OPTYCs SPOTLIGHT 2025 Issue 44
March 13, 2025 Issue #44
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.
OPTYCs News
Upcoming events
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Supporting Physics Education with Gameplay -
Gaming provides an opportunity to immerse students in collaborative problem-solving using their knowledge and reinforcing their identities. In this session, we’ll discuss different experiences with introducing gameplay in physics education: gamifying the classroom, physics-related boardgames, physics-related video/mobile games—all experiences are welcome! Facilitator: W. Brian Lane (University of North Florida) -
Learning Assistants Programs - Classes with LAs have been shown to improve conceptual understanding and course pass rates. The number of LA programs at two-year colleges (TYCs) is growing. Join us in this interactive session to learn about LA programs, and hear from TYC faculty who have incorporated LAs into their teaching toolkit. Facilitators: Jim Rabchuk (Oakton Community College, IL), Mel Sabella (Chicago State University, IL)
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Aurora Magnetic Fields 2025 - This workshop will use aurora and associated data as a way to teach about magnetic fields. The auroral currents in the ionosphere will be modelled as current-carrying wires. We will work with Biot and Savart’s law, with wires with current, and with the right hand rule. Real field data from auroral were obtained from the Magnetic Observatory Network. Facilitator: Francesca Viale (Northern Virginia Community College, VA)
Recent events
Matter And Interactions Workshop (March 01, 2025)
AAPT/ComPADRE: An overview of resources (March 08, 2025)
Kris’ corner
Tips, summaries, and musings from Kris Lui (OPTYCs Director).
Authors and STEM educators, Kelly A. Hogan and Viji Sathy provide many suggestions and guidelines in their book Inclusive Teaching: Strategies for Promoting Equity in the College Classroom (West Virginia University Press, 2022). One tip is to circulate and help folks get into pairs or groups, rather than simply saying “turn to a neighbor” and hope that everyone has found someone to work with. To help facilitate whole class discussions, it may be helpful to start with a quick icebreaker, such as “Complete this sentence” and ask a fun question. (I’m most likely to ask something like, “What is your favorite animal?”) In situations where groups are working together and you require a report-out to the whole group, it’s helpful to designate a reporter in advance; Hogan and Sathy suggest choosing something random that gets students talking, like “the reporter for your group will be the person whose birthday is closest to today.” They also recommend having a continuously open, anonymous survey, one where students can provide feedback any time.
Books, Articles, and Media
2024's Biggest Breakthroughs in Physics
Resources
- 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
The work of OPTYCs is supported by NSF-DUE-2212807.
