2019 Meeting of the Appalachian American Association of Physics Teachers

Wide view of the Appalachian Mountains from space (NASA / Expedition 30)

A-AAPT 2019: Space Explorations Marshall University, November 7-9, 2019

Celebrating 50 Years from the Moon Landing

The upcoming meeting will have as its focus “Space Explorations,” and it will feature two keynote talks and two workshops with space-related themes.  

The first keynote talk will be given by astronaut Don Thomas, a veteran of four Space Shuttle missions, who has spent 44 days in space and orbited the Earth nearly 700 times.  Don is an educator at his heart, and his talk, entitled “Overcoming Obstacles and Reaching for the Stars” will inspire and prepare our next generation of scientists, engineers, and explorers for future space missions.  

The second key note speaker is the solar system ambassador Bo Lowrey, who will talk about “Apollo at 50, a history of NASA manned spaceflight” which is a timely subject, considering that after near half a century, NASA is finally looking to put astronauts back on the moon.

The first workshop will be presented by physics teachers Jeff Chaffins of Spring Valley High School, WV and Robert David McCloud, from the Riverside High School, WV. They will talk about the Pulsar Search Collaboratory, a citizen-science research project with the West Virginia’s Green Bank Radio Observatory and tailored specifically for high school teachers and students.

The second workshop is conducted by the Ohio astronomer Tim Hamilton with his Apollo Space Flight Simulator, which runs simulations of the spacecraft and Mission Control, teaching participants about orbital mechanics, Newtonian physics, and the practical aspects of space flight.

Our invited speaker, Tamara Westfall, is a Physics, Computer Science, and Earth and Space Science high-school teacher. She will to talk about “Population Education” and “GamED”.

For a detailed schedule of the conference, including brief biographies of Presenters and abstracts of the contributing talks, please click here: http://appalachian.aaptsections.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Schedule_A-AAPT19_V1.pdf

To register for the meeting please use this link:  https://forms.gle/FoJzJqEk9j1PLL5i7

To send abstracts for the contributed talks, or for any other question related to this meeting, please email directly to: babiuc@marshall.edu

Schedule

Thursday 11/7/2019

7:00 pm, Smith Hall, Room 154 – Public Keynote Talk by Dr. Don Thomas, former NASA Astronaut: Overcoming Obstacles and Reaching for the Stars!

8:00 pm, Birke Art Gallery Foyer – Refreshments

Friday 11/8/2019

8:30 am, Robert C. Byrd Biotechnology Science Building (BBSC) 1st Floor – Registration (collecting money for food: $30 for members, $15 for teachers, no charge for students)

9:00 am, BBSC, Room 102 – Brief opening from Huong Nguyen, the chair of the Physics Department

9:15 am, BBSC, Room 102 – Invited Talk by Tamara Westfall: Population Education

9:45 am, BBSC, Room 102 – Coffee Break

10:00 am, Science Building, Room 166 – Workshop by Jeff Chaffins and and Robert David McCloud: Pulsar Search Collaboratory

11:00 am, Science Building, Room 103: Workshop by Tim Hamilton: Flying Apollo: Space Flight Simulator

12:00 pm, Science Building, 2nd Floor – Lunch

1:00 pm, Science Building, Room 276 – Contributed Talks:

  • 1:00 pm, David Facemyer: Hybrid Excitations in Organic-Inorganic Core
  • 1:15 pm, Dillon Buskirk: Analytical Waveforms for Eccentric Binary Black Holes
  • 1:30 pm, Ellie White: Solar Flare Detection with a Classroom Radio Telescope
  • 1:45 pm, Xiaojuan (Judy) Fan: From Sunlight to Electricity
  • 2: 00 pm, Ryan Vincent et al.: Size Selective Filtration Using Gold Nanoparticle Self-Assembled Monolayers on High-Flux Silica Nanoparticle Substrate
  • 2: 15 pm, Jayden Leonard: Electronic Structure of Negative Trions in Semiconducting Quantum Dots

2:30 pm, Science Building, 2nd Floor – Coffee Break

6:00 pm, Marshall Student Center, John Marshall Dining Room – Dinner (provided to registered participants)

7:00 pm, Smith Hall, Room 154 – Keynote Talk by Bo Lowrey, NASA Solar System Ambassador: Apollo at 50, A History of NASA Manned Spaceflight

Saturday 11/8/2019

8:45 am, Science Building, 2nd Floor – Registration

9:15 am, Science Building, Room 277 – Invited Talk by Tamara Westfall: GamEd

9:45 am, Science Building, 2nd Floor – Coffee Break

10:00 am, Parallel Workshops

  • Science Building, Room 166 – Workshop by Jeff Chaffins and Robert David McCloud: Pulsar Search Collaboratory
  • Science Building, Room 103: Workshop by Tim Hamilton: Flying Apollo: Space Flight Simulator

10:45 am, Science Building, Room 277 – Contributed Talks

  • 10: 48 am, Rae Stanley:Checking Your Answers: The Opaque Process of Accessing Open Source Data, Exemplified by the Kepler Space Telescope
  • 11:00 am,  John J. Lynch: Speed of Sound: the gStrings App with a Graduated Cylinder
  • 11:12 am, Joseph E. Wiest: Wave Theory through Complex Functions for the Diffraction of Light
  • 11: 24 am, Tracey DeLaney: Using Toys for Physics Education
  • 11:36 am, Taylor Jones-Martin and Marek Krasnansky: WVSU Suborbital Payload for RockSat-X 2019
  • 11:48 am, Sachiko McBride: How to Demonstrate Optical Refraction and Faraday’s Law in The Classroom
  • 12:00 pm, Richard Calo: Hyperfine Spectra of Rare Earth Elements
  • 12:12 pm, Baylee Senator: Single Hole Based Magneto-Impedance Biosensor for Particle Detection
  • 12: 24 pm, Nate Chalmers: Cesium excited states with tunable diode lasers
  • 12: 36 pm, Eric Roy and Virginia Martin: Undergraduate Outreach
  • 12: 48 pm, Spencer Rodgers: Magnetic Fields in Thin Ferromagnetic Films

1:00 pm, Science Building, 2nd Floor – Business Lunch (provided to registered participants)

2:00 pm, Science Building, 1st Floor – Tour of the Atomic Force and the Scanning Electron Microscope

Lodging: A block of room has been reserved at Hampton Inn Huntington University Area, 177 Kinetic Dr, Huntington, WV 25701. To book, please call (304) 523-8001.

A map of the campus is located at: https://www.marshall.edu/map/index.html

Directions:

  • From I-64 Westbound: Use Exit 11 (Hal Greer Blvd) Turn right at the end of the ramp toward Hal Greer Blvd. Continue along Hal Greer Blvd.
  • From I-64 Eastbound: Use Exit 11 (Hal Greer Blvd) Turn left at the end of the ramp toward Hal Greer Blvd. Continue along Hal Greer Blvd.
  • From US 52 (Ohio): Follow US 52 eastbound into Chesapeake. Cross the Ohio-West Virginia Bridge. Turn left onto 5th Ave. and continue along 5th Ave. to the Hal Greer Blvd.

Parking:

  • Friday please use the 6th Avenue Parking Facility. For parking please see: https://www.marshall.edu/parking/visitor-parking-info/
  • Saturday parking is free everywhere in campus. The general parking lot or the Parking Garage on 3rd Ave are the closest ones to Science Building.

Organizers:

  • Maria Hamilton, Department of Physics,
  • Marshall University Sean McBride, Department of Physics, Marshall University