Welcome

Welcome high school physics teachers!

The Department of Physics & Astronomy invites you to participate in our Community of Physics Teachers meetings. These meetings bring high school teachers and faculty members in the department together to discuss transition issues and curriculum revision, to share ideas and resources, and to enjoy presentations on topics of mutual interest as we attempt to build a community of physics teachers. This year’s meetings will be held on Wednesday, October 19, 2011 and Wednesday, March 7, 2012 from 4:30 - 6:00 p.m. Please refer to the link above for details and registration information. Refreshments will be served and parking is free!

We invite you to bring your class or group of interested students to the Engineering and Science Olympics on Thursday, October 6, 2011. Enter a team of students in the Physics Paper Triathlon. Students may also attend a planetarium show in our newly renovated William J. McCallion Planetarium on that day.

Made possible through NSERC's generous support

We hope you will bring your grade 11 and grade 12 physics classes to Physical Sciences@Mac Activites held in December and April during our exam periods. Take advantage of the fact that our teaching labs are free and bring your classes for an hour or an entire day of activities including demonstrations, a hands-on physics lab in our modern facilities and a planetarium show. If you like, coordinate with a colleague who teaches chemistry to bring a group for a mix of physics and chemistry activities.

This year we will hold our fourth annual Physics@Mac Online Physics Competition for High School Students in Grades 11 and 12 on Wednesday, December 6, 2011. Discussions with teachers prompted us to develop a contest which is inclusive, fun and fundamentally different from typical physics contests.

Feedback from students who have participated suggests we are filling an important niche in providing a contest which even students whose forte is not physics can feel comfortable giving a try. We are encouraging students to work in teams of two to emphasize the importance of cooperative learning and “peer instruction”. Recent research in education also suggests that students are more likely to give a competition a try if they can work in a team.

Multiple choice questions will stress conceptual understanding with less emphasis on quantitative calculation and will mimic the approach we take in our first-year physics courses where “concept-quizzes” are used to promote a deeper understanding of central ideas presented in lectures. Several teachers have found the quesitons to be helpful in identifyig students' misconceptions. Concept questions from our contest archives have been used by many teachers as effective diagnostic tools during regular classes and we would encourage all of you to make use of this resource.

Please refer to the link above for a clear demonstration of how our questions will differ from typical contest questions. We have designed the contest as a class activity for students who have completed or are taking Grade 11 Physics or Grade 12 Physics. Enriched Grade 9 and 10 Science stduents may also try the contest and, in this case,  will compete with the Grade 11 group for prizes. The inherent flexibility of a web-based contest means that it can be written at any time of the day or as an after-school activity.

Cash prizes will be awarded to the top finishers at each grade level. We hope that many of you will participate and encourage you to register as many teams as you like. Registration is free.  Following the competition, we will make solutions available to teachers.

We also offer a Physics@Mac Video Contest for students in Grades 9, 10, 11 and 12. We invite you to take a look at last year's winning submission based on Grade 10 Optics. This year's contest will focus on a topic from Grade 9 Science  and the submission deadline is May 18, 2012. Registration is free and cash prizes of $100 per team will be awarded for the best videos as judged by a panel from the Department of Physics & Astronomy. The number of prizes awarded will scale with the number of submissions and their overall quality. Prize winning videos and those awarded Honourable Mention will be posted on our website.

This fall marks the launch of McMaster's 3D Theatre, which will offer private and group shows on specific weekdays and times. Please consult the schedule on the website and register onlne. These shows can be coordinated with a planetarium show if desired. The Planetarium has a much more flexible scheduling policy since it is a dedicated facility. Please consult the website to register your preferred date and time.

If you have any questions or comments, or if you would like to receive email reminders of upcoming outreach events, please contact Caroline Burgess, Outreach Coordinator, at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Registration

Please register for the Community of  Physics Teachers Meeting on Wednesday, March 7, 2012 from 4:30-6:30 p.m. by filling out the following fields.

Meetings

Please join us for our Winter meeting which will include activities for physics teachers that can be immediately incorporated into their classrooms. Rosa Assalone, physics teacher from Bishop Ryan (HWCDSB) and an Einstein Plus alum, will lead a PI sponsored workshop on “Beyond the Atom - Remodelling Particle Physics ”. Teachers will receive copies of PI’s newest DVD, and a teacher’s guide. Dr. Cliff Burgess from the department of Physics & Astronomy will discuss the latest news from the LHC including Higgs results. Dr. Karen Hughes will discuss a new approach she has taken with some of our fist year physics labs.

Refreshments will be served.

Location

ABB 245 (A.N. Bourns Science Building #25) , McMaster University

• Wednesday, March 7, 2012 from 4:30-6:30p.m.