European Physical Society

PHYSICS EDUCATION DIVISION

Draft Report of the meeting of the Board of the
EPS Physics Education Division

Present:	E.Johansson (Chair), A.W.Kleyn, R.Lambourne (Secretary), E. Lingeman (Web Master), G. Tibell (Chair of Pre-university Section Board), U. Titulaer (Chair of University Section Board).
Observing:	B. Jennison
Apologies:	H. Ferdinande (EUPEN), P.Hoyer (EPS executive committee), D. Lee (Secretary General (EPS).

EPS-PED-33 should be the Annual Report of the Board for 2003 (not 2002).
EPS-PED-34 should be the Report on this meeting. UT/EJ

1.0		AGENDA	ACTION
	Noted	:The meeting adopted the agenda proposed by the Chair, with the addition of a point concerning contacts with other organisations.
	Noted	:The Chair thanked Ms B Jennison for arranging accommodation and making it possible for the Board to meet in Churchill College.
2.0		Previous meeting
	2(a)	Report of the previous (telephone) Meeting of the Board on 10th December 2003.
	Noted	:The following corrections to the DRAFT report:
		Section 5, last line, wants should be want. Section 6, line 5, triannual should be triennial. Section 9, line 4, Bb should be Bob.
	Action	Erik to correct, delete DRAFT from the title and circulate.	EJ
	2(b)	Matters Arising from the Report
	Noted:	Paul Hoyer suggested making contact with the IAPS (International Association of Physics Students). Erik Johannson attempted to do this, but has not received a response.
	Noted:	Numbering of Board documents:
	Action:	Erik to correct date on Annual Report and circulate to the Board	EJ
3.0		MERLOT paper
	Reported:	MERLOT is an electronic archive of referred multimedia materials. The physics component is run by Bruce Mason. H.-J. Jodl of the University Section Board is trying to obtain funding for a European counterpart. H-J.J. wants an agreement between EPS and AAPT to back his application for EU funding.
	Reported:	A draft agreement has been written and Erik has signed on behalf of the Board.
	Action:	Erik will circulate an electronic copy to members of the Board. [This to be marked as EPS-PED-35].
4.00		Pre-University Section Report
	Reported:	The Section met at Udine, Italy in September. The Web Master would like to form a link to the meeting report, but such a link is not yet available.
	Reported:	No action has yet been taken over the survey of schools or the Teacher Exchange Scheme.
	Action:	Bob Lambourne to send draft form to M.Volmer for modification.	BL
	Reported:	IYPT (International Young Physics Tournament) preparations are under way for a meeting in Brisbane Australia from 24th June to 1st July. 30 countries are involved, including Kenya and Brazil.
	Reported:	No change to composition of Section Board.
	Action:	Aart Kleyn to suggest names of Dutch school teachers to Gunnar.	AK
5.00		University Section Report
	Reported:	Leopold Mathelitsch (Graz) is organizing a 3-day multimedia Workshop (MPTL9) in Graz for 9-11 September 2004. (This is a successor to the Prague meeting of 2003, and will be followed by a meeting in Berlin in 2005.). The September meeting will be preceded by a 1-day meeting for teachers. The organizers are seeking items for a CD that will be burnt for teachers and workshop participants.
	Reported:	At the GIREP meeting in Udine, 1-6 September 2003, Gorazd Planinsic (Lubiana) and Elena Sassi (Naples) agreed to join the Section Board. The next GIREP meeting will be in Ostrava, Czech Republic, 19-23 July 2004. The theme will be "Teaching and Learning Physics in New Contexts" The conference has EPS sponsorship, but was applied too late for IUPAP funding, which has early deadlines. In 2005 there will be a GIREP Workshop on "physics for the general public" in Lubliana, organized by Garazd Planinsic.	LM
	Reported:	There will be a meeting of the Section Board in Kaiserslautern in May or June, to discuss laboratory based teaching.
	Reported:	The Board now consists of U.Titulaer (Chair) H-J.Jodl, R.Lambourne, G.Planinsic, E.Sassi, I.Strzalkowski, C.van Weert, M. Vollmer.
	Noted	The situation regarding position papers was unclear. Was their production to continue?
	Action:	Erik to bring this up at the next EPS Council meeting.	EJ
	Noted:	There is a need to update the list of PRs and/or replace it by a list of corresponding members.
	Action:	Bob to contact Hendrik for list of EUPEN reps and to seek 'live' members.	BL
	Noted:	There are a range of activities relating to outreach, particularly in the area of particle physics. A memo has been sent to big science funding bodies encouraging them to put this on their agenda.
	Agreed:	The PED Board should produce a paper on outreach that can be put forward to EPS as a position paper.
	Action:	(Who is to action this?)
	Noted:	Some divisions are more active than others in outreach, and EPS has its own activities independently of divisional activities. EPS could usefully coordinate some or all of these activities. Aart's Institute can provide a venue.
	Action:	Erik to contact Martin Huber and David Lee about coordinated outreach activities.	EJ
6.00		European Plysics Education Conference (EPEC)
	6(A)	Generalities
	Reported:	Following the last meeting, a Working Group on EPEC was formed, consisting of Board members and Gerhard Sauer. Contributions were gathered by e-mail, but more content is needed. Planning will continue in Stockholm in August, but much must be done before then. The Stockholm meeting will take place at around the time of the Euroscience Open Forum, 25 - 28 August 2004, preliminarily 23-24 August 2004. Existing ideas were included in a document circulated by Erik on 9th March [this will be EPS-PED-36]. Following discussions with M Huber it is felt that EPS should be involved through its Conference Secretariat.
	Noted:	EPS should be strongly, involved.
	Reported:	Bad Honnef (between Bonn and Cologne) will be the site and will provide local support. David Lee has been informed and will contact Gerhard Sauer directly.	DL
	Noted:	Concerns about: Funding and conflict with GIREP meetings. Relative strengths of GIREP (strong links with teacher trainers) and EUPEN (strong on organizational issues). Global nature of GIREP which might, one day, take it away from Europe.
	Noted:	Erik has already spoken informally with Ton Ellermejer (Amsterdam) about cooperation with GIREP Gorazd Planinsic is now the Treasurer of GIREP and is on the University Section Board, so he can also provide a link.
	Agreed:	Aim for cooperation with GIREP and hold EPEC conferences in alternate (odd) years, between GIREP conferences.
	Action:	Erik to discuss this with Manfred Euler (GIREP President)	EJ
	Noted:	EPEC meeting should be under the umbrella of the World Year of Physics which should provide some funding for the link.
	Noted:	EPS would like to apply for EU funding for this. Erik has been invited to participate in the funding bid.
	Action:	Erik should approach Hendrik Ferdinande for help in making EU funding application.	EJ/HF
	Agreed:	The EPEC meeting should precede the EPS-13 meeting which will run 11 - 14 July, 2005. A representative from the multi-media group (MPTL) should be invited to present outputs.
	Agreed:	(Preliminary) Conference should be called EPEC-1: Teaching Physics in a New Century. It should take place in Bad Honeff, 7 - 10 July, 2005.
	6(B)	Economy and Sponsors
	Reported:	Hope for 150 to attend, expect about 100. (size limited by Bad Honeff facilities). The aim will be for an audience that includes school teachers as well as university staff. This requires a low conference fee and implies the need for sponsors, unless funding comes directly from the EU. (EU might fund all costs for schools.) Sponsors might include Leybold and Springer. The DPG might take a hand and may be approached by Gerhard Sauer. A joint EPS/DPG conference might be appropriate.	GS
	Noted:	EPS should be encouraged to take as much responsibility as possible.
	6(C)	Local organization
	Noted:	Bad Honeff is a DPG facility and will run things locally. Gerhard Sauer will liaise with them. EPS Mulhouse should provide support for the website.
	6(D)	Proceedings
	Agreed:	No proceedings to be produced, but highlights might appear as articles in the European Journal of Physics (this publishes 6 issues per year, about 6 articles per issue and now has a 30% rejection rate).
	Agreed:	Urbaan to consult with EJP editor.	UT
	Noted:	Could have a 'confrontation' between schools and universities. Could use the same 'hot topics' as WYOP. Could get EPS divisions to send their outreach speakers.
	Agreed:	Preliminary content and timings: Frontline physics, 3-4 talks in total, not necessarily on same day (0.5 day) Lab based teaching, should cover school and university, not limited to 'modern' physics, not necessarily lecture based. (0.5 day) Multimedia in education (0.5 day) Teaching methods (0.5 day) Physics in action (and physics in society) (0.5 day) 'Active poster' sessions (so that all those attending have the chance to speak for ~ 10 minutes, if they need to). These might run in coffee sessions over several days. Exhibition with books, lab equipment, posters, physics toys, software etc. Perhaps 0.25 day + other times. (0.5 day). Social events (0.5 day)
	6(F)	Organization
	Agreed:	Need three committees:- Organizing committee (Working Group + others) Local organizing committee (G.Sauer + Bad Honeff) Advisory committee (great and good).
	Agreed:	The Organizing committee should consist of Erik, Urbaan, Gunnar, Bob, Gerhard Sauer, plus An EPS representative? Paul Hoyer (might also be EPS rep)? Michael Vollmer? Hendrik Ferdinade?
	Action	Urbaan to contact Michael Vollmer. Erik to contact all other potential members.
	Action:	All members of the Board to suggest names for the Advisory Committee. Suggestions by e-mail to Erik please.
7.00		Open Day at EPS - 13 (2005)
	Reported:	Aart is looking into the possibility of a fusion outreach activity, possibly organized by the JET operators EFDA. The 'Fusion Road Show' is a possibility. Erik has contacted CERN, who are 'interested' The ISS Education fund might do something.
	Noted:	Could simply ask Eiroforum to act. This might be suggested to Martin Huber.
	Noted:	CERN has large and small 'mobile' exhibitions. They are reluctant to send the larger one to EPS-13, but might be persuaded. The city of Bern might want to mount an exhibition for a month or two. Might try to link with CMS and/or Atlas on the day, but may need someone from CERN to be on hand explaining what can be seen.
	Action:	Erik to pursue CERN involvement, but local organizers will need to be on- board. Martin Huber is the appropriate link.	EJ
8.00		Contacts with other organizations
	Reported:	C14 of IUPAP is organizing a conference in Durban, South Africa, 5 - 10 July 2004 "What Physics Should We Teach" C14 also supports a similar conference in New Delhi, India, next year, in connection with WYOP.
	Reported:	Expo 2005 will be in Japan. Gunnar has informed the organizers that this will be WYOP and has urged them to contact the Japanese Physical Society (there are 3 such organizations in Japan with somewhat different emphases). Since the Expo is a world event, there might be a role for EPS.
9.00		Budget 2004
	Reported:	The preliminary budget agreed at the last meeting totals 15000 ¤. This will not change.
	Agreed:	To adopt the preliminary budget subject to freedom to vie between headings.
10.00		Web Master's report
	Reported:	The new web master will be Ahmed Ouarab.
	Noted:	The meeting removed to another room with internet connection where the EPS website was viewed.
	Noted:	Erik expressed his thanks to the Web Master for his many actions on behalf of the Board.

Robert Lambourne
Secretary to the Board
23rd March 2004