21st Century Astronomy and Physics in the Classroom
Share your successes incorporating current research into the undergraduate curriculum! Help others inspire their students with your experience! Either with single lectures on current topics in traditional classes or with the development of special topics classes, tell us what you did, what students learned, and how it went.
AI in K-12 Classrooms
In this practitioner-focused session, speakers will share how they are using chatGPT and other AI resources in their K-12 physics classrooms.
Alternative Assessment
In this session, K-12 teachers will share how they implement assessment and grading strategies, such as standards-based grading, ungrading, project-based assessment, and other alternative approaches.
Big Data in the Undergraduate Lab
This session is looking for innovative educators who are using the massive datasets in the undergraduate lab. This could include data collected by research groups in particle physics, astronomy, environmental science, or materials science - to name a few. But of particular interest are experiments which collect Big Data in the lab.
Collecting Stories of a Life in Labs: Personal Recollections from Elder Physicists
A call for those who have been teaching in the laboratories of physics or conducting physics education research for a few years. If you have stories you wish to share about that time, or lessons learned they would be welcome.
Cross-disciplinary Learning in High School Physics Classrooms
Over the past ten years education policy (e.g. NGSS) and funding initiatives (e.g. NSF STEM+C) have promoted learning of computation, computational thinking, and engineering in K-12 science classrooms. In this session, high school physics teachers will share their experiences and innovations associated with integrating computational modeling, computational thinking, and/or engineering design in high school physics classrooms.
Effective Practices for Developing Scientific Reasoning and Decision-Making Abilities
Various curricula and methodologies, which have been implemented in different educational settings such as labs and group-based projects, have been shown to promote higher order skills involved in scientific reasoning and decision-making. This session focuses on effective practices in the development and assessment of students' scientific reasoning and decision-making skills, as well as dissemination of related curriculum and teaching practices to promote these skills.
Effective Practices in Educational Technology
Do you have innovative ways of using technology in teaching physics? Share your work with others.
Facilitating Collaboration in K-12
In this practitioner-focused session, speakers will share strategies for supporting students in collaborating effectively when they are working in small groups.
ICEP = PICUP + ALPhA: Experiment & Computation Together (Posters)
This session will introduce activities that combine together significant components of physical experimentation and computational simulation/analysis, and are appropriate for integration into the undergraduate curriculum. In Summer 2023, the Reichert Foundation funded the first ICEP (“Integrating Computation and Experimental Physics”) workshop, which brought together PICUP and ALPhA representation, and these ICEP activities represent some of the products from this workshop.
Ideas for Celebrating The 100th Anniversary of The Birth of Quantum
Quantum mechanics was discovered in 1925, and 2025 marks its 100th anniversary. As we are living in the second quantum revolution, it makes sense to share strategies to celebrate this 100th anniversary in our classroom. We invite contributions that discuss ways to do so that discuss the history, the application of quantum information science, what the second quantum revolution is, and more.
Incorporating Climate Change and Earth Science in Physics Classrooms
In this session, K-12 teachers will share how they incorporate earth and environmental science standards into their physics classrooms. Teachers are encouraged to share lessons, activities, projects, collaborations, etc.
Innovations in Teaching Astronomy
Share your innovations in teaching astronomy at all levels.
Learning from the Eclipse
Share your innovative teaching and learning experiences from the Apr 8, 2024 solar eclipse.
Meeting Students Where They Are
Our students are changing fast! Please share your strategies for meeting students where they are today.
Mythbusters in the Labs
One of the most popular science TV shows of the decade, Mythbusters, can provide a variety of examples of experiments. Moreover, they (sometimes) model good experimental practices. If you are teaching a lab based on a Mythbusters episode, or within the spirit of the shop please contribute a talk.
OPTYCs New Faculty Development Series: Commencement Conference
The OPTYCs New Faculty Development Series (NFDS) for Two-Year College faculty is a 16-month immersion and mentoring program offered to faculty in their first six years of teaching full-time at a two-year college in the United States. OPTYCs is sponsored by AAPT and funded by NSF grant #2212807. This is the commencement of the first cohort of faculty to go through the NFDS. The presentations will consist of an overview of the 16-month experience and participants will share the impact the project is making for NFDS participants and their students.
PICUP: How Have You Integrated Computation into Your Classroom?
How have you integrated computation into your Physics classroom? Come share with the community! Whether it has been a big or small change, something you just started, or something you’ve been working on for years, in a high school Physics course, introductory level, or upper-level course, we want to hear from you!
Sex and Gender and Teaching and Research
It is important to remember that sex and gender are not the same thing, and neither sex nor gender are binary. This matters for all of us who teach and for those of us whose research involves sex and gender. In this session we will share best practices for doing research on gender without falling into a binary deficit model, and also talk about how awareness of a more complex understanding of gender can help us support students in our classes.
Soup to Nuts: How to Teach Labs When You Are Completely New
Advice, resources, and guides for best practices for those starting from new. Many teachers or lab technicians have to start teaching laboratories within a small community without any local peer mentors. This session is intended to collect resources, advice, and best practices for starting from nothing, or almost nothing. Whether inheriting a stuffed equipment closet with nothing labeled, or an empty classroom, the contexts can vary and all perspectives are welcome.
TA Training for Labs
While graduate and undergraduate students are often the backbones of undergraduate lab instruction, training opportunities are often informal and on the fly. Lab training can incorporate passing on information informally or formally about experiments and best teaching practices or supporting graduate students in their professional development. This is a call for talks about experience and best practices in training graduate students to teach laboratories in a colligate setting.
Teaching Quantum Mechanics to Promote Workforce Development
As the need for a quantum-aware workforce grows, we need to revise course content to meet the needs of quantum information science while paying attention to promoting DEI to help diversify the quantum workforce. In this session, we invite contributions focusing on quantum pedagogy, on DEI initiatives related to teaching quantum mechanics, and on physics education research practices applied to quantum instruction. We welcome contributions from educators and industry.
Teaching the Introductory Physics for the Life Sciences (IPLS) Course (Posters)
This session is one of a continuing series of talks focusing on teaching physics of the life sciences. The session begins with several invited speakers and transitions to a mini-poster session of contributed posters. Talks and posters focus on pedagogical innovations, authentic laboratories, and life science content of the physics courses for the life sciences. The mini-poster session serves as a gathering for the IPLS community to meet and discuss.
Technology in K-12 Labs
In this practitioner-focused session, speakers will share innovative ways of incorporating technology into K-12 physics labs. These may include virtual labs, video analysis, computational modeling, probeware, and other technology to enhance students' lab experience.
Generic Topics
Physics Education Research (PER)
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI)
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Astro
Beyond Intro
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI)
K-12
Intro
Labs/Apparatus
Lecture/Classroom
Other
PER: DEI
PER: K-12
PER: Intro
PER: Beyond Intro
PER: Assessment
PER: General
Science Communication
Teacher Training/Enhancement
Two Year College (TYC)