialize.
While it is true that conferees are involved in physics education, it is not true that they are all males over 40 (age OR waist measurement). That bit of misinformation is both irresponsible and erroneous. Seriously!
I'm looking forward to a few days of learning and laughter among my colleagues. Or as the kids would say, "chillin' wit my phyz homies." Yeah, that's just wrong.
I attended my first AAPT summer meeting last year at Salt Lake City. One night, after a pizza and a beer, I was walking across campus (back to our luxurious dorm rooms) with 4 or 5 physics teacher colleagues. We happened to bump into one of the locals who was working campus security, and got to chatting.
ReplyDeleteWhen we told him that we were all physics teachers, he exclaimed "Wow! you guys are pretty good looking for physics teachers!"