International Commission on Physics Education (ICPE) Newsletter, Issue 76

1 of 19 View this email in your browser !Number 76, November 2024 Chair’s Corner: Prof. TETYANA ANTIMIROVA C14 Commission (ICPE) Chair (2021-2024) Department of Physics Faculty of Science Toronto Metropolitan University Toronto, Ontario, Canada The 33rd General Assembly of IUPAP was held from 11th to 14th October, 2024, in Hainan, China. The new IUPAP commissions for the 2024-2027 term with their mandates were established. A full transition to the new commissions will take place in early January during the online meeting of the Executive Council and Commission Chairs, where both outgoing and incoming members will meet. As this marks my final Chair's Corner, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all members of the 2022-2024 C14 commission—both those continuing and those, like myself, concluding their service. I deeply 2 of 19 appreciate your dedication and contributions to C14 and IUPAP. In this final message, I’ll reflect on our commission’s work and share some thoughts on potential future directions for the Commission. Our mandate coincided with the slow recovery from the pandemic and gradual return to in-person events.!The IUPAP Centenary celebration became a highlight of our Commission’s term and left many of us with fond memories and valuable experiences. A new ICPE Handbook: "Connecting Research in PhysicsEducation with Teacher Education 3" edited by 2018-2024 C14 member Prof. Jenaro Guisasola and by a former (2018-2021) C14 member Prof. Eilish McLoughlin was published at the beginning of 2022. The book includes contributions from several former and current C14 members. I must take this opportunity to highlight the valuable contribution to research-based resources for teacher training: ISBN 978-1-911669-33-3 DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5792068. Three new issues of ICPE newsletters (#73, #74 and #75) were circulated in 2022-2024. This is the fourth and final newsletter of this Commission. The Newsletters can be found here: https://iupap.org/who-we-are/internalorganization/commissions/c14-physics-education/c14-news/ The ICPE Medal process was disrupted by the pandemic.!Only two ICPE medals (for 2020 and 2021) were awarded during the mandate of the current commission. The 2020 ICPE Medal was awarded to Prof. Roberto Nardi of Brazil, former Chair of C14 in November 2022: https://icpe2022physicseducation.com/icpe_medal/. The Medal was presented to Prof. Nardi during an online awards ceremony at the ICPE 2022 conference, titled Physics Education: Planning for the Future. Prof. Nardi delivered an award lecture titled 'Reflections on Developments in Physics Education Research Over the Past Few Decades.' The 2021 ICPE Medal was awarded to Prof. Paula R. L. Heron of the United States of America: https://iupap.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/CitationPaula-Heron-C14-ICPE-Medal-2021.pdf. The Medal was conferred to Prof. Heron on August 27th, 2024 during the 4WCPE held in Krakow, Poland. Prof. Heron delivered the keynote lecture titled: ‘Does How We Teach Match How Students Learn? The Evolving Relationships Among Theory, Experiment, and 3 of 19 Teaching Practice in PER’. Notably, the ICPE Medal guidelines were revised in 2023 to enhance ethical standards. Under the new rules, current C14 Commission members are no longer eligible for nomination to avoid potential conflicts of interest, though past members remain eligible. A new call for nominations will be announced soon, we encourage you to consider nominating your colleagues. The 2021-2024 Commission members were privileged to witness and participate in !IUPAP Centenary celebrations that took place over a one-year period from July 2022 to December 2023. The celebrations coincided with the UNESCO-endorsed International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development (IYBSSD). Members of the C14 Commissioners took an active role in raising awareness about both campaigns taking a lead in the celebrations in each of our respective countries. The IUPAP’s Centennial Symposium was held at the Institute of Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste Italy, from 11th to 13th July 2022. It was held in a hybrid format, attended by 310 participants, of which 110 were in-person and 200 online. The Symposium included plenary talks by keynote speakers and other activities, with an emphasis on the IUPAP history, physics in developing countries, collaborations among countries, physics education, and other items consistent with the IUPAP mission. The C14 contribution to the Symposium was an invited Education Panel titled: The Trajectory of Physics Curriculum and Its Impact on Society. The panel was held on July 13th and featured three panellists (two C14 members, Prof. Jenaro Guisasola (Spain) and Prof. Nam-Hwa Kang (South Korea), as well Prof. Chandralekha Singh (Pennsylvania, US) who is a renowned physics educator and former AAPT President.! As the C14 Chair, I had the honour of moderating the panel. The Commission members took active participation in two major international conferences. The IUPAP-sponsored International Conference on Physics Education (ICPE2022) titled: Physics Education: Preparing for the Future was hosted by Australia, Indonesia and Thailand from December 5th to 9th, 2022. The conference was held online with 286 participants from 43 countries. The C14 Vice-Chair Prof. Manjula Sharma and Associate Member Prof. Elizabeth 4 of 19 Angstmann were instrumental in organizing this conference. The Fourth World Conference on Physics Education (4WCPE) took place from 26th to 30th August, 2024 in Krakow, Poland. As a flagship C14-ICPE conference, it was supported by C14. The 4th WCPE was organized by the Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland, in cooperation with the International Research Group on Physics Teaching (GIREP), the International Committee on Physics Education (ICPE-C14), and the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy, University of Wrocław, Poland. !The theme of the 4th WCPE was Embracing changes Together. C14 played played an instrumental role in planning the conference. Several members of C14 served on the conference’s program committee and also contributed to the programming of the conference. Prof. Jenaro Guisasola put together a Symposium titled Physics Education: Approaches from ICPEIUPAP C14 Community that took place on August 27, 2024, with Prof. Elizabeth Angstmann, Prof. Tetyana Antimirova, Prof. Manjula Sharma, Prof. Angela Fössel, and Prof. Eilish McLoughlin contributing to the Symposium. The Symposium featured the physics outreach and educational activities undertaken by members of the International Commission of Physics Education, (ICPEC14). Prof. David Sokoloff presented C14-endorsed workshop emphasising active learning. Recently Prof. Dean Zollman, a past C14 member, came into a possession of historic materials of C14-ICPE. We hope that a paper about the history of C14- 5 of 19 ICPE will be written and published during the next mandate of the Commission. Finally, it is worth mentioning that the IUPAP is undergoing a review, and is calling on its commissions, affiliated commissions and working groups to think about their missions, mandates and strategies. In conclusion, I would like to reflect on the unique position of C14-ICPE within the broader structure of IUPAP. Like other Commissions, C14 represents a specialized field of research. However, what sets C14 apart is its dual focus: not only does it advance the field of Physics Education Research, but it also addresses the broader domain of physics education itself, which spans across the boundaries of other Commissions. The mandate of our Commission encompasses a wide range of issues, including curriculum development, the promotion of evidence-based pedagogies, and the advocacy of policies that vary significantly across different countries and regions. Ultimately, C14 strives to strengthen and support physics education worldwide. Significant contributions to physics education are being made across the globe, yet work published in languages other than English often remains less accessible to the wider community. As such, one important role for C14 members could be to highlight and share these local successes with the global physics community. The C14-ICPE could benefit from strengthening ties and collaborations with regional physics societies such as: AIP, AAPT, GIREP, EPS and other similar regional organizations around the world. These partnerships are particularly valuable for organizing conferences, as each event requires a dedicated champion and promoter to ensure its success. Given that C14-ICPE membership is refreshed every three years, with members spread across diverse geographical regions and bringing new priorities and perspectives, fostering strong regional collaborations can provide continuity and support for shared initiatives. In contrast, regional learning societies often have stable memberships and a well-established pool of conference organizers, supported by their departments and universities. These organizations typically possess a clear vision for how their conferences should be structured. By engaging with these 6 of 19 conferences beyond merely providing financial support through the IUPAP conference program, C14-ICPE can actively promote its vision for advancing physics education on a global scale. To conclude, I would like to thank the members of the outgoing Commission for their work and dedication and to extend my best wishes to the newly elected Commissioners. Tributes and Farewells: Priscilla Laws 19402023 Priscilla Laws, emerita professor of physics and George W. Pedlow chair of education,Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA passed away on December 12, 2023. She was a pioneer in developing and disseminating student-centered physics education curricula and promoting quality physics learning around the world. After growing up in San Francisco, California and graduating from Lowell High School, she earned her bachelor of arts degree from Reed College in Portland, Oregon in1961. She went on to earn a Master's and Ph.D. in nuclear physics from Bryn Mawr College, where she met her husband, Kenneth Laws, Dickinson professor emeritus of physics who passed away in 2021. Ken began at the college in 1962 and Priscilla in 1965. For more than 35 years the college 7 of 19 was home to the “Laws of Physics.” They had two children, Kevin and Virginia, the latter of whom is married to David Jackson, current Dickinson professor of physics and astronomy. After researching the health effects of radiation she focused her efforts on the uses of the newly emerging microcomputer technology to support learning in introductory physics courses with activity-based curricular materials. Her earliest efforts resulted in Atari-Lab, one of the first computer-based educational systems. She developed Workshop Physics--a comprehensive, calculus-based curriculum for use in smaller introductory physics classes-- similar to those offered at Dickinson. She proposed the name and concept for RealTime Physics, and co-authored this computer-based, active-learning introductory laboratory curriculum with David Sokoloff (University of Oregon) and Ronald Thornton (Tufts University). She was also a member of the team that authored Understanding Physics, a PER-inspired,calculus-based introductory physics text. (Workshop Physics, UnderstandingPhysics and the four modules of RealTime Physics are all published by John Wiley & Sons.) She is also a co-author of Physics with VideoAnalysis, published by Vernier Science Education. A member of the American Association of Physics Teachers since 1991, she was awarded the Homer L. Dodge Citation for Distinguished Service in 1992, the RobertA. Millikan Medal "for notable and creative contributions to the teaching of physics" in 1996, and she was recognized as part of the inaugural cohort of AAPT Fellows in 2014. She and Ronald Thornton were awarded the 1994 Charles A. Dana award for Pioneering Achievement in Education, and, in 2010 the Activity Based Group--of which she, Sokoloff and Thornton were the !principal members--was awarded the Excellence in Physics Education Award by the American Physical Society “for twenty-three years of national and international leadership in the design, testing, validation, and dissemination of research-based introductory physics curricula, computer tools and apparatus.” While teaching and writing, she also was on several advisory panels at the NationalScience Foundation and was on the FIPSE Board of Directors for the U.S. Department of Education. She promoted ways to use physics research and education to enhance sustainable development in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and she received the2007 International Commission on Physics Education (ICPE) Medal in recognition of "distinguished contributions to 8 of 19 Physics Education with far reaching international impact." Priscilla was an exceptional member of the international PER community for many years.Her clever ideas, insightful comments, playful attitude towards students and colleagues alike, and her caring and supportive nature are sorely missed. Receiving the 2007 ICPE Medal Edward “Joe” Redish 1942 - 2024 Edward “Joe” Redish, a popular professor of physics at the University of Maryland, died of cancer on August 24, 2024. Globally recognized as a pioneer in the field of Physics Education Research (PER), Prof. Redish was most proud of his role in helping to build the field into a thriving 9 of 19 international community. He taught physics at the University of Maryland in College Park for more than 50 years, serving as department chair when Maryland had the third largest physics department in the nation. He has been a mentor to a large number of physics education researchers and has supervised more than thirty graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in physics education research and nuclear physics. Joe came to Maryland after graduating MagnaCum Laude from Princeton University and earning his Ph.D. in theoretical nuclear physics from M.I.T. After researching the theory of nuclear reactions for 20 years, including serving on the national Nuclear Science Advisory Committee, Joe turned his attention to improving the teaching of physics and other sciences. Over the next 30 years, working with many graduate students and post-docs, he built a strong theoretical framework for understanding how students learn physics and how to help them think more clearly about science. With a strong team of collaborators led by Priscilla Laws, he pioneered a new approach to university physics instruction, The Physics Suite, a synergistic combination of researchbased active learning materials and a rewrite of a popular text to blend it with other activities and to modify it to respond to what has been learned from physics education research. He has also created online problems collections for introductory (Thinking Problems in Physics) and advanced physics (Thinking Problems in Mathematical Physics). Redish was also lead developer 16 of 19 seek to understand and share our understandings of nature. The back of the medal bears the text: ‘Awarded to N.N. by the International Commission on Physics Education of IUPAP for long and distinguished service to physics education’. Process:! This call is for nominations for the 2023 and 2024 ICPE Medal Awards.! Medals will be awarded, only if worthy candidates are identified. This call for two Medals, one for 2023 and another for 2024. Current C14 Commission members cannot be nominated, but past members can be. Submissions must (1) address the criteria, (2) be accompanied by a complete and up-to-date CV, (3) and include two references from recognized peers. ! Submissions must be sent to C14 Chair, Majula Sharma ([email protected]), and Secretary, Cristiano Mattos ([email protected]), by 30th of March 2025. The IUPAP Commission C14 will select the awardee. The Medal will be awarded at a relevant Conference with the awardee presenting. Upcoming Conferences: 16th Interamerican Conference on Physics Education (ICPE-XVI-2025), Valparaíso, Chile Dates: 21st –25th July, 2025 Sponsored by IUPAP 17 of 19 GIREP-EPEC 2025 Conference, Leiden, The Netherlands Theme: Transforming physics learning via research and practice Dates: 30th June - 4th July 2025 Website: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1175859/ Details: The GIREP-EPEC 2025 Conference will be held in Leiden, The Netherlands. It is organized by the International Research Group on Physics Teaching – GIREP [Groupe International de Recherche sur l’Enseignement de la Physique] and two institutes at Leiden University: the Leiden Institute of Physics (LION) and the Leiden University Graduate School of Teaching (ICLON). American Association of Physics Teachers 2025 AAPT Summer Meeting, Washington, DC Dates: 2nd -6th August 2025 Website: https://www.aapt.org/conferences/ Location: American Association of Physics Teachers 2025 AAPT Summer Meeting; Washington, DC If you have conferences you would like included in future ICPE Newsletters please email them to [email protected] . 18 of 19 Resources Relevant to our Community: Effective Practices for Physics Programs (EP3) If you have not had a chance to look at this guide yet (https://ep3guide.org/) it is very much worth while setting aside some time to do so. The description here is from the guide. The Effective Practices for Physics Programs (EP3) Guide contains information and advice for physics departments and programs in the U.S. to use as they address challenges and make changes and improvements. The Guide is a structured resource informed by research and effective practices from!across the physics community. While the Guide is intended to be comprehensive, departments should not attempt to implement all recommendations, but instead identify practices appropriate to their context. Departments should approach the Guide as a toolbox to accomplish objectives they have set for themselves rather than regarding it as a set of standards. Missing Past Newsletters We are currently working on an archive of previous ICPE newsletters which will be made available to everyone. If anyone has copies of Issues 1-8, 19-20, 2230, 31-35, 36 or 46 can you please email [email protected]. Thank you! If you have resources you would like included in future ICPE Newsletters please email them to [email protected] . 19 of 19 Future Newsletters: If you would like to contribute to the next newsletter or have resources you would like included please email me: [email protected] . The plan is for this newsletter to reflect the international physics education community. The next newsletter is scheduled to be sent out at the end of May 2025. Thanks! Copyright (C) 2024 School of Physics, UNSW. All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. Thanks to ChatGPT for editing assistance and co-pilot for image creation Our mailing address is: Editor: Professor Elizabeth Angstmann email: [email protected] School of Physics, UNSW Old Main Building UNSW Sydney, NSW 2052 Australia Visit our website at: https://iupap.org/who-we-are/internal-organization/commissions/c14-physics-education/ Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or subscribe or unsubscribe