Greetings
from the Chair!
With spring
2006, we have a new Chair taking over - Peggy McMahan Norris from Lawrence
Berkeley Lab will take the lead for the coming year. The FEd also announced
the results from this year's election. We had a superb slate of candidates,
so the FEd can look forward to continued excellent leadership. My
congratulations to the winners, and my thanks to all who stood for election. The
FEd depends on committed members to carry forward the education agenda
within the APS. And I also would like to thank those members of the FEd
Executive Committee whose terms have expired. I will serve one more year
as Past-Chair, and I will also serve as Chair of the APS Committee on Education
(COE) through 2006.
In general,
the COE provides education policy input to the APS, with its members appointed
by the APS President, while the FEd is the membership unit of the APS,
and so takes the leads in sessions and other "operational" education
activities, like sessions at meetings. Of course, there is a lot of overlap
between the two bodies, but the close relationship between the FEd and
the COE that was institutionalized just a couple of years ago. Now the
Past-Chair, Chair, and Chair-Elect automatically serve on the COE. What
is more, as of this year the Chair of COE serves on the Physics Policy
Committee (PPC), which oversees the efforts of the Washington Office. This
arrangement recognizes the need for education issues to be considered when
discussing APS efforts to influence policy-makers in Washington. COE, working with
FEd and PPC, introduced a resolution to Council at the April meeting calling
for enhanced lobbying on behalf of education. The resolution approved
by Council states that "High-quality
education is essential for the progress of science and for the public understanding
of its importance. To help address this need, the American Physical Society,
through its Washington Office, will advocate support of appropriately peer-reviewed
programs that foster and improve undergraduate and graduate science education
or that seek to improve education of K-12 science teachers." This resolution
will support more targeted lobbying on behalf of education, especially
discipline-based education research.
Individual FEd members can also
play an important role in the education debate. To get involved, just
write your congressional representatives. Urge them to support education
funding, especially in the NSF. When you go to an APS meeting, look for
the booth set up by the Public Affairs office where you can send a template
letter to your representatives and urge support for science funding. If
you are visiting Washington, stop by your representative's office
and speak up in favor of investment in science and science education. If
you visit the APS website you can find information that you can use (look
in Public Affairs), and you can always refer to "Rising above the Gathering
Storm" (www.nap.edu/catalog/11463.html), the recently released National Academies
of Science report that calls for significant increases in funding for both
science and science education.
Another way FEd members can
get involved is to help organize sessions at the APS meetings. If you
are interested, email your idea to the program Chair, David Haase (see
the FEd webpage for contact info). We are always looking for people who
will do the work to put together good sessions. At the March and April
meetings we had a number of excellent sessions. From Physics Education
Research, to preparing K-12 teachers, to innovations in Graduate Education,
FEd put on a range of session topics. We also shared sessions with the
Forum on History in Physics, the Forum on Physics and Society, and the
Division of Nuclear Physics, among others. Another pleasant event that
took place at the March meeting was the presentation of the new FEd Fellows
during our business meeting. In general, we intend to alternate the FEd
business meeting and reception between the March and April meeting. We
hope that if you are attending you check to see if the FEd reception is
at your meeting. We would love to see you there.
The final
thing that I would like to report is that we have reached our goal to endow
the Excellence in Physics Education Award. An endowed award must raise
$100,000 in order to be established. We had a great response from FEd
members, the FEd itself matched $30,000 in contributions, and a gift from
the Lounsbery Foundation put us over the top. I
hope that many of our members will consider nominating outstanding groups
that have made national contribution to physics education at any level
for this award. Wolfgang Christian, who spearheaded the fund-raising effort,
will Chair the first award committee. So with the
passing of the gavel we have a new Chair. I have enjoyed my role in the
FEd leadership for the past few years, and I look forward to the coming
year as past-Chair (which has the lightest duties!). I hope that some
of you reading this who have never run for office
in the FEd will consider doing so, and that you will get as much out of
the experience as I have. |