Conveners
Room 130 (auditorium): Plenary Talk 1
- Peter Kaplan (Montclair HS)
- Alfredo Sánchez (University of Delaware)
Room 130 (auditorium): Astronomy Session
- Michael Price (CSAAPT)
- Qi Lu (Delaware State University)
Room 130 (auditorium): Plenary Talk 2
- James Freericks (Georgetown University)
- Muge Karagoz
Room 130 (auditorium): Parallel 2
- Jeremy Carlo (Villanova Uiversity)
- Andres Akamine (Boyd J. Michael, III Technical High)
Room 130 (auditorium): Parallel 3
- Veronique Petit (University of Delaware)
- James Freericks (Georgetown University)
Room 130 (auditorium): Raffle Drawing & Closing Remark
- Jency Sundararajan (University of Virginia)
Room 130 (auditorium): CSAAPT Business Meeting
- Tatsu Takeuchi (Virginia Tech)
Room 130 (auditorium): Opening Remark
- Debbie Andres
- Alfredo Sánchez (University of Delaware)
In a time when skepticism toward science runs high and trust in those who devote their lives to learning and teaching runs low, astrophysics continues to offer an invaluable opportunity for engagement and an inroad to teaching critical thinking. For many hears, astrophysics has led the way in open-data, opening a path for students and citizens to participate in the discovery process with...
In this talk, I will share information about the Artemis II mission to the moon. This will include information about the science the astronauts will be doing on board, the launch trajectory, and space weather mitigations. I’ll also discuss some space weather basics and show tools that teachers can use to investigate space weather and see current conditions of space weather both at Earth, at...
Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is unique in our solar system. Below Titan's thick organic haze layer, rivers of methane carve channels into an icy bedrock and flow into large hydrocarbons seas. Across the landscape, water ice mountains and extensive organic sand dune fields are simultaneously alien and reminiscent of Earth. Titan’s lake mottled surface and thick, organic rich atmosphere may be...
Quantum Information Science has advanced rapidly in the last 20 years, with applications spanning computing, sensing and networking. In 2018 the Congress passed the National Quantum Initiative Act (NQIA), which highlighted the urgent need for a skilled workforce in these areas. Since that time, much of the national investment has focused on graduate education, postdoctoral training, and...
The photoelectric effect is often presented as the definitive experiment proving that photons exist. This is a misconception. In fact, several persistent myths appear in standard treatments of the photoelectric effect, including: (i) that classical physics cannot produce a frequency threshold for photoemission; (ii) that classical physics necessarily predicts long delay times before electrons...
Quantum Mechanics is the upper-level undergraduate course that is often the most challenging in the core curriculum for physics majors. While active-learning pedagogical approaches such as SCALE-UP are gaining traction in introductory physics courses at institutions throughout the country, most upper-level classes are still largely taught in a conventional lecture mode. One could ask the...
In the 1930s, Erwin Schrödinger recognized quantum entanglement not only as an interesting and counter-intuitive feature of multiparticle quantum states, but also as the aspect of quantum mechanics that distinguishes it most strongly from classical physics. In today’s “second quantum revolution,” entanglement plays key roles in quantum computing, quantum information science, and enhanced...
Quantum mechanics is both conceptually difficult and mathematically demanding for physics students. They often describe it as unintuitive, abstract, and disconnected from prior classical experiences, where the largest hurdle is the mathematical barrier to entry. But are there other approaches that can help build quantum intuition without requiring the advanced mathematics?
This presentation...
In April 2025, we led one-day quantum education workshops for 34 middle and high school science teachers at Morgan State University and the University of Maryland, College Park.
These workshops stood out because of their clear teaching approach. Teachers began by using classical polarizing filters to understand polarization hands-on. Then, they moved on to quantum concepts such as...
Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flow, arising from the interaction between electric currents and magnetic fields in conducting fluids, plays a central role in applications ranging from astrophysical plasmas to industrial liquid-metal processing. However, direct classroom demonstrations of MHD phenomena are often limited by the need for high currents or specialized equipment. In this work, we present...
I will talk about how to explore concepts from Fourier series and Fourier transforms without getting too deeply into the math, suitable for an early undergraduate (pre- differential equations) or high school audience. We will discuss beats and bandwith, modulation, harmonics, and other topics.
The Organization for Physics at Two-Year Colleges (OPTYCs) was funded by NSF starting July 1, 2022, and administered under AAPT. NSF abruptly terminated our grant on May 9, 2025 during its spring wave of cancellations. However, the two-year college community is resilient, and we have been continuing our programming. In this talk, I'll share what we have accomplished since grant termination,...
I will show some of my favorite items from the Figuring Physics column in The Physics Teacher and use them to generate discussions.
