Eric Haller, Peel District School Board, Editor of the OAPT Newsletter
eric.haller@peelsb.com

We are once again looking for submissions to the OAPT Newsletter. Our newsletter is made possible by volunteers who contribute their thoughts and ideas for others to use in their classrooms. Many of our writers are Ontario high school teachers, however some of our writers teach in university, work abroad, work in science outreach, have retired, or have even left the teaching profession for some other career that involves physics. We have numerous writers who pen something for us regularly, but we are always on the lookout for new writers as well!

If you’re interested in writing for us but aren’t sure what you could write about, consider some of these topical themes in physics education:

• How are you taking advantage of AI in your physics classroom?
• How are you combatting the misuse of AI in your physics classroom?
• What fun things have you been doing with the destreamed grade 9 science course?
• How have you been incorporating climate change into your physics courses?
  

In addition to those current topics, we are always looking for articles involving these timeless topics:

• Physics education research
• An interesting lesson, demo, activity, or project you did with your students
• How you teach physics differently than other teachers
• How you assess students differently than other teachers
• Some resource, equipment, software, website, film, or book that you found useful for teaching physics
• Social justice issues that pertain to physics (correcting the gender imbalance, disrupting systemic racism, BIPOC scientists and where they fit into the curriculum, and so on)
• Explanations of big, new physics announcements, and how to make it accessible for students
• A lesson you did which incorporated interesting historical events and perspectives
• Professional development opportunities for physics teachers
• Something that another physics teacher did or wrote about that inspired you
• Preparing students for careers in physics
• An interesting field trip or virtual field trip you took your physics class on
• Something you presented at a recent OAPT conference that you wanted to share with a wider audience

Read More...

Chris Meyer, Past President, OAPT
c.meyer@bell.net

We want our students to become confident, fluent users of physics. We want them to develop good, reliable habits that will carry them through our physics classes and beyond. But very often, students become stuck on the habit hump! What is this mysterious hump? It is an analogy I use for our experience of the learning process and how we react and respond to it. If students better understand the learning process, my hope is they will make better decisions be more likely to stick to their learning. So, what is the habit hump and how do we get over it? Read More...

Tags: Optics, Pedagogy

Rachel Richardson, Education & Outreach Coordinator
outreach@snolab.ca

Everybody loves a mystery, and dark matter is one of the biggest mysteries in our universe today. SNOLAB is Canada’s deep underground science laboratory that hosts large, international experiments; some of these experiments are designed to help unravel the mystery of dark matter. To celebrate Dark Matter Day, a public outreach initiative celebrated during Halloween, SNOLAB is hosting a creative poster design contest. Students and members of the community are invited to design original, two-dimensional visual artworks, in any medium, exploring the theme of dark matter.

Participants can be as creative as they like, letting their design shine as bright as the stars! Imagine an individual dark matter particle, or how it holds the universe together! They could draw an existing detector, dream up their own cosmic blueprint for an experiment, or travel deep into space following their imaginations into the oldest parts of the universe. Read More...

Tags: Contest, Modern Physics

John Donohue, IQC Senior Manager, Scientific Outreach
jdonohue@uwaterloo.ca

Date: November 18-21, 2024
Location: Online!
Hosted by: Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo, Ontario

With 2025 announced as the International Year of Quantum Science & Technology, there’s never been a better time to bring quantum science to our students. To help prepare educators no matter where they’re located, we’re excited to host a series of virtual sessions on how to connect quantum technology to the curriculum, hosted by the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) at the University of Waterloo.



These sessions will take content from our long-running Quantum for Educators (QEd) workshop to explore fundamental quantum principles like superposition and entanglement, connect them to curriculum-relevant topics like waves, polarization, vectors, and probability, and show how they are applied in modern and emerging technologies like quantum computing and communication. We’ll also overview affordable hands-on activities that can be done with your classroom. Read More...

Tags: Modern Physics, Nobel Prize, Professional Development, Quantum

Michelle Lee, Lisgar C. I.
michelle.lee@ocdsb.ca
Iain Braithwaite. John F. Ross C.V.I.
iainbraithwaite@ugdsb.on.ca
Milica Rakic, Essex DHS
mica@opusteno.com
Roberta Tevlin, Retired
roberta@tevlin.ca

Climate change may be the biggest problem that humanity has ever faced. The sooner that we deal with it, the more chance we have of succeeding. Physics teachers can play an important role in helping students understand the problem and its existing solutions, and help students feel empowered to take action. This article shows how you can teach about climate change, while reinforcing fundamental skills and concepts in the grade 11 physics curriculum. As usual, these OAPT resources are free. Read More...

Tags: Climate, Electricity, Energy, Forces, Kinematics