2020 Teachers’ Program

The 44th Annual University of Alabama High School Physics Contest will be held on Friday, January 31, 2020 at the Ferguson Center on the campus of the University of Alabama. This event is open to all high schools and usually attracts schools from surrounding states as well as many from Alabama.

As a part of HSPC, we host a ‘Teacher’s program’ session to discuss best practices in teaching, new teaching techniques, demonstrations as well as share resources and material. We normally solicit teacher opinions on the topics to be discussed before the meeting. We also inform physics teachers of opportunities and resources available for students and teachers at UA.

For the 2020 HSPC, we are pleased to host Sarah Tarbox, a UA alum, high school physics teacher and an American Physical Society  (APS) STEP-Up ambassador. Sarah will lead a workshop on an important new program developed by the APS called STEP-UP.

From the STEP UP website.

STEP UP is a national community of physics teachers, researchers, and professional societies. We design high school physics lessons to empower teachers, create cultural change, and inspire young women to pursue physics in college.

STEP UP will mobilize thousands of high school physics teachers to reduce barriers and inspire young women to pursue physics degrees in college. The goal is to increase the representation of women amongst physics bachelor’s degrees and begin to shift deep-seated cultural views about who does physics.

If half of the high school physics teachers encourage just one more female student to pursue physics as a major, a historic shift will be initiated — female students will make up 50% of incoming physics majors.”

For details on STEP UP, please visit https://engage.aps.org/stepup/home