I’m really excited to announce the AAPT High School Physics Teacher Camp 2016. The camp will be held on Sunday, July 17th (that’s the Sunday of the AAPT summer meeting) from 8 am – 5 pm at Rio Americano High School in Sacramento, CA.

What is Physics Teacher Camp?

The camp is a day-long interactive professional development event that gives high school physics teachers the opportunity to share, engage, and connect with each other. The discussion sessions are decided on the day of the event. Every teacher is encouraged to bring something for the afternoon science-fair-style sharing session. There is time at the end of the day set aside for teachers to begin collaborative work that is inspired by their experiences in the sessions. And the event is a low-cost (only $25, including food!) program that is only for high school teachers.

Last year, the first AAPT High School Physics Teacher Camp was held in conjunction with the summer meeting in College Park, MD.

Work time at the end of the camp

Dr. Eugenia Etkina’s discussion about physics education research

Breakfast food ready for campers

Morning session on discourse in the classroom

Sign up board for running sessions

The group gathering in the morning for the start of the camp

There were sessions on everything from standards-based grading to computational modeling to discourse in the classroom. The event was really successful with both a large number of attendees and great, positive feedback.

What will this year be like?

Awesome! Okay, but seriously—I can’t say for sure what the sessions will be; it will depend on who is there and what they are most interested in talking about that day. I am excited to see what everyone will bring, share, and discuss. The participants will all be high school physics teachers. And there will be food!

I am also really excited that our guest speaker this year will be Dr. Steve Kanim who will share about sensemaking in the classroom (and things like Invention Tasks and TIPERs (and here’s another TIPERs link).

The camp will be held in conjunction with the AAPT summer meeting. The next day (Monday) is High School Physics Teachers’ Day, so you can also turn the camp into a 2-day PD experience by registering for the Monday of the conference at the reduced rate.

That sounds awesome. How do I attend?

The first step is to visit the camp website and click on “Registration” near the top. Fill out the Google Form. After you register, we will be in touch with more details.

Anything else?

If you have ideas, suggestions, feedback, etc—please comment here or contact me on Twitter or email.

Now, go and sign up for the camp! (Obviously.) And spread the word, especially to West Coast physics teachers. I hope to see you in Sacramento in July!

And of course, many thanks to AAPT, the camp planning team, Steve Kanim, Dean Baird and Rio Americano High School for giving us a location, and everyone who has helped make the camp happen. Again!