PEEP (Teaching Ethics in Physics)

The PEEP (Physics and Ethics Education Project) project provides a well thought out set of resources for teaching about ethical issues in physics.  It is perhaps surprising how little attention is typically spent in high school and university physics courses on ethical issues of physics related topics.  Physics expertise is critical to a full understanding of many of the issues such as climate change and energy issues that we face as a society. These resources can provide a starting point for physicists who want to increase attention on ethical issues in their physics class.

While the PEEP resources are primarily aimed at the high school level, many of the resources are also well suited for introductory physics.  Topics include radiation, climate change, weapons, space, energy and transportation (following image from the PEEP overviews the areas).  For each of these areas you can click on the topic, and then see a list of the specific issues. 

To give a flavour of some of the topics considered at PEEP let's consider the topic of the potential safety, or lack thereof, of cellular phones.  It starts with some background on how cell phones work, and what is ionizing radiation (and its effects), mentioning that while there may be small thermal effects from cell phone frequencies, it is not ionizing radiation.  Then it provides samples of media coverage of the issue.  It asks what you would do if designing an experiment to check out the safety of cell phones.  One feature I like is it ends with a number of people giving statements about the issue.

There is strong coverage of space physics related issues, including whether the cost of space research can be justified, what is orbital debris and what should we be doing about it, and issues related to searchers for extraterrestrial life. There is coverage of a number of diagnostic medical technologies, including X-ray, PET, NMR and ultrasound.  I would have liked to see a little more development on these topics.

The treatment on climate change will surely engage, starting with a UN quote saying that already 300,000 people are dying annually from climate change related issues.  It does a good job of setting the stage for this topic by identifying the key questions.  For example, on the topic of how good is the evidence there is actual data from mud and ice cores, satellite data and glacier retreat patterns.

If you click on People on the PEEP site you get a number of case studies of physicists who dealt with ethical issues related to their physics research.  The scientists include such well known physicists as Galileo, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer. There is also coverage of less well known current scientists such as robotics developer Kevin Warwick who implanted microchips in his own body.

The PEEP resources are developed by a team of about a dozen experts centred at the University of Bristol.  As well as being a teacher resource, this is a science education research project to study the effectiveness of web based interactive resources.  The resources are freely available for download and while the development comes from Europe they will have universal appeal.  Teachers can download specific information on how to effectively use the resources. There is a biology oriented companion website, BEEP with similar resources.  It would be wonderful for a consortium of Canadian physicists to develop a similar set of resources with a Canadian focus, with specific attention to global change within a Canadian context, the medical isotope situation, CANDU, and other issues.  Coupled with the UBC Physics for the 21st Century this would give us a very relevant and powerful way to teach physics in a manner that students would find engaging and relevant.  If interested, or if you already know of such resources, why not add a comment?

Dr. Adam Sarty 3M STLHE Winner

Dr. Adam Sarty of Saint Marys University was one of the 10 recipients of a prestigious 3M STLHE (Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education) teaching fellowship.  This was awarded at the STLHE annual conference held at the University of Saskatchewan June 15-18.

The 3M STLHE citation for Adam Sarty in part reads "He is a model of teaching excellence and educational leadership....Few faculty, in any institution, have had such a tremendous impact in so short a period of time....His students express it this way: 'Humourous! Enthusiastic! Knowledgeable! Amazing! Best teacher ever!'....Over time, and in many ways, Adam Sarty has shown that he is an exceptional communicator, a gifted teacher and an excellent role model."

One of Canada's most accomplished and energetic university physics teachers, Adam is a leader in a number of aspect of physics education.  He is well known for the effective use of clickers in interactive, peer instruction settings in large introductory classes.  He has been a proponent of these techniques locally, regionally and nationally, and has spoken at many Atlantic universities after he won the Atlantic Association of Universities Educational Leadership Award in 2008.

He is one of the most energetic proponents of physics outreach, and each year does demonstrations at countless schools and public settings.  In fact, he even has been known to do physics demonstration shows along the street in his neighbourhood.  Saint Marys have a web page which describes the Adam Sarty physics show, and gives instructions on how to apply to have the show at your school.

His reach goes well beyond Nova Scotia or even Atlantic Canada, however.  He played a key role in the development of the Saint Marys video physics resource that draws a huge audience from around the world, Adam personally appearing in many of these. If you are not familiar with this wonderful resource, check out the video demonstration website.

Adam was the 2008 winner of the Canadian Association of Physicists Medal for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, and the citation reads in part "...for inspiring his students to love learning physics, successfully implementing innovative teaching technologies and sharing the beauty of the discipline, through his dedication to physics education."

More details on Adam Sarty, his accomplishments and the 3M STLHE award are available in the university press release. Congratulations to Adam on this most deserved honour.

Image from Saint Marys University.

Jobs in Physics Education

I recently came across the PERjobs blog that is a remarkably active listing of physics education jobs. In the first five months of 2011 there were almost 150 job postings.

Each position is assigned multiple labels, and one can get listings of all of the jobs in a particular category -e.g. all the physics jobs, or all tenure track or visiting professor. The site includes both education and science department jobs, and occasionally lists intern or summer positions for students.

One of the keywords used is Canada, so you can readily isolate Canadian jobs. At the time of this post there were 7 Canadian jobs listed, three in education departments and the rest in physics.

Whether you are interested in administrative, contract, policy, service or interdisciplinary jobs, you will find an associated category. For example one of the interdisciplinary jobs listed is Google Fellow, a program where K-12 math or science teachers can apply to work at Google for a year developing curriculum materials.

As far as I can see there is not a charge for employers listing on the service. Information can be sent to PERJobs@gmail.com. I don't know who is behind this, but it is a great resource for anyone looking for a position.

ps  As I was preparing this I came across a site with Canadian physics jobs Wow Jobs.   It seems to have a fairly comprehensive listing of current academic physics jobs open in Canada.

While most are probably already aware of the following well known job listings, I would also point out the Physics Today job listing service,  the Bright Recruits service from Institute of Physics, the American Physical Society career list, and the Canadian Association of Physicists job service.

UBC Physics for 21st Century

In this first post from the Division of Physics Education (DPE) sessions at the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) Annual Congress at Memorial University in Newfoundland I want to cover a paper delivered this afternoon by Andrzej Kotlicki of the University of British Columbia. The paper was entitled "Physics teaching for the 21st century" and the basic premise was that we need to make physics problems and activities more grounded in the real world.

It was argued that the way we have taught physics, using highly idealized and unrealistic overly abstract problems, may be well suited to the tiny minority who will go on to become professional physicists, but is not the sort of education needed for a scientifically literate public. This philosophy is elegantly summarized by the UBC team in the following way: "The great problems of the 20th century were solved by a few incredibly smart people. The great problems of the 21st century will have to be solved by billions of moderately smart people. This is where teachers come in..."

With financial assistance from the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and the UBC TLEF, the UBC research group has developed a rich set of teaching resources that they are making freely available to the physics teaching community via a well structured website http://c21.phas.UBC.ca

They provide videos, articles, real-life homework problems, experiments and activities that can be done at home, Powerpoint slides, questions for tests and exams, and dats sheets. The latter is one of my favourites. As teachers trying to make realistic problems it is often hard to find reliable information such as the drag coefficient of a typical car, the rolling resistance of a bike wheel, the average amount of greenhouse gas emitted by burning a liter of gasoline or the average albedo of the Earth. As well as giving the actual values, they indicate the approximate uncertainty and an internet source for the information.

As of today there are 65 articles divided into three categories: tools and techniques, energy and environment, and biology and medicine. You can also do a general search, or links for particular keywords. The anticipated level is stated for each, with most being high school or introductory university. They are produced by a team of fourteen faculty, teachers, post-docs, graduate and undergraduate students. Work continues this summer so more resources will be added.

To give you a flavor for the contents, some of the more popular titles are radioactive milk, how regenerative auto braking works, tar sands, thermal radiation from the body, electric shock hazards, and why you can't immediately turn a nuclear reactor off. The techniques section include an introduction to spreadsheets for numerical models,

The resources are covered by a creative commons policy so essentially you are allowed to use them for noncommercial applications as long as attribution is given. The team would appreciate knowing of institutions that make use of the materials. They also welcome contributions of similar resources from other physics educators.

This is a superb resource to help us teach the sort of problems that are realistic and meaningful to our students. It will also be valuable for those involved in science outreach. But don't take our word for it - visit their website and see for yourself.