This meeting is hosted by the Department of Physics at William and Mary
with additional funding from
- Department of Physics and the College of Science at Virginia Tech
- Departments of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Virginia
Overview:
The Fall 2026 Meeting of the Chesapeake Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers (CSAAPT) will be held on Saturday, October 10, 2026, 8AM-5PM, followed by a PICUP Workshop on Sunday, October 11, 2026, 8AM-Noon at William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA. You can choose to attend one or both events.
The main meeting on Saturday, October 10, 2026 is semi-virtual. The in-person meeting venue will be at William & Mary. Further details can be found on the Meeting Location page. The Meeting will be broadcast on Zoom so that people from afar (both presenters and attendees) can join in.
PICUP (Partnership for Integration of Computing into Undergraduate Physics) is a collaboration of physics educators that aims to effectively utilize computational resourses in the teaching of introductory physics. Sunday's workshop on how to accomplish this is open to physics teachers from all levels of instruction: K-12, community colleges, and 4-year colleges and universities. Please see the PICUP Workshop page for details.
William & Mary was founded in 1693 under a royal charter issued by King William III and Queen Mary II of England, Scotland, and Ireland. It is the second oldest institution of higher education in the USA (after Harvard). Originally private, it became a state-supported public university in 1906, and coeducational in 1918. Declared one of the New Ivies by Forbes (Forbes 2025), William & Mary has a student body consisting of around 7000 undergraduate students and 3000 graduate students, and is ranked in the top 11 best value public colleges in the nation (The Princeton Review 2026).
The Department of Physics at William & Mary is part of the School of Computing, Data Sciences, and Physics. With 27 full-time faculty and about 15 adjunct and research faculty, the Department conducts research in the areas of High Energy, Nuclear, Plasma, Condensed Matter, and Atomic, Molecular, and Quantum Optical Physics.
No AAPT membership required!
You do not have to be an AAPT member to attend. We welcome participation of all physics/science teachers and students in the region (DC, DE, MD, VA and neighboring states) as well as anyone interested in physics education, or physics in general.
About CSAAPT membership (new simplified rules):
All fee-paying in-person attendees will automatically receive CSAAPT membership effective from the day of the Fall 2026 CSAAPT meeting until the day before the Spring 2027 CSAAPT meeting, giving you the right to vote at the business meeting following the main meeting, and participate in any CSAAPT activities during that time.
If you are a zoom attendee and would like to support the activities of the CSAAPT, attend the business meeting remotely and vote, you are requested to pay the semiannual membership dues of 10.00 USD.
Lodging Support!
We have limited funds to provide up to $214/night for 2 nights in lodging support to high school physics teachers and community college physics faculty from within the Chesapeake region (DC, DE, MD, & VA). Please see the Travel & Lodging Info page for more details.
The semiannual CSAAPT meetings are a great forum to exchange ideas on novel teaching techniques and economical physics demonstrations, and to meet a fascinating cohort of physics education enthusiasts. Hope to see you all there!
Program:
TBA
Featured Speakers:
Brad Miller (Spotsylvania County Schools)
more info to come soon
PICUP Workshop:
We will host a PICUP Workshop on Sunday, October 11 from 8am to 12:30pm. Please see the PICUP Workshop page for details.
Contributed Talks and Demos:
We solicit contributions within the following parameters:
- 15-minute talk or demo (12 minute talk + 3-minute Q&A, both in-person and via Zoom)
Talk topic/demo can be anything pertaining to physics teaching - To submit the title and abstract of your talk, please register first and then click on Call for Abstracts in the menu
- The deadline to submit your title and abstract for talks and demos is midnight of Sunday, September 20, 2026.
- We plan to have a demo share-a-thon in the afternoon.
- Contributors of talks/demos will be issued certificates of presentation. These will be emailed to you after the Meeting.
Registration:
- In-person attendance:
- Please use the in-person attendance registration form on the Registration page,
- The deadline to register for in-person attendance is midnight of Sunday, September 20, 2026.
- In-person attendees are requested the following registration fees to cover lunch and coffee, and administrative costs.
-
- Instructors/faculty of 2-year and 4-year colleges/universities, employees of institutions/organizations/companies : $45
- K-12 Instructors, Retirees, Students : $35
- 1st-time in-person attendees : $25
- Guests : $20
-
- The registration fee is NOT payable upon registration. A link for you to directly pay the registration fee online will be emailed to you after the registration deadline.
- All fee-paying in-person attendees will automatically receive CSAAPT membership effective from the day of the meeting until the day before the Spring 2027 meeting, giving you the right to attend and vote at the business meeting.
- Please use the in-person attendance registration form on the Registration page,
- Remote Attendance:
- Please use the Zoom attendance registration form on the Registration page.
- The deadline to register for remote attendance is midnight of Friday, October 9, 2026.
- There is NO registration fee for remote attendees.
- Please note that the Zoom link for the meeting will not be made public and will only be emailed to registrants, so please pay attention to what you are receiving in your email.
- Once on Zoom, please change your Zoom name to your full name followed by your affiliation in parentheses, e.g. Jane Doe (Newark High School). This is so that we can identify your presence for the purpose of issuing your certificates of attendance.
- Voting at the business meeting:
If you would like to remotely attend and vote at the business meeting, you are requested to become a CSAAPT member by paying the semiannual membership dues of 10.00 USD, which will be collected in the same manner as the registration fees for in-person attendees. The membership period covered by these dues will start from the day of the meeting until the day before the Spring 2027 CSAAPT meeting.
- Please use the Zoom attendance registration form on the Registration page.
- Certificate of Attendance/Presentation:
- Certificates of attendance/presentation will be issued to both in-person and virtual attendees/presenters.
- If you need a certificate of attendance and/or presentation, please register your name exactly as it should appear on your certificate(s). No nicknames or pseudonyms, please.
- A detailed program in pdf can be generated by clicking on the "PDF" button at the top of the "Timetable" page (once the timetable is available).
- Certificates of attendance/presentation will be issued to both in-person and virtual attendees/presenters.
Please note: When you register, you are agreeing to abide by the AAPT Event Participation Code of Conduct.
Important Deadlines:
- Application for Lodging Support: Sunday, September 13, 2026
- Hotel room-block cutoff (Spark by Hilton): Tuesday, August 25, 2026
- Hotel room-block cutoff (Hampton Inn & Suites): Friday, September 18, 2026
- Submission of talk and demo abstracts: Sunday, September 20, 2026
- Registration for in-person attendance: Sunday, September 20, 2026
- Registration for virtual attendance: Friday, October 9, 2026
Organizational Committee:
Joshua Erlich (Chair, William & Mary, VA)
Kent Yagi (CSAAPT President, University of Virginia, VA)
Jency Sundararajan (CSAAPT Vice President, University of Virginia, VA)
CeeCee Bishop (Chesapeake Bay Governor's School, VA)
Larry Engelhardt (Francis Marion University, SC)
James Freericks (Georgetown University, DC)
Ethan Kantz (Academies of Loudoun / William & Mary, VA)
Muge Karagoz (UMD College Park, MD)
Elena Kuchina (Virginia Peninsula Community College, VA)
Sithy Maharoof (Stevenson University, MD)
David Morgan (Richard Bland College, VA)
Carl Mungan (USNA, MD)
Jason Sterlace (James Madison University, VA)
Tatsu Takeuchi (Virginia Tech, VA)
Stewart Williamson (Collegiate School, VA)
