Spring 2009 ORAAPT  Meeting, March 14th

Location: OSU Campus, Weniger Hall, Room 304

Friday, March 13th, 2009

·         7:00 pm informal dinner at Block 15 brewery for guests who are staying the night (http://www.block15.com/).  Let me know if you will be joining us so I can gather enough seats.

·         Hotel options include the Hilton Garden Inn and Harrison House B&B, both of which are more expensive (just over $100 per night) but adjacent to campus.  Less expensive hotels (and not far, Corvallis is small) include the Days Inn, the Econo Lodge, the motel 6 and the super 8.

Saturday, March 14th, 2009

ALL MORNING SESSIONS WILL BE IN WNGR 304

·         8:50 am, Welcome: coffee tea and breakfast snacks provided

·         9:00 am, meeting starts

o        9:00 Dennis Gilbert (15 mins): Physics Student Congress

o        9:15 Dennis Gilbert (15 mins): “Ways of Knowing”

o        9:30 David McIntyre (30 mins): A report on adapting the Matter and Interactions text

o        10:00 Steve Frankel (20 mins): Mini-labs for intro physics

o        10:20 TBA (20 mins): High School experiment comparing the drag force from laminar and turbulent flow  to the electromagnetic drag force from a magnet and eddy currents

o        10:40 Lawrence Ruby (20 mins): Introduction to Center-of-Mass coordinates

o        11:00 David Roundy (30 mins): Using VPython with intro students

 

·         11:30 am: business meting

·         12 pm: Lunch near campus, several restaurants are within 2 blocks of weniger hall

FROM 1-3pm IN THE AFTERNOON WILL BE IN WNGR 151

·         1 pm: Invited talk, Lynn Dierking (OSU Science and Math Education): Free choice learning

·         2pm-3pm: continued talks

o        2:00 Sissi Li (20 mins): Studying student dialogue during in-class group work

o        2:20 Ethan Minot (20 mins): Nanotech labs for intro students

o        2:40 Eric Jensen (20 mins): Recruitment and Student Success for Online College Physics

 

WORKSHOPS WILL BE BACK IN WNGR 304

·         3 pm-5 pm: workshop:  Bridging the Gap between Mathematics and Physics.  Abstract: The key to bridging the gap between mathematics and physics is geometric reasoning.  This workshop will discuss the art of teaching geometric reasoning, emphasizing vectors, calculus, and vector calculus. Participants will have an opportunity to use and discuss open-ended group activities intended to foster geometric reasoning, some of which have been developed as part of the NSF-funded Vector Calculus Bridge project at Oregon State University.

·         5 pm-6pm: workshop: bring your own demo – bring an easy to make demo idea and some extra supplies (or let us know what it needs) and people can build them to take home.  Alternatively, bring a demo you can’t figure out how to get working ‘just right’ and let us brainstorm how to improve it.

Directions from I-5:

Take exit 228 to Hwy 34 West, go 10 miles.  When you enter Corvallis, you will cross the Willamette river on a small bridge.  At this point you’ll be on Harrison st.  Take Harrison 0.8 miles, then take a left on NW Kings Blvd (this will be immediately after 18th st).  Take Kings 3 blocks until it dead ends onto Monroe, and go right.  Weniger hall will be visible on your left – it is a rectangular 5 story building with unmistakable green panes .  Parking is available on both sides of the building.

A campus map is available here: http://oregonstate.edu/campusmap/?pBN=Weniger+Hall&BN=Weniger+Hall&Z=4  Weniger hall is labeled Wngr, at the corner of NW Monroe and SW Memorial Pl

For more info on Corvallis, visit: http://www.visitcorvallis.com/

If there are questions, please email Dedra Demaree at demareed@physics.oregonstate.edu, or call at 541:207:4401