Announcements

On this page you will find descriptions of the following:

  1. The national dissemination project SENCER
  2. The Vossen Award for Middle/HS Science Teachers
  3. The 2nd Midwest Teacher Leadership Training on “The Physics of Cell Phones and Wireless Communications”
  4. Workshop offered by the Synchrotron Radiation Center/UW Space Place
  5. Modeling Workshops
  6. Congrats to our own!

1. The national dissemination project SENCER

Around February or so every year, the National Center for Science and Civic Engagement is accepting applications online for its annual SENCER Summer Institute (SSI).  (SENCER stands for Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities.)

The institute is held during the first week of August. The 2008 institute will be held at Santa Clara University, in San Jose, CA.

The Summer Institutes are annual, invitational, intensive, residential, team-based learning opportunities for faculty, academic leaders, and students. The Institutes represent the cornerstones of SENCER’s faculty development and academic reform program. They feature a rich mix of plenaries, workshops, and concurrent sessions that focus not only on what students should learn, but how that learning might best be accomplished.

To learn more about SENCER and the Summer Institutes, please visit www.sencer.net.

If you know of a colleague who may be interested in SSI 2008, please feel free to share this information with them.

Support for SENCER is provided by the National Science Foundation’s Course, Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement program under grant DUE-0455586.

To check the website for the Physics Cluster of SENCER or if you have any questions about SENCER send a message to Theo Koupelis.

2. Vossen Award for Middle/HS Science Teachers

The American Vacuum Society, the Science and Technology Society, announces a “call for applications” for the Vossen Award for Middle and High School Science Teachers.

The AVS Science and Technology Society is a nonprofit organization, full member of the American Institute of Physics (AIP), that financially contributes to the Physics Olympiad Competition. For more information about the Society visit their web site at www.avs.org.

(Note: Even though this is a call for 2004, it is an annual award and any interested parties should keep an eye on the Society’s website.)

3. Midwest Teacher Leadership Training on “The Physics of Cell Phones and Wireless Communications”

Join other outstanding physics and technology teachers from across the Midwest to discover the fundamental science and engineering of cell phones and other wireless communications. Additional information and the application can be found here. Conference details will be updated on the Conference Education Foundation website: www.cef-trek.org. The deadline is June 30. Please contact Mark Davids if you are interested in this opportunity.

4. Workshop: “Learning with Light”

The Synchrotron Radiation Center and the UW Space Place is offering a workshop for HS teachers titled “Learning with Light.”  More information is available at www.src.wisc.edu/teacherworkshop/

5. Modeling Workshops

Master is Secondary Science Education (Modeling Courses)
http://www.phys.uwosh.edu/lattery/mse/mse.htm

Modeling Workshops in high school physics, chemistry, and/or physical science will be held in summer 2007 in Arizona, California, Miami FL, Chicago IL, Kansas (three!), Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Philadelphia PA, Pittsburgh PA, and Dallas, Texas.

Visit http://modeling.asu.edu for details. Click on “Modeling Workshops Nationwide in Summer 2007”.

Modeling Workshops are peer-led. For 16 years, the Modeling Instruction Program has been helping teachers attain knowledge and skills needed to benefit their students. Modeling Instruction is the only high school science program recognized as Exemplary by the U.S. Department of Education.

At most sites, stipends and/or free tuition are available for in-state teachers. (Teachers from any state can apply for funding at a Kansas site and at Miami Florida.)

Contact: Jane Jackson, Co-Director, Modeling Instruction Program Box 871504, Dept. of Physics, ASU, Tempe, AZ 85287; 480-965-8438/fax:965-7565

6. Congratulations to Larry Scheckel

The North Central Chapter of the Health Physics Society gave its 2007 Outstanding Science Teacher Award to Larry Scheckel (Tomah HS): Congratulations Larry!

Check the announcement and the picture.