From the Chair

Larry Cain, Davidson College

As the new chair of the Forum on Education, I would like to bring you up to date on many items relating to the activities of the Forum. The revised bylaws were approved overwhelmingly earlier in the year. Two major changes were a change in the terms of office for Executive Committee members and the addition of a graduate student member-at-large to the Executive Committee. Starting on January 1, 2019, all Executive Committee members will serve for the calendar year, rather than between Executive Committee meetings. Thus, this year’s terms for members of the Executive Committee will be shorter and will last until the end of December. This has the impact that three members of the Executive Committee rotated off at the April meeting as in the past, and three more will rotate off at the end of December.

I would like to thank Tim Stelzer, the outgoing past chair for his tremendous work for the Forum during his four years in the chair line. Thanks also go to Geraldine Cochran and Andrew Heckler for their outstanding work as members-at large for the last three years. All three of these will be missed and I wish them well in their future work for physics education.

We welcome three new members to the Executive Committee: Jerry Feldman as Vice-Chair, Eleanor Close as APS-AAPT Member-at-Large, and MacKenzie Stetzer as Member-at-Large.

As the new Vice-Chair, Jerry Feldman has already formed the Nominating Committee to solicit nominations for new Executive Committee members who will take office next January. Please see his call for nominations below. Since this is the first time that we will elect a graduate student to the Executive Committee, I issue a special request for graduate student nominations. This is a two-year position and the student should have at least one and (preferably) two years left until their planned graduation. The student receives travel support to attend the FEd Executive Committee meeting at the April APS meeting. Please send your nominations to Jerry (feldman@gwu.edu).

The March and April meetings this year were very successful. The Forum presents a variety of invited sessions at these meetings — four at the March meeting and five at the April meeting. These sessions cover a variety of educational topics. Chair-elect Laurie McNeil is the FEd program chair this year. She welcomes your suggestions for sessions for the March meeting, 2019 in Boston and the April meeting, 2019 in Denver. Please see her call for suggested sessions below Jerry’s article (mcneil@physics.unc.edu).

The Forum also works with the APS Office of Education and Diversity, the Committee on Minorities (COM), and the Committee on the Status of Women in Physics (CSWP) to host the Education and Diversity Receptions at both the March and April meetings. Attendance was excellent at both receptions this year, where APS members working for improved education and diversity met to gather and celebrate the year’s successes.

Although it is now past the deadline for submitting nominations for APS Fellowships and Awards for the current year, I want to encourage you to think about nominating persons (or groups) for the APS education-related awards and for APS Forum on Education Fellowship for next year. Specifically, please consider the Excellence in Physics Education Award — to recognize and honor a team or group of individuals (such as a collaboration) or, exceptionally, a single individual, who have exhibited a sustained commitment to excellence in physics education; the Jonathan F. Reichert and Barbara Wolff-Reichert Award for Excellence in Advanced Laboratory Instruction — to recognize and honor outstanding achievement in teaching, sustaining (for at least four years), and enhancing an advanced undergraduate laboratory course or courses at US institutions; the Award for Improving Undergraduate Physics Education — to recognize physics departments and/or undergraduate-serving programs in physics that support best practices in education at the undergraduate level; and the APS Forum on Education Fellowships — to recognize exceptional contributions to the physics enterprise; e.g., outstanding physics research, important applications of physics, leadership in or service to physics, or significant contributions to physics education. Fellowship is a distinct honor signifying recognition by one's professional peers. We all know of deserving colleagues for these awards and for fellowship, but we must nominate them for them to be considered.

You recently received an APS message from me concerning a bill before Congress called the PROSPER Act. This message was sent by FEd on behalf of the APS Office of Government Affairs (OPA) because of the bill’s impact on physics education — specifically, student loan debt and limiting graduate student loan opportunities and amounts. FEd will continue to partner with OPA when that partnership fulfills FEd’s purpose to involve its members in activities related to physics education, at all educational stages, from elementary to grad school and life-long learning.

FEd also works closely with the APS Committee on Education (COE). The past chair, chair and chair-elect of FEd are also members of the COE. In this way, the Forum maintains an active voice in physics education in the American Physical Society.

We can be successful only by having an engaged membership in the Forum. Please contact me or any member of the Executive Committee with suggestions or contributions toward our educational mission.

Disclaimer – The articles and opinion pieces found in this issue of the APS Forum on Education Newsletter are not peer refereed and represent solely the views of the authors and not necessarily the views of the APS.