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Meetings

The SEPS hold two meetings annually with one being a Friday/Saturday meeting and the other a demo day:

- Fall Meeting
- Spring Meeting

Upcoming Meetings

2025 Spring Meeting (Location TBD)

We will hold our annual spring meeting in Spring 2025.

 

Watch this space for details as they develop.

Past Meetings

2024 Fall Demo Day (Saint Joseph's Preparatory School)

This year we are live and in person at

St. Joseph's Prep, Villiger Hall, Room 303.

1733 W Girard Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19130

Continental breakfast and registration: 9:00 - 9:30 AM
Demos: 9:30 AM - 1:00 PM

 

A recording of the presentations is available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XXFdFRl6jE

2024 Spring Demo Day (Springside Chestnut Hill Academy)

This year we are live and in person at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, Rorer Science building, 500 W. Willow Grove Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19118 -- Room 104 (first floor).

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A recording of the presentations is available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5vnBFzqny4.

2023 Fall Meeting (Widener University)

20-21 October 2023

Friday, October 20th, 2023: Joint Meeting with the Delaware Valley Amateur Astronomers (DVAA.org)

Radnor Township Building, 301 Iven Ave., Wayne, PA.

 

Invited Speaker: Paul T. Baker, Assistant Professor of Physics, Widener University

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"Hearing the gravitational wave background with a galaxy sized detector"

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Recording: https://youtu.be/t-PwuDriNUA?t=2957

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Saturday, October 21st, 2023Widener University,

One University Pl, Chester, PA

 

Guest Speaker: Dr. Eric Brewe, Drexel University

"Modeling Instruction, student engagement, and neurobiological impacts"

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Invited Speaker: Mary Spruill, Executive Director of National Energy Education Development (NEED) Project https://www.need.org/

2023 Spring Demo Day (Springside Chestnut Hill Academy)

This year we are live and in person at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, Rorer Science building, 500 W. Willow Grove Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19118 -- Room 104 (first floor).

 

Recording of the Demo Day is available on our YouTube channel.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC1g7O2s7-c

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2022 Fall Meeting (Villanova University)

14-15 October 2022
 

The recording of the Friday night talk is available at:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRt6Jkai21Nt9_Jp5L6bIVg/live

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Saturday's talks are available at: https://vums-web.villanova.edu/Mediasite/Channel/seps-meeting-2022/browse/null/title-az/null/0/null 

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AAPT SEPS held its Fall Meeting in-person on Friday evening at the Radnor Township Building, in conjunction with the Delaware Valley Amateur Astronomers (dvaa.org), and on Saturday at Villanova University. 

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2022 Spring Demo Day (Virtual)

2 April 2022
 

The demo day was hosted by Jeremy Carlo and Villanova University. After the conclusion of the demo day, a SEPS business meeting was held.

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Recording Link of the Demos:

https://www.youtube.co/watch?v=sQ4mH5Ct5S4

2021 Fall Virtual Meeting (Virtual)

16 October 2021
 

Due to the continuing pandemic, the chapter held a virtual meeting instead of a traditional meeting.

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2020 Fall Demo Day (Virtual)

14 November 2020
 

Due to the continuing pandemic, the chapter held a virtual meeting instead of a traditional meeting.

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2015 Fall Demo Day (Upper Marion H.S.)
 

Saturday morning, October 17, 2015, Dave Montalvo at Upper Merion Area High School hosted the Fall Demo Day. Light breakfast and conversation started at 8:30 AM. Demos began at 9:15, and ran until about 11:30.
 

2015 Spring Meeting (Swarthmore College)
 

The 2015 Spring Meeting was held March 6-7, 2015, at Swarthmore College.

2014/2015 AAPT SEPS Workshops (LaSalle University)
 

The three workshops at La Salle University were Motion and Forces (October 4, 2014), Energy and Thermodynamics (February 28, 2015), and Waves, Light, and Sound (April 25, 2015).

2014 Fall Demo Day (West Chester H.S.)
 

This year's Fall Demo Day was held Saturday, October 18, at East High School in West Chester, PA, starting at 9:00 with a light breakfast and conversation with area Physics teachers, followed by presentations of 5- to 10-minute demonstrations that can liven up your classes.

These annual Fall Demo Days are a fun opportunity for physics teachers to gather and share their favorite class-room demonstrations. Past Demo Days have presented a range of demonstrations, from those using everyday items, like popcorn and broken glass, to technology that can show students how to measure the speed of light. Attendees need bring nothing more than a love for Physics, but all are welcome to bring and share their unique ways of demonstrating physics concepts.

2014 Spring Meeting (Villanova University)
 

The SEPA Spring Meeting was held March 21-22 at Villanova University.

Friday evening invited speaker: Edward Guinan, Villanova

Saturday morning invited speaker: Michael Brown, Swarthmore College.

Saturday afternoon workshops: "The Evolution of Introductory Physics Labs" panel discussion facilitated by Barry Feierman; "Math and Sustainability" led by Victor Donnay, Bryn Mawr College.

Plus: Friday night banquet, contributed papers and demos, business meeting, lunchtime poster sessions, Friday night observing and Saturday informal tours of Villanova physics labs.

Edward Guinan's Friday talk, To Boldly Go?

Harriet Slogoff's Electric Force demo.

Barry'sSaturday's program and workshops.

2014 Physics Workshop (LaSalle University)
 

SEPS AAPT, in collaboration with LaSalle University, offered a series of three free physics workshops for science teachers on Saturday mornings in January, February, and April 2014.

January 25 workshop, Teaching Electricity and Magnetism: An Inquiry Approach.

February 22 workshop, Teaching Waves, Sound, and Light: An Inquiry Approach.

April 5 workshop, Use of Data Collection Technological Tools, Probeware, and Video Analysis in Teaching Physics.

2014 UPenn Demo Show (University of Pennsylvania)

The University of Pennsylvania Department of Physics and Astronomy presented its annual Holiday Demonstration Show on Monday and Tuesday, January 13 & 14, 2014.

2013 Spring Meeting (Drexel University)
 

The SEPA Spring Meeting was held on Friday, April 26 and Saturday, April 27, at Drexel University. This was a joint meeting with Society of Physics Students (SPS) Zone 3, on the theme of "Communicating Physics".

Here are some of the talks:

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2013 UPenn Demo Show (University of Pennsylvania)
 

The University of Pennsylvania Department of Physics and Astronomy presented its annual Holiday Demonstration Show on Monday and Tuesday, January 7 & 8, 2013.

2012 Fall Demo Day (Harriton H.S.)
 

The SEPA Fall Demo Day took place on Saturday October 27, 2012, at Harriton High school in Rosemont, PA.

2012 AAPT National Meeting in Philadelphia, PA
 

The 2012 National AAPT Summer Meeting was held July 28 - August 1 at the University of Pennsylvania.

2012 Spring Meeting (Saint Joseph's University)
 

The Spring Meeting, "Growing Your Physics Program", was held March 30 and 31 at St. Joseph University. Friday evening featured a delicious meal and our guest speaker, Robert C. Hillborn, who spoke on "How to Grow Your High School or Undergraduate Physics Program." Saturday morning's program included two invited talks, several contributed papers and demonstrations, and the annual SEPS AAPT members' meeting. After lunch, the members attended one of two workshops.
 

2011 Fall Demo Night (Malvern Prep)

Fall Demo Night was held Friday, October 7 at Malvern Prep School.

2011 Spring Meeting (University of the Sciences)

The 2011 Spring meeting was held at University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, on Friday and Saturday, April 1 and 2.

 

Friday, April 1

After registration and dinner in the STC Atrium, we gathered for the invited talk, "Human vision and the nature of light" given by Prof. Phillip Nelson, University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Phillip Nelson introduced and elaborated on the remarkable fact that the human eye contains receptors capable of detecting a single photon. Through an array of captivating visuals, Dr. Nelson illustrated that it has become possible to measure the tiny currents from individual rod and cone cells as they are stimulated with flashes of light, from this, be able to measure their complete spectral response curves hence quantifying Thomas Young's 3-color theory.

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Saturday morning

After a continental breakfast, the SEPS AAPT meeting resumed in the Pharmacology Toxicology Center at the University of the Sciences. Drs. D. Nyamjav and Sergio Freire, University of the Sciences introduced the topic, Nanotechnology. These talks were designed to provide a brief overview of Nanoscience and technology, the challenges, the successes and breakthroughs, and how it can affect our daily lives or the future. After these guest speakers had finished, two parallel sessions on contributed papers and demonstrations took place. One of the parallel sessions further developed nanotechnology; the other one focused on a variety of high school physics concepts and demonstrations.

 

Saturday afternoon

Following lunch and the SEPS AAPT business meeting and prize giveaways, the Spring Meeting resumed at the STC building, with two workshops held simultaneously. There was a nanotechnology workshop hosted by Drs. Julie Nucci and Jim Overhiser from Cornell University including two short activities based on the nanoscale and powers of ten followed by participants simulating a topographic scanner; an AFM (Atomic Force Microscopy) lab developed by the CNS Institute for Physics Teachers. The second workshop given by Barry Feierman (Westtown School) and Bill Berner (University of Pennsylvania) was on probeware; offering hands-on participation on the use of a variety of Vernier and Pasco probes. Click here to download a PowerPoint presentation from the probeware workshop.

2010 Fall Demo Night (Pope John Paul H.S.)

The annual SEPS AAPT Demo night was hosted this year at Pope John Paul High School, Royersford by the SEPS Vice-President, Mary Sevon. The evening began with a delicious dinner where new and veteran members of the SEPS networked. We had quite a few new members who had attended the "Teaching Physics for the First or Fifty First Time" workshop held at La Salle on Saturday, October 9, 2010 in attendance at Demo night.A variety of demonstrations ranging from mechanics to light were shared by seven members of SEPS. The "Law of Inertia" demonstration was a simply constructed apparatus which could be used to show the relationship between period and mass. A clip from the National Geographic documentary on the humming bird was used to introduce and discuss physics' concepts of sound, loss of energy, and iridescence. An array of experiments using lasers, "lights you can't see," was shown to the group; one in particular was using an infrared laser to burst an inflated black balloon inside an inflated transparent balloon.The evening ended at around 9:00 pm, and SEPS members had quite a few new ideas to take home to the classroom. A big thank you goes to Mary Sevon for putting this very successful evening together.

2010 Workshop for New Teachers (LaSalle University)

Supported by a mini-grant from the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) to the Southeastern PA Section (SEPS), a workshop for new teachers was hosted at LaSalle University on October 9, 2010. Fourteen new teachers with 0-3 years of teaching experience and several veteran teachers participated in the workshop. At 9 am, Ling Liang from LaSalle University, welcomed all participants and introduced the event co-sponsors and workshop leaders. The day-long workshop consists of four sessions: Jay Bagley led labs and demos on mechanics, followed by Bob Schwartz's presentation on waves and optics, and Barry Feierman's demos on electricity and use of Vernier sensors. It was ended with an hour-long exploration of interesting internet sites for Physics.The overall evaluation of the workshop was overwhelmingly positive. All pre-registered workshop participants received a copy of the AAPT publication "Teaching Physics for the First Time." The new teachers were also provided with one year free section membership and encouraged to join the American Association of Physics Teachers. Thanks again to the event host, workshop leaders, and the SEPS section officers for their hard work and great support!

2010 UPenn Demo Show (University of Pennsylvania)

A two-hour presentation of Penn's best demonstrations of Electricity and Magnetism took place Monday Dec. 13 and Tuesday Dec. 14 at 9:30 and noon.

2010 Spring Meeting (LaSalle University)

SEPA was joined by NJ and Central PA sections for a regional meeting on March 12-13 at La Salle University, Philadelphia, PA. The theme was "How we teach may be more important than WHAT we teach..."

  • Friday 9-4: pre-conference PTRA Workshop on Physics with Video Analysis

  • Friday night: dinner, student poster session, and invited lecture (Derrick Pitts).

  • Saturday morning: invited speakers (Warren Hein, Matt Greenwolfe), contributed talks

  • Saturday afternoon: business meetings, great demos.

2009 Fall Demo Night (Science Leadership Academy)

The 2009 Fall Demo Night was held on Friday, October 30th at the Science Leadership Academy at 22nd and Arch Streets in Philadelphia.

2009 Spring Meeting (Villanova University)

The SEPS/AAPT Spring Meeting was held at Villanova University on April 24 and 25, 2009.

Friday Night April 24
Philip Maurone from Villanova hosted the meeting. There were about 50 registered attendees. The meeting began with a dinner on Friday evening hosted by Villanova, followed by an invited talk on Energy and Environment given by Ken Lande from University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Lande talked about what he described as the dominant problem of our society for the coming century: "the generation of enough energy to sustain our mode of living without at the same time creating severe and irreversible climate changes." He has been teaching a course on this topic at the University of Pennsylvania for the past several years entitled, "Energy, Oil and Global Warming". The goal of this course is not only to inform the students about issues that will profoundly affect their lives, but also to teach them that they are able to calculate the underlying numbers. During his talk, he discussed some of the critical issues about our energy utilization and its impact on the environment and used simple calculations to illustrate his examples. Among these calculations were: (1) the amount of CO2 emitted annually by U.S. power plants, (2) the Earth's temperature for a simplified Sun - Earth radiation balance model, (3) the maximum amount of corn based ethanol that can be produced in the U.S. and compare that to our annual petroleum consumption, (4) the power output of a wind turbine, (5) the amount of U-235 consumed per year by U.S. power reactors and the mass of the dominant fission products produced, (6) the battery stored electrical energy required for a hybrid or electric vehicle of a given driving range, etc.

Saturday April 25
On Saturday, our invited speaker, Bruce Sherwood, gave a talk titled "Unification and parsimony: Can students learn to think like physicists?" In this talk he described an approach to teaching that introduces students to a modern, unified view of physics in the introductory university-level (calculus based) course, Matter & Interactions, and to avoid the compartmentalization of topics and techniques that usually occurs. This course was developed in response to the major new discoveries in physics during the 20th century, the way practicing physicists think about physics has itself evolved. By reorganizing the introductory curriculum along the lines of 20th century physics, not only is it more authentic to the contemporary view of physics, it also can lead to significant cognitive benefits for students. This course is the only opportunity to convey this unified picture to the many students who will take no further physics courses, and this course is an optimum time to convey a unified view to the small number of potential physics majors who will spend the rest of their college careers studying specialized topics in significant depth. One way that this course is delivered is by introducing students to computational and physical modeling to explain and predict a broad range of natural phenomena by starting from a very small set of fundamental principles, combined with microscopic models of matter. This technique of computational modeling has become centrally important in all branches of science and engineering.

After this talk, a series of contributed talks followed. These talks had a general theme of Energy.

  • Jeff Wetherhold demonstrated Apple's Keynote as a way to animate presentations for a class.

  • Barry Feierman demonstrated different types of light bulbs and talked about the "warmth" of the light that each type of bulb emitted as a function of the energy each bulb consumed.

  • Jeff Goldader presented a cosmic ray detector that he mentored an advanced high school student to build using parts purchased off ebay and at Radio Shack.

  • Art Zadrozny presented a research project into alternative energy types and sources that he has his student complete and present. He also provided the grading rubric that is used to evaluate this assignment.

  • Carl Schmiedekamp presented the approach to reporting uncertainty using excel in his Introductory college physics lab course.

  • Fran Poodry demonstrated the flexibility and utility of VPython, a computational modeling programming language that is highlighted in Matter and Interactions.

  • Harriet Slogoff talked about how she saved on her energy bills by insulating her home. She introduced the idea of degree days as a tool to normalize the change in her energy bills.

  • Deborah Goldader demonstrated conservation of energy using a roller coaster made from cardboard and card stock as well as cardboard models of some everyday items.

The contributed talks were followed by the SEPS business meeting. The new officers for 2009-2010 were elected. The business meeting also highlighted AAPT initiatives including Associate Membership available to section members. During the business meeting, a special award recognizing 50 years of Physics teaching was presented to Tom Foley at Saint Joseph's University by one of his former students Bill Berner.

The meeting recessed for lunch around 1 pm. After the lunch, Oliver H. Perry, the President of the Eastern Electric Vehicle Club of Valley Forge PA, led an Electric Car workshop. About half dozen electric vehicle owners and specialists also made themselves and the vehicles available for questions at the workshop.

2008 UPenn Demo Show (University of Pennsylvania)

Bill Berner presented Penn's annual physics show on December 8th and 9th, 2008. This year's topic was "The Physics of Motion; or Newton as a Distraction from the Economy".

You can download (free!) a video of the demonstrations from the iTunes Store as follows:

  • select ITunes U

  • scroll down to University of Pennsylvania

  • select School of Arts and Sciences

  • under Physics and Astronomy, select Physics Demonstrations

This site includes E&M demonstrations from the 2007 show.

2008 Momentum-Work-Energy Workshop For High school and Middle School Teachers (Country Day School of the Sacred Heart)

Don Scholl held the workshop at Country Day School of the Sacred Heart (Bryn Mawr) on Saturday, October 25, 2008.

2008 Fall Demo Night (Sun Valley H.S.)

The 2008 FALL DEMO NIGHT was held at Sun Valley HS in Aston, PA. on Friday, October 17.

2008 Spring Meeting (St. Joseph's University)

The 2008 Spring Meeting was held Friday, April 11 and Saturday, April 12 at St. Joseph's University. Click here for Barry Feierman's complete report (with pictures) in pdf format. Here is a brief summary of Barry's report.

Following Friday night's reception and dinner, Gino Segre, Professor of Physics at University of Pennsylvania, spoke on the topic of the Copenhagen Conference, and the early struggles with quantum theory.

On Saturday morning, Robert Beck Clark of Brigham Young University spoke on "A Teacher Preparation Program that Works." His talk was followed by contributed papers/demos by Connie Cooper, Marc Baron, Barry Feierman, Jeff Wetherhold, Deborah Goldader, and Harry Woodcock. Next, section officers for 2008-2009 were elected (see below for a list of officers). Gifts of appreciation were presented to John Patane, Chet Zack, and Bill Berner. The morning ended with the awarding of doorprizes.

 

After lunch, three simultaneous workshops were held: PTRA Gravity Workshop led by Don Scholl and Jeff Wetherhold, a Modeling Workshop led by Doug Vallette and Jess Dykes, and an open discussion of college topics, led by Paul Angiolillo.

2007 UPenn Demo Show (University of Pennsylvania)

The 11th annual University of Pennsylvania Physics Demonstration Show was held Monday, December 10 and Tuesday, December 11, at David Rittenhouse Laboratory. Click here to see some pictures.

You can download (free!) a video of the demonstrations from the iTunes Store as follows:

  • select ITunes U

  • scroll down to University of Pennsylvania

  • select School of Arts and Sciences

  • under Physics and Astronomy, select Physics Demonstrations

2007 Fall Demo Night (Springside School)

The 2007 Fall Demo Night was held Friday, November 2 at Springside School. Here are Barry Feierman's comments

Last night's FALL DEMO NIGHT was a great success.

First, thanks again to our hosts at Springside School: Kim Eberle-Wang and Sarah Sullivan.

We had a wonderful time getting to know one another at dinner. We had about 40 in attendance.

And thanks to our Demonstation volunteers:

  • Ron Pedalty - polarized light phenomena and a GIANT GIVE AWAY of polaroid lenses

  • Bob Schwartz - don't buy the dollar store LED flashlights and here's why and other financial matters... did anyone get Bob's T-shirt's meaning???

  • Liz Chesick and Tom Gordon duo - puzzles about rotation and moment of inertia (stumped all of us)

  • Tom Foley - wonderful website information

  • Debra Gordon (no relation to Tom) - mass on spring simulation with spreadsheets

  • Bill Berner - a very cool spectrophotometer that works with Vernier/Pasco interface (I want one of these). Bill also mentioned that the local amusement parks may be shutting down the Pasco/Vernier hardware on rides. You will hear more about this as we get new information.

  • Jeff Wetherhold - more very cool video animations made by Jeff (write to Jeff at wetherholdj -at- parklandsd.org if you want to buy these.

  • Barry Feierman - a simple, cheap, inertial mass measuring gadget (under $10) for a 9th grade physics lab

  • Sandy Knott and Tom Lavanga of Perkiomen Valley HS - warped space and relativity - that soooo cool demonstration with the balls ..... and net. For more details, write to Sandy at sknotts -at- pvsd.org and Tom at tlavanga -at- pvsd.org.

I continue to be impressed with the expertise in our section and how much fun it is to share ideas, demos, handouts. I'm nearing 39 years teaching high school at Westtown School and I know there is still much to learn about Physics.

So again, thank you to our hosts and to all of you for showing up for a fun night.

2007 Spring Meeting (Swarthmore College)

The 2007 Spring Meeting, held at Swarthmore College on April 20 and 21, included the following:

  • Friday dinner with physics music provided by Walter Smith of Haverford College

  • Swarthmore profs panel: Modern Physics in the Introductory Curriculum

  • Tour of Swarthmore's Observatory and Saturn viewing

  • Saturday morning invited speakers (Peter Beckman on Intro Labs, Arthur Eisenkraft on Active Physics)

  • Poster session and vendor displays during lunch

  • Contributed papers / demos

  • Saturday afternoon workshop(s)

2006 Xmas Demo Show (University of Pennsylvania)

This year's holiday demo show was held on Monday and Tuesday December 11th and 12th, 2006. To quote Chet Zach: "Come see the best holiday physics show in Phila. at the Univ. of Penn.! Treat yourself and your students to an educational and fun time."

2006 Demo Night (East High School)

The 2006 Fall Demo Night was held Friday, October 20, at East High School in West Chester, hosted by Fran Poodry. The meeting was a big success, with a nice turnout.

 

There were demonstrations too numerous to list. Some of the highlights were:Dollar Store demos, Bungee-chord inertia, bridge rectifier with LEDs, the magic flask, the popcorn-bag count, radioactive half-life simulation, phases of the moon with Styrofoam balls.

 

Last but not least, Jeff Wetherhold's "Physics is Phun" animated movies entertained us all with lots of laughs!"

 

Physics is Phun" CDs are available from Jeff at wetherholdj -at- ParklandSD.org.

2006 Spring Meeting (Saint Joseph's University)

The Southeast Pennsylvania section held our annual spring meeting on March 24-25 at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia. The meeting began with a dinner followed by short papers and demonstrations submitted by section members.

 

Our Saturday meeting began with a breakfast and then featured three invited speakers for the morning session. After lunch we had our business meeting and elected section officers for the year. The afternoon talks featured two professors from St. Joseph's University, our host. We adjourned without deciding on the location or date of the annual Fall Demo Night in October. We are also looking forward to continued good relations with our neighboring Central Pennsylvania and New Jersey sections.

2005 Spring Meeting (York College)

The spring meeting was held jointly by the Pennsylvania Central Section and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Section at York College. Over twenty talks and demos were presented. Here are some of the highlights, reported by Don Scholl:

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Friday, March 4

8:30 - 3:00 PTRA Workshop: Electromagnetic Spectrum--Window to the Universe
Workshop Leaders, Pat Callahan and Dave McCachren

5:00 - 6:00 Student Research Poster Session

6:00 - 8:30 Banquet ... super job by our host Sardari Khanna

8:30 - 9:30 Public Talk: Dr. Pablo Laguna, of the Department of Physics and Astrophysics at Penn State University
"When Black Holes Collide: Exploring strong field gravity with 21st century computing power"

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Saturday, March 5

9:00 AM Welcome: Dr. Tom Bogart, Dean of Academic Affairs, York College of Pennsylvania

9:10 Liz Chesick was presented an award for her service to the Southeastern Pennsylvania section.

9:20 Invited Talk: Mr. Jim Nelson, Past President of AAPT
Jim and Jane Nelson's presentation on teaching and on laboratory activities was very well done. They split the audience into groups of 6 and had them take data to illustrate the use of linear plotting of mass and volume data of a container of water with and without metal shot in it to find the density of metal shot. These methods can apply to teaching at any level, and I plan to use his step-by-step approach in this lab program because many of the freshmen here do not know these things. Jim was very emotional about our award and his college physics teacher who had a great influence on his life--who was in the audience. His teaching motto was a variation of the Hippocratic oath--Do No Harm.

10:00 Many great demos and talks were delivered.

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