| A | B | C | D | |
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2 | Legend | |||
3 | Activity based | |||
4 | Pedagogy | |||
5 | Climate Change | |||
6 | Quantum | |||
7 | Friday, May 23 | |||
8 | Keynote 9:00- 9:45 | Breaking the Speed of Light Barrier Dr. Barak Shoshany Brock University It is well-known that according to Einstein's general theory of relativity, nothing can move faster than the speed of light. However, it turns out that this theory also has several "loopholes", which may - at least in theory - allow an object to get to its destination before any light beam gets there, while still being perfectly consistent with all known physics. In this lecture I will discuss my research into some of these loopholes, such as wormholes and warp drives, and their potential consequences for space travel in the very far future. I will also discuss the possibility that faster-than-light travel may lead to time travel, and how to deal with the resulting paradoxes. | Barak Shoshany is a theoretical, mathematical, and computational physicist. He is an Assistant Professor of Physics at Brock University, where he recently won the Faculty of Mathematics & Science Award for Excellence in Teaching. His research focuses on the nature of time and causality in general relativity and quantum mechanics, as well as symbolic and high- performance scientific computing. | |
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10 | Schedule | Slot | Description | Presenter(s) |
11 | Session A 10:00 - 11:15 | 1 | Quantum Dots Dave Fish Perimeter Institute Technology developments, such as in TVs and medical imaging, are now using quantum dots. In this session, participants will learn about what a quantum dot is, how they work and how they can be applied to real world scenarios. This hands-on engaging session features an activity from Perimeter Institute's latest resource, quantum technology. | Dave has been a high school Physics teacher for 25+ years. His involvement with Perimeter Institute dates right back to the beginning with the initial development of ISSYP, EinsteinPlus and several other outreach activities. He has played a leading role in the production of most of the classroom resources. He has given workshops on modern physics at local, provincial, national and international levels. Dave is currently Teacher in Residence at Perimeter Institute in Waterloo. In his spare time he enjoys reading, travelling, sports and spending time with his family. |
12 | 2 | Discovering your Inner Physics Demon Gavin Kanowitz TDSB, AY Jackson Secondary School This session will provide resources, methodologies and practical approches to energize your teaching and your student's learning. The pedagogical philosophy draws from a variety of sources with a primary focus on the SPH4U Curriculum. | Gavin Kanowitz has taught physics for over twenty years in both the private and public system. He comes to teaching from an earlier background in Engineering and has a passion for philosophy, history and football (the one with round not the oval ball). A well versed cynic he has been published on a variety of topics and is a regular contributor to the Quora Q/A site where he has developed a repuation for ruffling a few feathers. | |
13 | 3 | Project Drawdown - A Wealth of Climate Solutions Roberta Tevlin & Iain Braithwaite retired TDSB & UGDSB Climate change is a huge problem – but it has lots of solutions. Students need to learn about these so that they don’t get overwhelmed and give up. In this session, teachers will be introduced to Project Drawdown, which is a website with videos, descriptions and data describing a hundred solutions that exist now. The resource is free, up-to-date, and deeply researched. During the session we will explore three very different ways it can be used in grade 9 science (Sustainable Ecosystems and Climate Change), grade 10 science (Climate Change) and grade 11 Physics (Electricity and Magnetism). | Roberta is a retired teacher in Toronto. Her concern about the environment recently got kicked into hyper-drive when she learnt that climate change is now and not in the future. She believes that solutions are possible and that more people need to know this so they can get past despair and take action. Iain is a science teacher at John F. Ross C.V.I. in Guelph. Through his teaching, he has seen firsthand that students want to talk about climate change and investigate possible and achievable solutions. As a result, he is passionate about embedding as many discussions and inquiry activities about climate change in each of his science courses. | |
14 | 4 | Whatever You Whiteboard is Good Samantha Delbergue & Thomas P Eagan SMCDSB A discussion of open-ended course culminating projects that develop confidence, pride and perseverance. We will walk through the process and discuss some student work as well. | Samantha and Tom are both teachers at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School in Tottenham who have attended many conferences and are excited to see the conference from a different perspective. Samantha is a math and physics teacher who started her career path in Engineering, spending roughly 13 years in the automotive industry before moving on to education. Through those experiences she came to realize the importance of the hands-on aspect of learning to students and has been using that to help create several inquiry-based activities that harness student creativity and autonomy in the classroom. As her coworker, Tom has acted as a sounding board for many of those students as they develop their thought processes and begin to plan, design and execute their vision. He enjoys the process of seeing students develop these 21st century skills. | |
15 | 5a (30 min) | Creating Equity-focused Programs to Increase Diversity with k2i academy Vanessa Ironside & Lisa Cole Lassonde School of Engineering, York University We continue to face challenges in increasing diverse participation in physics and STEM career pathways. Despite the work of many, enrolment in physics courses in high schools continues to be small. Our work at k2i (kindergarten to industry) academy is to create new ways to address these system challenges and develop innovative approaches to increasing diverse participation in STEM and STEM-related programs. Join us in this session to explore how k2i academy is designing initiatives alongside collaborative partners to address equity, diversity and inclusion in STEM. | Vanessa Ironside is currently the Program Officer with the award-winning k2i academy at the Lassonde School of Engineering. She has extensive experience developing and delivering hands-on STEM content in formal and informal settings with a large focus on inclusive and equitable programs. She is passionate about making education accessible, inclusive, and engaging to all students and collaborating with educators to create innovative new approaches to STEM education. She is currently pursuing her doctoral studies at Lassonde with a focus on Engineering/STEM Education. https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessa-i-3ab5001b3/ Lisa Cole is currently the Director of Programming at the k2i academy, Lassonde School of Engineering. Lisa is a passionate, award-winning educator, and system leader in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Education. She is committed to building equitable opportunities for students. Lisa is an advocate for diversity and inclusion in STEM with experience providing workshops, consulting on the development of resources, managing large scale projects, developing multi-sector partnerships, and facilitating diverse teams. She believes that STEM literacy is important for all learners. Through her work, she hopes to inspire educators, students, and communities to become future innovators, critical thinkers, and problem solvers. https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-limcole/ | |
16 | 5b (30 min) | Teaching Physics With a Free Open Textbook Jason Harlow & Ania Harlick University of Toronto Physics Over the past 10 years university students have transitioned from paper textbooks to online e-texts. Typically, a subscription to an e-text costs students between $50 and $100 USD for each course. OpenStax is a nonprofit charitable corporation operating out of Rice University in Texas which publishes free high quality physics e-texts for high school as well as the algebra and calculus based first-year university courses. In the 2024/25 academic year U of T taught our algebra-based first-year course using the OpenStax College Physice 2e e-text. We present some pros and cons, and student reactions. | Jason Harlow has been a Teaching Stream Professor in the University of Toronto’s Department of Physics for 20 years. He received an Outstanding Teaching Award from U of T's Faculty of Arts & Science in 2022, and the 2023 Medal for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching from the Canadian Association of Physicists. Ania Harlick has been a Teaching Stream Professor at U of T since 2021. She received the Schulich School of Engineering Teaching Excellence Award in 2021, the University of Calgary Student Union Teaching Excellence Award in 2020, and 2023-2024 Faculty of Arts & Science Outstanding Teaching Award – Early Career. | |
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18 | Session B 12:30 - 1:45 | 1 | Big and Small Climate Change Infusions for SPH3U Felipe Almeida TDSB Participants will be taken on a brisk walk through a climate change-themed flow for the entire SPH3U course, stopping to engage with noteworthy tasks along the way. Key questions to be addressed: Can students better their understanding of climate change content and context while also meeting SPH3U curricular expectations? Can tasks you’re already using fit into a climate change narrative? How can the presented flow be modified and improved? All session resources (which can be implemented collectively or individually) will be shared/provided. | Felipe Almeida is a physics and science teacher at the Toronto District School Board. He is grateful for having worked with K-12 and adult learners and educators from across the city, province, and abroad over the last 18⁺ years. |
19 | 2 | Planck's Constant Damian Pope Perimeter Institute Planck’s constant is a fundamental constant of nature that is the most basic quantity in quantum physics. It sets the scale of the quantum world and is deeply connected to our description of every single subatomic particle in the universe. This workshop will introduce a simple laboratory activity that brings quantum physics to life by allowing your students to determine Planck’s constant for themselves. The circuit only involves LEDs of different colours, playdough, a 6 or 9 V battery and a multimeter. This workshop is based on Perimeter Institute's Measuring Planck’s Constant. | Damian is part of Perimeter Institute's Outreach team. He holds a PhD in quantum physics from the University of Queensland in Australia where he focused on quantum information and quantum foundations. His current work focuses on making modern physics exciting and accessible for high school teachers, students and the general public. | |
20 | 3 | Equitable Assessment in Science: Using a Data-Gathering Framework Michelle Brosseau SCCDSB This session explores a “Data-Gathering Framework” from Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics and Grading for Equity. It covers transitioning from point-gathering to data-gathering, creating standards-based frameworks, and implementing equitable grading. Attendees receive examples, a Google Sheet template for “mastery maps,” and methods for seamless integration. | Michelle Brosseau is a high school Science teacher, specializing in Physics, Earth & Space Science, and making learning engaging. Michelle has a Professional Master of Education degree, with a Classroom Specialist focus. In her 16th year of teaching, Michelle is passionate about helping teachers improve their craft. For the past 2.5 years, Michelle has added "De-Streaming Support Teacher" to her role in the classroom. She is passionate about giving her students the opportunity to be thinkers in the Science classroom. | |
21 | 4a (45 min) | Specific Skills High School Students Need in University Physics James Ball University of Guelph There are four topics/skills that I will address that are part of the high school curriculum but are often not taught sufficiently because of time constraints. The four topics/skills are 1) significant or certain digits 2) uncertainty 3) proportional analysis 4) dimensional analysis We will investigate how these skills can be taught in high school physics in order to lead to greater student success. This will be done so that they can be implemented without loss of "curriculum time" | James has been teaching physics since 1988. For most of his career, James was a high school physics teacher. For the last five years, James has been a sessional lecturer at the Univeristy of Guelph. Whether the class consisted of 30 students or 300, his focus has been on improving student understanding and success using physics education research. | |
22 | 4b (25 min) | The End of the STEM Gender Gap? A Research-Backed Discussion to Improving STEM Gender Representation in the Classroom Sara Cormier University of Guelph and McMaster University At first glance, STEM fields may seem to have achieved gender parity, but a closer look reveals persistent—and in some cases, widening—disparities within specific disciplines. While physics remains predominantly male-dominated, biology has shifted toward female dominance. In this workshop, we will explore these gender gaps using data from Dr. Eamonn Corrigan’s PhD thesis, Balancing the Equation: Examining Gender Gaps in Physics and STEM Across Canadian Classrooms. Participants are invited to share their experiences as new STEM educators and reflect on the factors contributing to these imbalances. We will also discuss what additional data is needed to fully understand these disparities and propose strategies for addressing them. Practical resources and strategies will be provided to help new STEM teachers navigate and mitigate these imbalances in their own classrooms. | Sara Cormier is a part-time PhD student at the University of Guelph working under the supervision of Dr. Martin Williams (University of Guelph) and Dr. Mary Wells (University of Waterloo). She is interested in understanding the gender gaps in STEM – why do they persist? And how can we reduce them? Sara is also a full-time employee at McMaster University currently working as an Instructional Assistant in the Department of Physics & Astronomy. She is passionate about physics education and routinely teaches first-year physics for the life sciences where she focuses on creating an inclusive and accessible learning environment. | |
23 | 5 | Bridging the Gap: Year 2 Tasha Richardson & Eryn Richardson-Bartha TDSB and University of Toronto Participants have an opportunity to learn more about rocketry, engineering programs, and try some activities to bring engineering principles into the classroom. | Tasha Richardson is a physics and science teacher with the TDSB, sometimes lecturer and faculty advisor with OISE/UT, and author. Eryn Richardson-Bartha is a second year Engineering Science student at UT, and executive member of the University of Toronto Aerospace Team with L1 certification. | |
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25 | Session C 2:00 - 3:15 | 1 | The End of POE and the Beginning of Science Chris Meyer TDSB Predict, Observe, Explain, is a strategy to enhance student engagement and make science demonstrations pedagogically meaningful for students. In this presentation Chris will share ideas from cognitive science and physic education research that suggest POE is not just unhelpful, but perhaps counterproductive to learning. Chris will discuss the pedagogical framework he uses for student observations, predictions, and ultimately explanations that stands in contrast to POE and better matches how humans learn, think, and most importantly, feel. The presentation will be full of examples from his classrooms teaching that you can try. | Chris has been teaching physics for 27 years and is a long-time contributor to the OAPT. |
26 | 2 | Waves of Discovery: Exploring the Electromagnetic Spectrum in Space Bhairavi Shankar & Joseph Ulmer Indus Space Inc. Our workshop, through three activity scenarios, will showcase applications of the Electromagnetic Spectrum (EM) in space exploration.* - Colors of Sun activity: Discover how different parts of the EM spectrum can help unlock the mysteries of our own Sun. - Signature of Stars: Learn all about the absorption spectra of different elements and how they can tell us everything from the composition of stars to the history of our universe! - Remote Sensing Observations of Earth and our Solar System: Explore how images captured in multiple wavelengths can reveal patterns and details about our natural landscapes. | Dr. Bhairavi Shankar is a Planetary Scientist, a Canadian Space Ambassador, and entrepreneur. She founded Indus Space, a social enterprise, to raise public awareness around Space Exploration and its links to STEAM. She has served on the boards of several local not-for-profit organizations that serve both the South Asian and Astronomy community and empower youth. Joseph Ulmer is an astrophysicist, science communicator, and Curriculum Developer for Indus Space. He designs program activities that engage participants with the exciting world of astronomy and space exploration through discovery-based learning initiatives. He also creates content around space topics intended for our digital platforms. | |
27 | 3 | Aligning Indigenous Knowledge and STEM Abbey Ramdeo & Mickole Mulano Actua Educators play a key role in fostering inclusive learning environments. Historically, Indigenous perspectives have been removed from the Canadian school system, particularly in STEM. Actua will facilitate a working session where educators will explore ways to respectfully and purposefully include Indigenous voices into their classrooms. Participants will analyze their classrooms, engage in reflective activities, and collaboratively create lesson plans aligned with the 9-12 science curriculum. Actua is not representing itself as an authority on Indigenous learning. This session is built on a collection of lessons Actua has learned in engaging Indigenous youth in STEM through Indigenous community-driven for-credit land camp programs. | Actua is a Canadian leading science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) youth outreach organization. Together with a national network of 40 universities and colleges, Actua engages 375,000 youth from all corners of the country in transformational STEM learning experiences that build critical employability skills and confidence. Actua focuses on the engagement of underrepresented youth through specialised programs for Indigenous youth, girls and young women, at-risk youth and youth living in Northern and remote communities. | |
28 | 4 | The En-ROADS Climate Action Simulation Game Thomas Eagan SMCDSB In this workshop you will examine a wide variety of climate change solutions using EN-ROADS, a free and powerful simulator from Climate Interactive and MIT (https://www.climateinteractive.org/ ). This simulator allows you to determine which actions have the greatest impact and why. To make the information more engaging and realistic, teachers will be placed in one of six small stakeholder groups. They will be provided with a briefing about their group’s main concerns and will use this information to select and justify which actions they want to take. After this, the groups come together and see what effect their actions have in the simulator. Some effects are surprisingly small and others are surprisingly large. A large variety of graphs will explain these surprises. Other graphs will let you see how your actions reduced problems like flooding, drought, biodiversity loss, ocean acidity and much more. After playing this game, you will recognize that there is no single magic bullet, but there are many solutions that work together. This session will energize you to take action. | Tom is a math and physics teacher in Tottenham, Ontario. Recently, he has become more focused on the urgency of climate change, realizing it's an issue for everyone to care about and try to see possible steps forward in a positive direction, Tom has loved attending OAPT conferences in the past and is looking forward to sharing (and learning) issues and solutions around the reality of climate change. | |
29 | 5 | Effectiveness of Lab-In-a-Box for Physics Demonstrations (iOLab device) Thad Harroun & Ivana Komljenovic Metcalf Brock University Commercial physics demonstrations can be expensive and often good for only one or two concepts. The iOLab tries to be an all-in-one, lab-in-a-box to that can be used anywhere and could replace a cabinet-full of other apparatus. But does it work well for that purpose? We'll talk about our experiences using the iOLab remotely during the pandemic and in-person since then. How well does the iOLab help students demonstrate and illuminate concepts, or is it just a fancy data collection device? | Thad Harroun is a professor in the Department of Physics at Brock Univeristy. Ivana Komljenovic Metcalf is the Laboratory Supervisor & Instructor in the Department of Physics at Brock University. | |
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31 | Session D 3:30 - 4:30 | 1 | Physics of Rock Climbing Vjera Miovic TDSB Ontario high school physics courses have lots of curricular connections to rock climbing, and it’s always fun if you can take your students on a field trip to an indoor rock climbing gym. In this workshop, we will explore the role of friction and various forces acting on the climber while ascending a rock face, and learn about the physics behind the equipment used in climbing (shoes, ropes, auto-belay device, and more). Participants get to calculate the coefficient of friction for their own shoes and use the activity as a lab in their physics class! | Vjera has been teaching physics, math, and science in the TDSB for 7 years. She is striving to incorporate student interests into her teaching and she is always on the lookout for fun activities to enhance the experience of learning. |
32 | 2 | The Quantum Explorations Student Toolbox (QuEST) Matthew Robbins & Taylor Pacholko University of Toronto & University of Waterloo The Quantum Explorations Student Toolbox (QuEST) contains a series of hands-on activities tailored to introduce K-12 students to quantum mechanics. Designed to be affordable, open-source, and easy to replicate, these activities cover the historic development of quantum mechanics and deepen understanding of fundamental principles, while showcasing modern and future technologies. This highly interactive workshop will guide teachers through some of the activities that are part of QuEST. By rotating through stations relevant to different high school grade levels, teachers will discover ways to celebrate the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology in their classes. | Matthew Robbins is an assistant professor (teaching stream) at the University of Toronto. His pedagogical approach places a high emphasis on demonstrations and visualizations. He is strongly involved in outreach through virtual class visits and in-person activities. Taylor Pacholko is the Physics Outreach Coordinator with over 7 years of science outreach work across a variety of different age groups from elementary school to university. Taylor’s current role includes workshops for high-school classes on special topics in physics, reaching over 1000 students in 2023. | |
33 | 3 | Brightspace Mastery Quizzes & Modern Mondays Alasdair Paterson HDSB Philosophy behind creating mastery quizzes: multiple choice and level-up. How to create them in Brightspace and add them into Gradebook. For best results, bring a laptop with access to Brightspace so you can do your own! My approach to teaching modern physics - a once-a-week session spanning curriculum (relativity, particle and quantum) that follows the history of modern physics, the discoveries, and the wonder. It also nicely parallels with the regular curriculum at certain points. Outline and some lesson plans, plus recommended resources. | Alasdair has taught physics and Earth & Space Science in Halton for 16 years, after a career change and a couple of degrees in materials science. He loves triathlons, science fiction and fantasy ... which isn't that far from teaching modern physics, anyway. | |
34 | 4 | Tools for Teaching: Astronomy Edition! Kelly Foyle Perimeter Institute In this workshop, we will explore pedagogical strategies for enhanced learning, based on Perimeter Institute’s resource Tools for Teaching Science. Want to take your space lessons to the next level? Interested in creative ways to make your astronomy lessons more active and effective? We will discuss how you can blend your intuition with research-proven intention. The ideas and teaching tools we’ll explore in this session are applicable from grade 5 to 12. | Kelly is an outreach scientist at Perimeter Institute delivering and developing science educational content for teachers, students and the public. She has co-authored many of Perimeter’s educational resources and created online courses for teachers. She has given workshops on science and modern physics across Canada and internationally. Kelly has a doctorate in astrophysics from the University of Heidelberg in Germany and was a postdoctoral researcher at McMaster University working before joining Perimeter in 2013. She loves sharing her passion for physics and astronomy with students, teachers and the public. | |
35 | 5 | Thinking Classrooms in Senior Physics Sean Jackson WRDSB A thinking classroom is a pedagogical approach where students are challenged to engage with content through collaboration, peer instruction and team problem solving. Rather than watching lectures, the hallmarks of this approach include random groupings, working at vertical surfaces, engaging thinking tasks and consolidation by the teacher. This session will not be a lecture, it'll be an experience! | Sean has been teaching high school physics for 17 years in Waterloo Region, most recently acting as a teacher-coach for WRDSB. He is also a former Teacher-in-Residence at Perimeter Institute and an on-going author with the Outreach team there. | |
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37 | Saturday, May 24 | |||
38 | Session E 9:00 - 10:00 | 1 | Climate Change Lessons in Grade 11 Physics Michelle Lee & Roberta Tevlin OCDSB & retired TDSB Climate change is not explicitly in the SPH3U curriculum, but the unit on Energy and Society is an easy place to start. But there are other connections that are less obvious. In this workshop, teachers will explore how the important content of climate change can be used to reinforce key concepts and skills in physics. Resources will be provided that will enable teachers to provide a climate change lesson at the end of each unit. These include activities that provide an empowering look at solutions. | Michelle is a physics and math teacher in Ottawa, Ontario. She is passionate about environmental issues and tries to bring this into all aspects of life. Michelle has really enjoyed and learned so much from fellow OAPT members, and wants to pay it forward by continuing the conversation. Roberta is a retired physics and science teacher in Toronto, Ontario. Her lifelong concern about the environment recently got kicked into hyper-drive when she learnt that climate change is now and not in the future. She believes that solutions are possible and that more people need to know this so they can get past despair and take action. Physics teachers are in a powerful position to help make this happen. |
39 | 2 | Teaching Relativity with Spacetime Diagrams Adam Mills WECDSB We will explore the use of spacetime diagrams and the spacetime interval as powerful tools for teaching relativity. The session will include a tutorial on creating spacetime diagrams digitally using Desmos. With these diagrams, we will examine and clarify scenarios like the twin paradox and the barn door paradox, demonstrating why they are not truly paradoxical. | Adam is a past president of the OAPT and is passionate about applying Physics Educational Research Principles in his classroom. He has been teaching for 18 years and each year hopes to get a little bit better. | |
40 | 3 | Make Your Gr. 12 Physics Course Problem Based! Dale Simnett PDSB Make your Grade 12 Physics course more relevant to learners. Last conference I asked for help creating questions that I can use as a foundation for learning. Come and find out how I took those problems and made Gr. 12 Physics problem based. The presentation will address why I think problems are important, what problems I used to structure the course, and how I structured my classroom routines around problems. You will receive the resources so you can try it too! | Dale Simnett studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Waterloo and Education at York University. He has been a physics teacher for the Peel District School Board since 2008. He has been experimenting with problem-based learning in physics over that past ten years to make course content more relevant for all learners. Some of the questions students have examined are: How do you wire a house for electricity? How does a quantum computer work? How do you get to another planet? | |
41 | 4 | Using Desmos Activity Builder in Science Andrea McPhee TDSB Desmos Activity Builder is just for math, right? Come see how you can use it in science with examples from 9/10 science & 11/2 physics. Labs? Vocabulary & concepts? Problem solving? Missing Gizmos? You name it, Desmos can probably help you with it. Activities are free and fairly easy to set up/modify; students have many ways to show their thinking; teachers can easily monitor and comment on student progress; and Desmos is designed to facilitate class discussions! This workshop is a chance to get really hands-on with Desmos. Bring your own device and an idea you’d like to Desmos-ify. Walk out with a classroom-ready activity. | Andrea teaches physics, science, and math in the TDSB, and gets a particular delight in stealing ideas from one subject to help teach the other. A life-long learner, she is constantly refining her teaching practice and exploring tools that will help make the learning stick. | |
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43 | Session F 10:15 - 11:30 | 1 | Hands On Fields Ashley McCarl Palmer Perimeter Institute and WRDSB Are you looking for a STEM related activity that is built around the engineering cycle? In this workshop participants will analyze proof-of-concept magnetohydrodynamic (MHD). Using their understanding of magnetic and electric fields, participants will then try to make it even better! This activity comes from Perimeter's Fields resource which was designed to engage high school students in the process of using physics models to explain how a technology works. | Ashley is a high school science teacher who has taught in Waterloo, Ontario since 2009. After completing her engineering degree Ashley entered teaching, taking an engineering approach to design the best possible conditions for learning. Ashley has a specialist in teaching Physics and is currently working on her Masters in Education, focusing on teaching in STEM fields. A long term member of Perimeter’s Teacher Network, Ashley currently holds her dream role as Teacher in Residence at Perimeter. As TIR Ashley gets to expand her understanding of physics, and work with teachers and students from all over the world. |
44 | 2a (30 min) | Advanced Curve Fitting in Desmos Eric Haller PDSB Come see how you can use Desmos to create curves of best fit, from fitting a simple parabola to a projectile's path, to fitting a much more complex exponentially-decaying sine function to describe a dampened harmonic oscillator, and more! | Eric Haller is a teacher with the Peel District School Board. He works at Peel's Virtual Secondary School, teaching physics live from his home to students attending synchronously from their homes. Eric also manages the OAPT's Newsletter, seeking out new articles, and providing edits and suggestions for the articles that come in. | |
45 | 2b (30 min) | Bringing SNOLAB Science Into Your Classroom Rachel Richardson & Juliette Deloye SNOLAB Dive deep into the science taking place 2km underground at SNOLAB; Canada's underground science laboratory specializing in astroparticle physics. In this session educators will get an update on science underway at the facility and learn about opportunities to bring that research into classrooms through virtual class visits. | The SNOLAB Education and Outreach (E&O) Office works to share the science of SNOLAB, Canada's deep underground science laboratory with students, educators, and members of the public through informative and engaging learning opportunities. The E&O team brings the excitement and innovation of the experiments underway in the lab to students and community members. They share SNOLAB science and the people behind it with the goal of supporting science literacy and inspiring the next generation of scientists, technicians, and innovators. | |
46 | 3 | CANCELLED: Physics in Action: Hands-On Challenges to Engage Grade 11 Students Mike Doig TDSB Join Mike as he demonstrates an interactive Forces unit challenge where students apply theory to predict "What will happen if…?" and then test their predictions. Attendees will step into the shoes of grade 11 students, working through the challenge and experimenting with their ideas. Time permitting, the session will also explore challenges from the Motion and Energy units. Leave with practical, hands-on strategies to excite and engage your physics class! | Mike Doig has been teaching grade 11 and 12 physics for over 15 years. In his classroom, students actively observe, question, and build mental models to explain the world around them. They use these models to predict “What would happen if…?” and test their ideas through experiments, learning from both their failures as well as their successes. Mike’s approach fosters curiosity, critical thinking, and a deeper understanding of physics concepts. | |
47 | 4 | Climate Change by Inquiry Chris Meyer TDSB What should we do when we learn science? Ask questions and perform experiments to find answers! Join Chris and explore his new inquiry-based climate change unit for grade 10 science. Students (you!) will construct a conceptual model that spans the full unit and addresses the question at the scientific heart of climate change: how does the Sun warm the Earth? | Chris has been teaching physics for 27 years and is a long-time contributor to the OAPT. | |
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