European Physical Society
PHYSICS EDUCATION DIVISION
Report of the Telephone Meeting of the Board
of the EPS Physics Education Division
Held on Wednesday 10 December 2003, 14:00-15:45.
Attending: H. Ferdinande (Chairman EUPEN), P. Hoyer (EPS executive committee),
E. Johansson (chairman),
A.W. Kleyn, G. Tibell (Chairman Pre-university Section Board),
Unable to attend: B. Lambourne (Secretary), D. Lee (Secretary general EPS),
E. Lingeman (web master),
U. Titulaer (Chairman University Section Board).
Agenda
The meeting adopted the agenda proposed by the chairman). The points below are treated
in that order.
The chairman welcomed Paul Hoyer (Nordita, Finland), who will also
represent the EPS executive committee.
Aart Kleyn was asked to prepare the minutes.
2) Report of the previous meeting, 7 January 2003
There were some comments to the text of the report prepared by Aart Kleyn (EPS_PED 31).
The following additions are adopted:
Ad 3.1 The Sauer initiative concerning a meeting in Bad Honnef in 2005 should be
mentioned here.
Ad 3.2 "The issue will be considered closed." The questionnaire to be prepared by
Bob Lambourne replaces
this survey, or rather, implies just this survey. We are
looking forward to this initiative.
Ad 3.3 "..the willingness of EPS to provide them free of charge..", the Division
will no longer consider this issue.
Ad 3.6, line 4: "advertised and had good media coverage." There is a word "had"
missing in the text.
3) Composition of the board
The board of the EPS Physics Education Division is now composed of: H. Ferdinande
(Chairman EUPEN),
P. Hoyer (EPS executive committee), E. Johansson (chairman),
A.W. Kleyn, B. Lambourne (Secretary),
D. Lee (Secretary general EPS, observer),
E. Lingeman (web master), G. Tibell (Chairman Pre-university
Section Board), U. Titulaer (Chairman University Section Board).
4) Report of the meeting at Physics on Stage 3
Noordwijkerhout, NL
(11 November 2003) Huber (EPS President), Kleyn, and Johansson report.
Informally the situation around Eupen has been mentioned. We were encouraged to
submit a preliminary budget. Johansson mentioned his need for some travel money.
Huber found this request reasonable.
The proposed European Physics Education
Conference should liaise with EPS13, especially with outreach activities.
In particular connections to EFDA and JET, CERN, and the ISS were mentioned.
It was decided at the present meeting that Aart Kleyn checks the interest of
EFDA (European Fusion Development Agency) /JET (Joint European Torus), and ISS
(International Space Station); Erik Johansson will contact CERN.
We also agreed that Erik would be the liaison towards EPS-13.
5) EUPEN
The EUPEN network will stop soon. There is no enthusiasm for continuation after
the renewal request has been turned down. The deadline for new applications is
1 November, with a preproposal deadline in March. The current Socrates initiatives
are much more confined. There is a need to form a society with contributions around
500-1000 euro. It is noteworthy that EUPEN looked in particular into European policy,
not so much in physics education as such.
EPS cannot do much in this situation.
Hendrik Ferdinande is encouraged to write a contribution about EUPEN in EuroPhysics News.
It was suggested to replace our National (presidential) representatives by EUPEN
representatives.
Hendrik Ferdinande pointed out that these people lose interest
very quickly.
It was suggested that Bob Lambourne could solicit corresponding members from EUPEN
participants.
An invitation letter will be prepared for him by Hendrik Ferdinande.
Aart Kleyn warned that EPS cannot follow up EUPEN as such. Personnel and financial
resources are lacking.
Paul Hoyer pointed to isolated topics on which division can
play a role, such as accreditation and evaluation.
EPS PED does wants to carry on the network function set up by EUPEN.
6) European Physics Education Conference
The set up of a program for a physics education conference is not so hard. Ideas
have already been circulated by Erik Johansson. The organization and language are
more complicated. Teacher participation is hard, because of the funds required.
As a new initiative the conference proposed by Gerhard Sauer in Bad Honnef is
mentioned. This would turn into a nice triannual series: Malvern seminar (1999),
Les Houches (2002), Bad Honnef (2005).
The division is very positive to the proposed conference in Bad Honnef.
It will set up a working group to prepare
the conference, which will meet with a number of interested physicists
and teachers in a workshop to be held in parallel
to the Euroscience Open Forum in Stockholm, August 2004.
We should consider an invitation for participation from the side of IAPS.
Gunnar Tibell and Erik Johansson
will set up the workshop. As a general organising committee for the European
Physics Education Conference are promoted:
Gunnar Tibell, Urbaan Titulaer, Hendrik Ferdinande, Erik Johansson
and Gerhard Sauer.
Erik Johansson will take up the initialization of it all.
7) Finances and budget 2004
The following budget for 2004 is proposed:
| IYPT 2004 preparation | 500 |
| Support multimedia conference | 2500 |
| Support GIREP/EPS conference | 2000 |
| Support Lab Courses Meeting | 1000 |
| Travel Board Members | 2500 |
| Board Meeting Division | 1000 |
| Education conference workshop | 4000 |
| Support non Eiroforum participation to SOS 3 | 1500 |
| Total: EURO | 15000 |
8) Miscellaneous
The letter concerning the Merlot (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning
and Online Teaching)
project letter can be signed by Erik Johansson.
Presidential representatives might be activated.
Aart Kleyn and Gunnar Tibell advise not get upset in case of no reply.
Gunnar Tibell and Urbaan Titulaer should send an up to date list to Erik Johansson.
9) Date and place of next meeting
A full meeting of the Divisional Board Next meeting could be held on Friday 19 March 2004.
A possible venue would be the Open University, which has easy and cheap access through
London Luton Airport, or Cambridge University, having cheap access through London Stanstead.
Erik Johansson will sort this out with Bob Lambourne.
Aart W. Kleyn
10 December 2003
Transferred to html 29 December 2003, EWAL