Sunday, June 13, 2021
By:
This week I continued to work on finding professional development information for the states. I've researched approximately half of them at this point, which should cover a vary large percentage of AAPT members. Luckily most of them don't have any formal application process, and for the others I hope that we can get some applications in this summer.
I also attended some more meetings this week, including for STEP UP (promoting women in physics) and for the initiative to get ideas behind quantum mechanics and quantum computing into K-12 classrooms. Quantum mechanics is a difficult and unituitive subject, so it is a tough and interesting problem to present it to younger students.
Recently, I have been trying to figure out what I need to do after my undergraduate studies to become a physics teacher. There are many possible paths and I have no idea which one I should take. With all of those meetings, I continue to meet new people in the AAPT and physics education community. Everyone has been really nice and welcoming, and I hope that some of these connections I make can give me some advice and help me figure out my future. I would like to thank Brad for communicating the importance of networking in his workshop this week.
This week also presented a few opportunities to socialize with the other interns. We have played a lot of scriblio and gotten to know each other a little better. I am looking forward to spending the rest of the summer with this group of interns.
Life in West Lafayette hasn't changed much. It has been unbearably hot and humid during the day, but sometimes it's nice to go out for a bike ride after work. This weekend some friends from home visited, and we went to a local board game cafe called Merlin's Beard. Lastly, I am excited to announce that my SPS chapter has finally fixed our motor couch (pictured below), and I would like to thank everyone (pictured and unpictured) who put in time to work on it. The couch has already been through a McDonalds drive-through!
Until next week,
Alan Wright