Printer FriendlyFour general meetings of the LRPA are held each year in addition to a full-day of workshops in March. The general meetings--usually held on Thursday, from 3 to 6 p.m., in the Olney Science Center at UMass Lowell--have two parts. The first part includes one or more invited talks on an announced topic, presented by high school teachers, university faculty, or a special guest speaker. Past guest speakers have included Woodie Flowers (MIT), Anita Greenwood (UML), Paul Hewitt (author), Philip Sadler (Harvard), Philip Morrison (MIT), Melissa Franklin (Harvard), Eric Chaisson (Tufts), Margaret Geller (Harvard), as well as the state science coordinators for Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Teacher presentations are wide ranging, and have included such topics as Physics Laboratory Projects, Comparative Teaching Methods in the US and Overseas, Computer Interfacing in the Physics Laboratory, Electronic Networking, Favorite Physics Demonstrations, Physics on the Web, and Energy Sources of the Future.
The second half of the meeting is devoted to sharing physics classroom demonstrations among the teachers. Many meetings also include a free raffle of donated equipment as well as a separate raffle for the teacher demonstrators and the proceedings are videotaped for inclusion in the LRPA resource center. A full day meeting in March offers several workshops on a variety of topics, including American Association of Physics Teachers PTRA workshops. Assistance in organizing and running the meetings is provided by UML student volunteers. Attendance at the meetings can be used by teachers toward fulfilling re-certification requirements.
LRPA Meeting Schedule
- October 16, 2008 Meeting (pdf)
- November 13, 2008 Meeting (pdf)
- February 5, 2009 Meeting
- March 19, 2009 Workshop Meeting
- April 9, 2009 Meeting