Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS March Meeting 2024
Monday–Friday, March 4–8, 2024; Minneapolis & Virtual
Session M43: Partnership for Education Across ContinentsEducation Invited Live Streamed Undergrad Friendly
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Sponsoring Units: FIP FECS Chair: Christine Darve, European Spallation Source; Yuan Zhang, Old Dominion University Room: Auditorium 1 |
Wednesday, March 6, 2024 8:00AM - 8:36AM |
M43.00001: Strengthening Pedagogical Content Knowledge of Science Teachers in Pakistan Invited Speaker: Talat S Rahman A lesson from activities of the APS Physics Teacher Education Coalition (PhysTEC) is that Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) of physics teachers worldwide cannot be taken for granted and that enhancement of such knowledge is possible through modest interventions. With this in mind, a group of us, from Pakistan, Germany, the Netherlands, and the US, have embarked on a pilot project to engage teachers from government secondary schools in Karachi that cater mostly to children in underprivileged areas in workshops aimed at strengthening PCK. In this talk I will outline some strategies that we have undertaken to make the project feasible and some of its recent successes. A key element of this approach is emphasis on active learning and peer mentoring, as well as building a chain of individuals whose symbiotic relationship would benefit everyone involved – somewhat like the Learning Assistant paradigm in PhysTEC. While conditions may differ, we believe that the pilot program in Karachi will lead us to identify the ingredients that will make it possible to replicate the effort in other developing countries. |
Wednesday, March 6, 2024 8:36AM - 9:12AM |
M43.00002: Building International partnership for Africa Invited Speaker: Kétévi A Assamagan International cooperation forms the common denominator of today's culture of scientific activities. However, in many scientific disciplines and especially in fundamental and applied physics the cooperation among African countries and between them and the rest of the world is not well developed. This is especially the case for sub-Saharan Africa, which is one of the most rapidly developing regions in the world with great educational needs. To extend the existing international scientific ties to this geographical zone. In this talk, I will review a few programs established with a focus on improving fundamental and applied physics research and education in Africa. I will also discuss the need for African physics communities to develop periodic grassroots physics strategies. |
Wednesday, March 6, 2024 9:12AM - 9:48AM |
M43.00003: Training South-American future scientists Invited Speaker: Nathan J Berkovits An important role of the ICTP South American Institute for Fundamental Research (ICTP-SAIFR) in São Paulo is to train the next generation of physicists in South America. In addition to organizing workshops for juinor and senior researchers, this training involves two-week international schools in English for graduate students in advanced topics related to theoretical physics and its applications, as well as courses in Portuguese and Spanish for high-school teachers and high-school students on aspects of modern physics that can be taught in the classroom. |
Wednesday, March 6, 2024 9:48AM - 10:24AM |
M43.00004: Ubuntu Science: Building International Collaborations with Africa Invited Speaker: Sinead M Griffin The field of electronic structure theory is especially suitable for widespread adoption in emerging economies in Africa: along with the increasing availability of open-source codes and cheaper high-performance computing, many of the scientific questions that electronic structure addresses are particularly pertinent to Africa such as solar power. However, academic isolation is a key obstacle for building thriving groups throughout Africa, both for intracontinental collaboration, and for broader international cooperation. Here I focus on two community efforts to address this: the African School of Electronic Structure: Methods and Application (ASESMA) and the US-Afri Innovation Fund (which was supported by an inaugural APS Innovation Fund). Following an overview of the achievements of both programs featuring some special guests, I will discuss the future challenges for this vision, and how all physicists can contribute to further building a global scientific community. |
Wednesday, March 6, 2024 10:24AM - 11:00AM |
M43.00005: Education across continents: the NITheCS way Invited Speaker: Francesco Petruccione In an era where interdisciplinary collaboration and international partnerships are pivotal to advancing scientific knowledge, the National Institute for Theoretical Physics (NITheCS) in South Africa has emerged as a beacon of innovation in fostering education and research across continents. Established as a new national research facility, NITheCS supports a broad spectrum of activities in the basic sciences, emphasizing the synergy between research, training, and engagement. This presentation will outline NITheCS's foundational principles and its role in advancing theoretical physics, astrophysics, mathematics, statistics, data science, quantitative finance, quantitative biology, bioinformatics, and earth system and climate change modeling. |
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