Annual Business Meeting 2022 | Wisconsin Association of Physics Teachers

Minutes

November 5, 2022, at UW–Stevens Point

After many wonderful morning talks and an excellent workshop, we gathered in the CBB front lobby to grab our sandwiches and then headed to CBB 105 to start the business lunch meeting. The food was delicious, and the conversations were great (always good to see everyone again, and to meet new people!)!

Meeting Start Time: 12:59 pm (which was nearly on time, but herding cats is difficult). The first order of business was to thank this year’s organizer (Palash Banerjee) and the UW – Stevens Point folks for a job well-done in bringing WAPT to Stevens Point. These thanks, of course, go to all of the people working behind the scenes, as well.

Minutes of the last few meetings – Erik Hendrickson
2019 Meeting – Chula Vista: These Minutes were approved at the virtual 2020 Meeting – UWRF.
2020 Meeting – UWRF: These Minutes seem to be lost (mostly due to no Meeting in 2021).
2021 Meeting: Never met.
Treasurer’s Report for 2021-22 – Erik Hendrickson
- A. Still have approximately $2500 for WAPT Business (supporting future meetings, etc.).
- Everyone was reminded that officers can ask for up to $200 for traveling to AAPT Meetings.
- The verbal treasurer’s report was accepted by those in attendance.
Section Representative’s Report – None
- Jim Mallmann has retired. Steven Sahyun (Winter 23) and Melissa Vigil (Summer 23) will cover these duties in the year to come.
High School Representative’s Report – Gary Baier
- Please see the full text of Gary’s Report (which was distributed on bright green/yellow paper), but he highlighted a few items…
  - New AAPT resource: Virtual Coffee Hour. These live events are also recorded, so a teacher can watch them after the fact on their own time.
  - The new “Science” teaching license is in full use. Allows holder to teach any science subject in grades 4-12. New teachers may be asking for help. Suggest to use AAPT’s E-Mentoring Program and resources at Compadre.org. WAPT members should be available to reach out and help.
  - We should be trying really hard to increase AAPT/WAPT participation by high school teachers. Do grads from our university teacher programs know of AAPT/WAPT? How can WAPT members get the word to these students?
  - We are now looking for a new WAPT High School Representative. Please encourage the high school teachers that you interact with to consider.
Two-Year College Representative’s Report – Carey Woodward, Jr.
Again, please see Carey’s full written report (which was distributed on gray paper).
- Enrollments are still declining across all of the two-year campuses. At UWO, specifically, when looking at enrollment in astronomy offerings, it dropped much more at the 2-year schools than the 4-year school. When looking at calculus-based introductory physics, enrollment actually dropped more at the 4-year campus than the 2-year schools. Algebra-based introductory physics remained fairly steady across all 3 schools.
- Attended the 2022 Summer AAPT Meeting in Grand Rapids. CPTYC (the Committee on Physics in Two-Year Colleges) discussed future meeting session topics, decided to ask AAPT to reinstate a TYC Day at future meetings, and wants to discuss more about the plight of adjuncts at a future meeting (create a new session).
- OPTYCs (Organization for Physics at Two-Year Colleges) was funded by the NSF. It is intended to be a national organization for physics teachers at two-year colleges with emphases on diversity & inclusivity, community & connectivity, faculty growth, and student success. Their first task was to create a survey to look for how to prioritize these ideas and create a directory of “members”. There are many upcoming workshops planned.
Committee Reports
- Awards Committee
  - If you think there’s someone deserving of a WAPT award, make sure to share this information with any member of the Awards Committee at any time throughout the year. We continue to look for and recognize excellence in the Wisconsin physics education community.
    Remember, there are also national AAPT awards out there. Think about nominating WAPT members for these, as well.
- Publications/Promotions Committee
  - Looking for someone to lead this effort. In the past, Matt Evans has sent out interesting stuff via email to the whole group occasionally. Jim Madsen suggested a few years ago that a Pub/Promo Committee could meet occasionally in an online format to chat about ideas. One idea was to give the folks on the Pub/Promo Committee permissions to post things on the WAPT FaceBook page. These items can then be collected and sent out occasionally to all.
- Workshops Committee
  - We thanked Mark Lattery for his morning workshop (Models and Analogies for High School Physics Teachers). If you have any feedback regarding the workshop, please let Mark know. Start thinking of workshop ideas for next year! Another thing to think about for future meetings: Should we compensate workshop leaders and invited speakers? Maybe something for next year’s New Business…

Old Business
- None.
Future Meeting Sites
- 2023: Marquette, Melissa Vigil
- 2024: Joint Wisconsin/Illinois Meeting in Rockford (October 20-21)
- 2025: UWEC?
- Start thinking of the possibility of hosting at your school…
New Business
- Shrinking attendance at WAPT Meetings
  - There is concern regarding the overall health of the discipline, especially when looking at the attendance of our Meetings. There are very few new folks attending each year (even when offering to eliminate all registration fees). How can we reach more people and how can we stay connected during the year? What about inviting folks from the Wisconsin Technical College System? Each one of us should reach out to other physics teachers near our home campuses: offer them a ride to the next meeting, talk up the first-timer discount, think of new/different speakers for our plenary session (maybe a popular book author or a science reporter?), etc. Start recruiting earlier in the year (spring or summer?). Include your WAPT affiliation to your email “signature”.Do we need to start a “group blog”? We have a Facebook page, but not everyone uses Facebook. We tried using Gatherly during the 2020 virtual meeting, maybe try it again, but this time in January (or April or June)? Can we entice folks to an online learning community, maybe by offering virtual planetarium shows or online astronomical observing? If you have other ideas, please pass them along!
Elections (With so few in attendance, these weren’t really elections, but rather people volunteering or being assigned.)
- Awards Committee:
  - (Usually: Past President – one-year term; High School Rep. – two-year term; College Rep. – two-year term)
    - Melissa Vigil, Palash Banerjee, Erik Hendrickson
- Workshops Committee:
  - (Usually: Chair/Vice President – one-year term; High School Rep. – three-year term; College Rep. – three-year term)
    - Melissa Vigil
  - Publications/Promotions Committee:
    (Usually: Chair – three-year term; High School Rep. – three-year term; College Rep. three-year term)
    - Everyone
  - Officers (the terms are “usual”, but for now let’s just go with annual):
    - Secretary/Treasurer (3-year term): Erik Hendrickson
    - Two-Year College Representative (2-year term): Aaron Steffen
    - High School Representative (2-year term): Gary Baier
    - Section Representative (3-year term): Steve Sahyun & Melissa Vigil
    - Vice President, Program Chair, Workshops Committee Chair (1-year term): Melissa Vigil
See you next year at Marquette!!
- President (1-year term): Palash Banerjee
Closing Remarks & Adjournment
- Thanks to all attendees for helping to make this a wonderful meeting!

A big THANK YOU to Palash Banerjee & UW – Stevens Point for an absolutely FANTASTIC MEETING!!!!!! See everyone at Marquette next year!!!

The meeting ended at 1:54 pm. Everyone started chatting (the best part of a meeting of teachers!) or packing up to head home…

Respectfully submitted,
Erik Hendrickson
Secretary/Treasurer