Fall 2004 Meeting of the Illinois Section of the AAPT

Invited Presentation, 7:50 pm, Friday, October 15
"Imaging Nanostructures in Motion"
Robert Nemanich, Physics Department, North Carolina State University

Invited Presentation, 10:00 am, Saturday, October 16
"Improving Physics Teaching through Physics Education Research"
David E. Meltzer, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State University

Workshop 1.  Special pre-session workshop:  "Repairing the Illinois High School Physics Teacher Pipeline", Thursday/Friday Oct. 14/15, Illinois Central College, East Peoria, Illinois (approximately five miles from Bradley University)

This past June the ISAAPT Executive Council requested and received from the AAPT national office $500 to support a section-sponsored special session dealing with secondary-level physics teacher recruitment, preparation, and retention in Illinois. Now, a two-day special session will be held in conjunction with the Fall Meeting of the ISAAPT. The session will be a joint effort between the ISAAPT, community college and university faculty members, teacher educators, school administrators, high school physics teachers, and possibly a representative of the Illinois State Board of Education.

This special session will focus study on identifying problems and solutions to a critical and growing shortage of qualified high school physics teachers in Illinois. There is no question that the "pipeline" leading from high school physics classrooms to the graduation of secondary-level physics teachers and their return to the classroom is both narrow and leaky. As a result, the number of new qualified secondary physics teachers stepping in to replace those who chose to quit or retire from the profession is inadequate to the needs of today.

According to Council of Chief State School Officers' report State Indicators of Science and Mathematics Education 2003, Illinois has seen the number of newly certified physics teachers drop by 32% during the last decade, even though some physics teacher education programs have dramatically increased in size. The 22 institutions of higher education in Illinois are currently producing only enough physics teachers to meet 64% of the demand in Illinois according to the study. The intent of this special session is to increase both the number and quality of secondary-level physics teachers being prepared for the State. It is expected that physics departments from across the State of Illinois will benefit from this special session by increasing the number of students in the major.

This two-day special session will feature a number of invited talks and several break-out sessions. It will culminate in a series of recommendations for improving recruitment, preparation, and retention of new physics teachers. This information will be shared at a special session held on Saturday morning during the fall ISAAPT meeting at Bradley University.  It will also be made available on an official "pipeline" web site.

For those who are unable to attend this special session but are willing to share materials or insights, Carl Wenning will be collecting input to be shared at the meeting. Please e-mail him your contributions at least one week prior to the special session.

The special session will be held on Thursday afternoon and evening (1:00 - 9:00 pm), and Friday morning (8:00 - 11:00 am) at Illinois Central College at East Peoria, Illinois.  Here is the schedule of events.

Contributed papers are scheduled on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.

-- The Council has a regular meeting scheduled for Saturday morning at 7:00 am.
-- There will be a business meeting of the organization during lunch on Saturday.

Contributed papers - current list:  submitted abstracts  |  details
Registration information - name tags | name/address/e-mail | fees | workshops | take-fives
Bradley University - campus map  |  travel directions  |  lodging: list (call), guide 1, guide 2  |  restaurants

Parking details:  The visitor parking area just east of the bookstore will be available for parking. If that is full, then the parking garage will also be open to visitors during the conference on Friday. The garage is located on Duryea place between St. James and Bradley Avenue, on the southeast side of the main campus. The Bradley Police station is located in the same building.
Registration desk:  Main Lobby, First Floor Entry, Olin Hall

The program chair and local contact for sending forms by regular mail or FAX and for checking on classroom and lab facilities is:

If you have any problems with submitting information via the online forms or if there are corrections to be made, contact the person who maintains these pages:

  Kevin Kimberlin
  Bradley University
  1501 W. Bradley Avenue
  Peoria, IL 61625
  Phone: 309-677-3008
  FAX: 309-677-2999
  slimedog@bradley.edu

  David R. Renneke
  Department of Physics and Astronomy
  Augustana College
  Rock Island, IL 61201-2296
  Phone: 309-794-3403
  FAX: 309-794-7722
  phrenneke@augustana.edu