December 13, 2023 Issue #20

SPOTLIGHT is the OPTYCs bi-weekly newsletter. It brings you OPTYCs activity updates, highlights from recent publications related to physics education, and news & resources for Two-Year colleges.

Upcoming events

• ISLE 2024 Workshop  February 10, 2024 from 1:00pm- 5:00pm EST
  In this (free and virtual) workshop, you will experience learning physics through the Investigative Science Learning Environment (ISLE) approach. The ISLE approach helps students learn physics and develop confidence that they can do it by engaging in activities that mirror scientific practice. Facilitators: Eugenia Etkina (Rutgers University) and Anna Karelina (Saint Mary's College of California)

• Energy First 2024 Workshop  February 21, 2024 from 4:00pm- 6:00pm EST
  In the Energy-First physics curriculum, energy is the starting point for the rest of the course. In this workshop, you will learn more about this approach, available supporting materials, and how you can implement it in your courses. Facilitator: Chris Fischer (University of Kansas)
  

• Scientific Reasoning Labs 2024 Workshop  March 1, 2024 from 3:00pm- 6:00pm EST
  In this free, virtual workshop, you will learn about a set of introductory college-level physics labs that help students develop scientific reasoning skills. Facilitators: Kathy Koenig (Univ. Cincinnati) and Krista Wood (Univ. Cincinnati - Blue Ash College)

Announcements

• SPOTLIGHT is seeking contributions to its new section "Reader's corner" that features contributions from readers. Please consider sharing comments, tips, ideas, resources you have come across or anything that you think might benefit your physics TYC colleagues. Contact me directly if you have any question or suggestion: karim.diff@sfcollege.edu

Recent OPTYCs events

• November 23, 2023: Writing for AstroNotes column in The Physics Teacher Workshop 

• November 17, 2023 Lab Assessments (Alternatives to Lab Reports)

• December 01, 2023: PER Results about Labs 

I wish to share with you a summary of the first year of OPTYCs. We hosted 30 continuing professional development workshops, and facilitated eight journal club discussions around physics education research. The New Faculty Development Series brought in its first cohort of 19 TYC faculty members, beginning in April with six virtual journal discussions, attended a three-day Immersion Conference in June (hosted by TYC faculty member Kendra Sibbernsen at Metropolitan College in Omaha, NE), and are currently working to implement changes in their teaching with the help of mentoring groups led by four alumni leaders. We also hosted the largest-ever Tandem Meeting in July 2023 in Sacramento, CA. A total of 77 people participated in nine workshops, and contributed 35 posters at the day-long event.

Our website is very active (https://OPTYCs.aapt.org), and includes information and registration for events, a portal for mentoring and networking groups, applications for cohort-based programs, and an increasing list of resources relevant for TYC faculty. We initiated this newsletter, and started a YouTube channel to distribute recordings of events. 

We’re planning to grow this current second year, with increased awareness of OPTYCs, our resources, and networking opportunities. Two cohort-based programs will begin in January: The TYC Leadership Institute, and the DEI Capacity-Building Program. The second part of the comprehensive survey about physics and astronomy at TYCs comes out in spring, administered and analyzed by the American Institute of Physics Statistical Research Center; if you are a TYC faculty member, please complete this survey! The last survey was conducted in 2010-2011 - it is time we had updated data. (https://www.aip.org/statistics/undergraduate/twoyear)

Completion rate for Title IV students

• 13 % of Title IV students who start at community colleges ultimately earn bachelor’s degrees within eight years
• State-level data shown in the interactive graph below

Source: HOMEROOM: The Official Blog of the US department of education

	Introducing the Organization for Physics at Two-Year Colleges (OPTYCs)  Kris Lui & Sherry Savrda  A blurb about two-year colleges and their place in the education system, plus a little plug about OPTYCs.
	This book, organized by Aval Polzin PhD. candidate in Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago, with 27 co-authors, was created as part of the SIRIUS B VERGE program to orient students to astrophysics as a broad field. The PDF can be downloaded from ArXiv here: https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.04041
	An exploration of how prisms work, using beautiful animations, from 3Blue1Brown

• The American Association of Physics Teachers 
• Committee on Physics in Two-Year Colleges (AAPT area committee)
• Join the TYC Google group: Send an email to tycphysics@googlegroups.com
• PhysPort Recommendations about teaching methods, assessment, and results from PER
• PER Central A resource collection for physics education researchers 
• Physics Review Physics Education Research Fully open access journal for PER 
• arXiv Physics education The arXiv repository for physics education papers
• AIP Statistical Research Center Data on education, careers, and diversity in physics, astronomy and other physical sciences

optycs.aapt.org

The work of OPTYCs is supported by NSF-DUE-2212807.