Held of the American Center In Physies

Maryland, USA, July 29-30, 1996

Participants: P. Black; A. Tiberghien; W. Y. Luo; E. Redish; T. Ryu; R.K. Wassef; E. Lillethun; and A.M.P. Carvalho

Apologies for absence were received from: U. Ganiel; F. Kaczmarek; M. Kesselberg; P. L. Lijnse; K. Luchner; G. Radnai and S.W. Raither

Invited to attend: L. Jossem; K. Zhao; M. Konuma (UNESCO-PAC); C.Ucke (to present the GIREP Conference) and R. Beck-Clark (to present I-A Conference).

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. The ICPE Chairman welcomed the members and visitors

1.2. The Secretary distributed the minutes with the correction sent by fax to the commission members. The minutes were approved subject to further minor corrections. The final version will appear on the web page

1.3. The agenda was approved

1.4. J. Franz, executive officer of the American Physical Society, visited the meeting briefly to welcome the Commission to the American Center

2. REPORTS ON CONFERENCES AND MEETINGS

ICPE sponsored conferences for 1996:

2.1. E. Redish reported on the preparations for the "International Conference on Undergraduate Physics Education" (July 30th to August 3rd)

2.2. P. Black reported on the preparations for GIREP/ICPE International Conference 1996 New Ways of Teaching Physics - Ljubljana - Slovenia 21-27/8/96

2.3. The first circular for the Conference on "Modern Science and Technology in School Physics Curricula for 21st Century", Bangkok, Thailand, 16-20/12/96, was distributed.

Proposed Conferences

2.4. P. Black, reported that for the International Conference "Physics Experiments in Education in 21 st Century" proposed last year for 1996, and deferred for possible support for 1997, no futher information or proposal had been submitted.

2.5. A Tiberghiem described the aim of the summer school organised by the European Science Education Research Association, Aug. 28 - Sept. 3,1996 in Rome

2.6. R. Beck-Clark spoke about the VI Inter-American Conference on Physics Education, Cordoba, Argentina, June,30 - July 4, 1997.

2.7. E. Lillethun reported that the prospect of a Conference "How to teach Physics in High School in Africa" had been postponed, perhaps until 1998

2.8. K. Zhao reported on the organization of the International Conference on New Challenges in University Physics Education, Beijing, China; August 22-24, 1997, proposed by the UNESCO - PAC Working Group 3

2.9. P. Black presented the plans for the International Conference "Creativity in Physics Education", Sopron, Hungary; August 16-22, 1997, proposed by Professor Marx.

2.10. C. Ucke presented the plans for the International Conference "Hands on Experiments and Toys in Physics Education, Duisburg, Germany, Sept 2-10, 1998, as proposed by GIREP

2.11. P. Black presented the "Taller Iberoamericano en Ensenañza de la Física Universitaria"- Habana, Cuba, January 20-24, 1997, proposed by a group in the University of Havana with support from Spain and Italy.

3. ICPE SPONSORSHIP

ICPE sponsorship had been requested for 2.6, 2.8, 2.9, 2.10 and 2.11. It was agreed to foward these to IUPAP in the following order:

1997

1. Inter-American Conference on Physics Education - Cordoba, Argentina

2. International Conference on New Challengies in University Physics Education, Beijin, China

3. International Conference "Creativity in Physics Education", Hungary

4. Taller Iberoamericano en Enseñanza de la Física Universitaria, Habana, Cuba

It would be explained to IUPAP that (1) and (2) were ranked at equal priorities, that (3) was potentialy intended for high school teachers who would have very limited funding support and that (4) as a new venture from a developing country deserved support if at all possible.

1998 (in principle)

"Hands on Experiments and Toys in Physics Education", Duisburg, Germany

4. PUBLICATIONS

4.1. The book on "Research on Physics Education and Teacher Training"

The Commission welcomed the progress made and thanked Andre Tiberghien and Leonard Jossem for their works.The exact modes of publication had yet to be settled. The copyright of the work would be owned by the ICPE

4.2. ICPE Newsletter

E. Redish presented the plan for future issues and asked for help from Commission members to extend and up-date the mailing list. The IUPAP had granted a sum of 5000 swiss francs to support the newsletter - efforts would be made to bring copies to the next IUPAP assembly.

5. IUPAP ASSEMBLY AND ELECTION

P.Black presente the report on the work of ICPE, C-14, sent to IUPAP and published in "Reports IUPAP 1993-1996". He also explained how the voting for the commissions membership will take place at the General Assembly of IUPAP which will be help in September in Uppsala. The Commission agreed to ask the executive to nominate E. Redish for Vice President of the Commission. He also reported that the Uppsala assembly had before it plans to strenghthen the role of the Commissions in the elections and in the executive of the IUPAP.

6. RELATIONS WITH OTHER ORGANIZATIONS AND NETWORK

6.1. UNESCO

M. Komuna spoke about the UNESCO Physics Action Council - Working Group 3. The Beijing Conference (2.8 above) would be one product of the work of Group 3. Council products of the group's work.

6.2. ARAPEN

R.K. Wassef reported that ARAPEN activities had virtually ceased because of lack of funds from UNESCO. All funds were delegated to the UNESCO Regional Office who would not support ARAPEN. The project for the UNESCO Foundation course in physics education for students non-majoring in physics was published by himself as a book, but he lacked funds to distribute it.

6.3. GIREP and the Inter-American Council on Physics Education

These organizations are preparing their Conferences

6.4. C-13

E. Lillethun presented the C-13 report as published in "Reports IUPAP 1993-1996"

7. ICPE MEDAL

The chairman reminded members about the ICPE medal. It was agreed that he should circulate members of the existing Commission asking if they wish to make a nomination for an award in 1997. The response would be presented to the new Commission.

8. HELP TO DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

8.1. (a) Work to establish network of contact persons

E. Lillethun will start this trying to cover all countries in Africa. Every present member is asked to help by sending him suitable. A contact for Physics Education for the region should have acess to e-mail and preferably to our web-pages, and should be willing to help others in her or his region by downloading documents from the Web-, by using e-mail in order to collect notices and documents which might be advertised to those without e-mail in the region, and by distributing the newsletter.

(b) other activities which ICPE could propose but for which funds would have to be obtained.

(i) Summer Schools for teachers - ICPE might arrange advisers to help conduct these.

(ii) Sponsor leaders in teacher training in developing countries to visit centres and study.

(iii) Develop active local (regional) units of expertise.

(iv) Help local units develop physics experiments with local resources.

We should

(a) write to the new President of the World Bank

(b) obtain from UNESCO addresses of all their regional centres, and then ask each centre for information about their activities.

(c) find about ICTP (Trieste) activities and inquire if they could support any of (i) to (iv) above

8.2. Conference Strategy

It was agreed that members should each review the current guide for conference organisers and send comments to Professor Jossem by the end of August : he would then consider a revision.

It was also agreed that the ICPE should be more proactive in proposing themes for future meetings, and should try to stimulate selected organisations to take responsibility for an international meeting on one of these. The themes proposed were:

Cosmology and Fundamental Particles (how can these be incorporated in high school physics).

Images and Analysis (the new applications of Physics in present technologies in engineering and in medicine)

Physics Education Research (all papers to be on research issues or results) Informal discussion would be pursued to try to encourage adoption of these themes by suitable centres.

8.3. Information Exchange

The following proposal was approved:

improve the distribution of the ICPE newsletter

use the www

send via e-mail attachment

use the UNESCO homepage

The current web pages for ICPE were shown to members. The Commission recorded is thanks to the graduate students and to Professor Redish for starting this facility plans to add other documents and links were in train and ICPE members were asked to send information about existing organisations which might have web pages so that links could be set up. The commission agreed to give a moderate sum.

8.4. ICPE Publication.

The commission tried to answer the question: What is the commission able to produce?

The following ideas were suggested:

- "Video clips" to enrich the teaching

(a) A study of how a particular physics topic (or several topics) was treated in the curricula and textbooks across several countries (to be proposed to the TIMSS unit doing such analysis at East Lansing under Bill Schmidt).

9. Next ICPE meeting

The commission had received three invitations:

Beijin, China; Cordoba, Argentina and Sopron, Hungary. In September, after the IUPAP meeting, the place and dates will be decided by the new commission.

10. The chairman reported that he had heard nothing of the activities of the ICSU be Committee for Capacity Biulding in Science. It was agreed that ICSU be approached for news. It had been thought that Prof. Marx was a liaison member for IUPAP, but he understood that he was only a liaison person not a member.

RETURNS

IUPAP	ICPE

Last modified 22 Jan, 1997

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