November 13, 2025 Issue #53

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

You can find a list of upcoming events and of the recordings of past events on the OPTYCs calendar.

During the 2025-2026 academic year, we are offering a series of presentation-discussion-workshops to share some of the many research-validated assessment instruments used in the physics education community. Join us to learn how you can use these instruments to inform your teaching, to assess your students' learning, and to contribute to a wider body of knowledge about physics students at two-year colleges.

Upcoming events

• MAPS 2025 November 21, 2025 from 3:00pm - 4:00pm EST
  The Minnesota Assessment of Problem Solving (MAPS) rubric was developed as a tool to score students’ written solutions to physics problems. This presentation will include an introduction to the five general problem-solving processes assessed by the rubric and criteria for attaining a score in each, as well as examples for how to apply the rubric to students’ written solutions.
  Facilitator: Jennifer Docktor (University of Wisconsin La Crosse)

• Quantum In Intro Physics 2025 November 22, 2025 from 1:00pm - 3:00pm EST
  In this workshop, we will show content from two classes worth of material to develop what a single photon is and how we do experiments with them. Participants will have opportunities to try some activities through student worksheets.
  Facilitator: James Freericks (Georgetown University, AAPT Treasurer)

• CDPA 2025 December 5, 2025 from 3:00pm - 4:00pm EST
  The Concise Data Processing Assessment (CDPA) is a ten-question, multiple-choice diagnostic designed to measure students’ abilities with measurement, uncertainty, and data handling—skills essential in any physics or astronomy lab. This session will provide an overview of the CDPA’s purpose, what it can and cannot reveal about student learning, practical tips for implementation and interpretation.
  Facilitator: James Day (University of British Columbia)

• Pivot Interactives 2026 March 27, 2026 from 3:00pm - 4:30pm EDT
  Pivot Interactives is an online experiment platform for physics and astronomy education. Instructors can choose to use the built-in labs, modify from the community library, or create their own using Pivot’s analysis tools (such as measurement options, video tracking, and collaborative notebooks). In this workshop, participants will experience some examples from physics and astronomy classes, and see how they can build their own lab curriculum.
  Facilitators: Todd Leif (Creighton Prep) and Glenda Denicolo (Suffolk County CC).  

Recent events

Demonstrations in your physics class (workshop) - (October 17, 2025) 

Conceptual Survey of Electricity and Magnetism (October 24, 2025)

Try this with your students: Have them take the Learning Skills Inventory, as outlined in Sandra McGuire’s book  Teach Students How to Learn (Stylus Publishing, 2015).This inventory is a list of 11 statements about studying, such as “I always preview the material that will be discussed before I go to class.” Students agree or disagree with each statement. The higher number of ‘agrees’ is well-correlated with a higher final grade in the class. Not only does this inventory show students quickly how they will fare, each statement is a specific, doable task that will help them improve their performance. 

Be sure to periodically remind students of these skills in the inventory throughout the term. Old habits are hard to break, and building new ones requires constant reminders until they become habitual!

AAPT PERTG Community Conversation

Recent Papers

• The Physics Show—A community college delivers BIG on community outreach  "Founded in 2007, the Foothill College Physics Show has served nearly a quarter of a million attendees in the two decades that have followed" (The Physics Teacher Tidbits)

• Talking about money in a lab session " This year, I devoted a lab session to helping physics students apply for scholarships." (The Physics Teacher Tidbits)

• 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