Announcement of Spring 2005 meeting of TYC21-Region 11

The spring 2005 meeting of TYC21 Region 11 will be held March 18 & 19 at Central Alabama Community College's Heritage Conference Center in Childersburg, Alabama . A map to the Conference Center is also included. We will have someone at the Childersburg Campus parking lot that is next to highway 280 both Friday afternoon at 6:00 PM and at 7:30 Saturday morning to guide people out to the conference center.

For those of you that are not familiar with either ASAAPT or TYC21-Region 11 organization, suffice to say that it is a meeting for High School, Community College and University physics teachers. The purpose of these meetings are to learn about new ideas and methods of teaching physics and to share our own ideas and methods with each other.

Meeting Format

Friday evening

4 - 7 PM Registration, socializing, eating. Supper is soup and sandwiches so you can just eat when you arrive.

7 - 9 PM we have a speaker or engage in some kind of collective activity.

Saturday morning

6:30 - 8:00 Registration & Breakfast

8 - 12 we have two two-hour sessions (separated by a 15 min break) conducted by someone we invite to come and share new ideas about old topics or a new idea or method with us.

12:00 - 1:00 Lunch

Saturday afternoon

1- 3 PM we have several 15 - 30 minute presentations from group members who share their own new ideas with us.

The meeting usually adjorns by 4:00 PM on Saturday.

The Heritage Conference Center: Meals & Accommodations

Meals:

Because both educators and educational institutions are either chronically or perpetually in a financial crunch, of necessity we have learned to conduct these meetings on a shoestring. Because the conference center is a bit isolated, meals are prepared on site. Although simple and efficient, I think you'll find them nutritious and tasty.

Accommodations:

The lodge has 11 rooms with two beds, and 6 rooms with single beds, and a 3 bed chalet. All the rooms are nonsmoking. If you are bringing a family and would like a room with two beds let us know. We plan to room two people together. If you require a single room please let us know.

At this meeting meals and lodging (well, lodging for the first 31 people to register), will be provided at no extra cost, compliments of CACC.

The registration fee is $25.00. It is basically used to provide the travel and stipend for invited speakers, and food. You can register at the meeting, but we'd prefer that you register by email and send a check made payable to TYC21-Region 11 to:

K. W. Nicholson

PO Box 699

Alexander City, Al 35011

If you plan to attend the meeting, please send an email with the following information by February 20, 2005, so we can make up packets for meetings and plan meals.

Your name, institution, whether or not you need a ride from the airport.

We'd also like to know when you plan to arrive, and whether you plan to join the caravan out from the Childersburg Campus or plan to just find the conference center on your own.

This Spring's Agenda

At this point we are still developing the agenda. Suggestions would be appreciated. Below are the developments so far.

Friday Evening, March 18

J.B. Sharma told us about set of simulations from the university of Colorado called PHET. These simulations are downloadable to your computer and cover all the basic topics of physics. Another set of simulations, that cover not only several topics in phyiscs. but Linear Algebra, Vector Calculus, and Differential Equations as well, is Paul Falstad's Math & Physics Simulations

I am bringing out 5 computers that we can use to look at these on and then discuss ideas of how to incorporate them into our courses. I will also have these mataerials on CD, so if you bring a laptop, you can run them on your own computers. If you would like to do something different for Friday evening please let me know.

Saturday Morning 8 - 10

J.B. Sharma won the Physic teacher of the year award in Georgia, he is a great physics teacher. He is using Interactive Physics, a physics simulation program in his courses with apparent great success. He is coming to discuss how he uses this program in his course with us during the first session, and possibly both morning sessions. We will supply demo copies of Interactive Physics on CD, which includes a set of curriculum materials.

Afternoon Sharing Sessions

Project Lead the Way is a program of physics for High Schools, John Hollis came to discuss Project Lead the Way with us two years ago, and Janice Williams has since adopted the program as well, thanks to John's introduction. Janice cannot make it this year, but I'm hoping to get John Hollis out to give us an update on his Project Lead the Way program in Birmingham.

We still need more contributions to the sharing sessions. For the list of contributors so far, see the agenda update.

All this information as well as updates can be found on the webpage for this meeting located here.

If you have something you could share with us in the sharing session please let me know. If you have ideas about things you'd like to do at this meeting, please let me know.

2005 is the world Year of Physics. Please come with, or send your ideas of some joint activities we could do to celebrate this event.

Also, if you would, please send me a quick reply just to let me know that you received this message,

Thanks for your participation, Nick