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QCC Hosts Physics Teachers Conference
March 2017
The American Association of Physics Teachers, New England Section, held its spring regional meeting at Quinsigamond Community College March 17-18.
On Friday evening, keynote speaker Dr. Jay Pasachoff, Field Memorial Professor and Director of the Hopkins Observatory at Williams College, spoke about the August 21, 2017, total solar eclipse. He spoke about the science and use of equipment in observing the eclipse and circumstances around the track of the eclipse.
After his presentation, attendees could observe the skies with the Aldrich Astronomical Society.
On Saturday, there were demonstrations of telescopes and various talks and discussions, including about how to involve high school students in authentic research and how to use physics to explain different space exploration projects. Teachers and students were invited to present talks and demonstrations about ways to use experiments or different methods for introducing physic concepts in the classroom.
In the afternoon, there were presentations about Arduino, a maker project to create circuit boards; a video analysis project, where objects in a video frame can be measured and then the data can be graphed and analyzed and compared to theoretical models; and a Teaching with Telescopes class, taught by QCC Professor Andria Schwortz, about how to integrate telescopes into science curriculum, working with reflecting and refracting telescopes and brainstorming lesson plans. The Aldrich Astronomical Society assisted with the class.
