July 27-30, 2011
At the UATP topical workshop, 36 physicists and astronomers heard talks on contemporary astronomy, planned the production of teaching materials based on discoveries and technologies of astronomy, and envisioned how to encourage and foster the use of such materials to enrich instruction in undergraduate physics courses.
The UATP program of distinguished speakers was assembled with advice from Roger Blandford (Stanford), David Charbonneau (Harvard), Chris Impey (U. Arizona), and Ed Prather (U. Arizona). UATP was endorsed by the American Physical Society (APS), the APS Division of Astrophysics, and the AAPT Committee on Space Science and Astronomy. The workshop was sponsored by CATS, the Collaboration of Astronomy Teaching Scholars, an NSF funded project of the Center for Astronomy Education in the Steward Observatory and Department of Astronomy of the University of Arizona.
The UATP organizers were Charles H. Holbrow (cholbrow@mit.edu), Kevin Lee (klee6@unl.edu), and Mario Belloni (mabelloni@davidson.edu). The event was hosted by the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Nebraska – Lincoln (UNL). AAPT handled registrations; Kevin Lee worked with UNL to provide participants information about travel, lodging and childcare, and he arranged rooms for the workshop meetings. He also arranged a program of interesting after-hour events for attendees. Continue reading “Using Astronomy to Teach Physics (UATP) Workshop”