November 7, 2024                                               Issue #37

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

• Assessment and Equity December 13, 2024 from 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm EST 
  In this talk, I will motivate the need for the next generation of physics assessment tools and present a few projects that my physics education research lab at Michigan State University has been working on. In particular, I will discuss our efforts to build a more diverse set of tools to use within our classrooms in order to better understand our students’ learning as well as how we can best support them throughout their time in higher education. Facilitator: Rachel Henderson (Michigan State University)
• AJP TPT Info Session 2025 February 15, 2025 from 1:00pm - 2:00pm EST
  Join us for this lively information session on how and what to publish in both AAPT journals: American Journal of Physics and The Physics Teacher. Editors for each journal will present on the publishing process and relevant topics and content sought. Facilitators: Beth Parks (Colgate University and editor for AJP) and Gary White (The George Washington University and editor for TPT)    

Recent events

Using js9 with students to analyze real astronomical data (November 2, 2024)

Astronomy Research Education, A PER-Interest group discussion (October 25, 2024)  

One way to establish rapport with your students even before the first class meeting is to send a welcome message, Hogan and Sathy suggest in their book Inclusive Teaching: Strategies for Promoting Equity in the College Classroom (West Virginia University Press, 2022)  Inclusive Teaching: Strategies for Promoting Equity in the College Classroom (West Virginia University Press, 2022). You can include course logistics, of course, which may reduce some of the administrative burden on the first day of class. To be welcoming, help students feel supported, included, and encouraged. You might include a bit of information about yourself, or describe a bit of how you felt as a student at the start of a new term. Such self-disclosure has been shown to have positive outcomes, with students becoming more interested in the course and being more likely to reach out to their instructors.

• 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.