We are proud to have the following powerful letters of support:

• Paul Hewitt of City College of San Francisco is the author of the most widely used physics textbook in the world. He is a master teacher who has received the Milliken award for teaching by the AAPT.
• Eric Mazur and the Mazur Group at Harvard have been leading advocates of Peer Instruction in physics teaching and have led educational research efforts in this country.
• Clint Sprott is a nationally famous demonstrator as is his colleague, Bassam Shakhashiri in the Univ. of Wisconsin chemistry department. Both present annual public shows. The Sprott collection of 31 videos are the closest examples of we want to create.
• Tom Zepf of Creighton University is famous for his Haunted Lab and his presentation of science as a mystery to be solved. He is also a magician who debunks pseudoscience and teaches physics teacher workshops on the use of rope magic in the classroom.
• Paul Robinson of San Mateo High School is a master teacher at the high school level and has taught numerous New Teacher workshops for the Northern California-Nevada section of the AAPT. His workshops emphasize the use of physics demonstrations in the classroom and are always full. He is Section Representative and Historian of that section and holds its Distinguished Service Citation.
• Lynda Williams of Santa Rosa Junior College is the famous Physics Chanteuse. She is a master teacher, performer, and popularizer of science.
• Harvey Leff of Cal State University Pomona is a master teacher and locally famous demonstrator. He is a leading member of the Southern California section of the AAPT and served as chair of his department for many years before retiring. He is now the current President of the national American Association of Physics Teachers.. 

• John Hubisz of North Carolina State University in Raleigh. He is a master teacher and Past President of the national American Association of Physics Teachers.
• Joe Redish of University of Maryland. He is a master teacher and a leading researcher in physics education.

 

Paul Hewitt in his natural habitat, at the Blackboard in the lecture hall S100 at City College of San Francisco. National AAPT past president John Hubisz with Paul Hewitt at a national Winter Meeting.

Paul Hewitt is a famous master teacher and recipient of the Milliken award for excellence in teaching by the AAPT. He is the author of the most widely used physics textbooks in the world. His college level Conceptual Physics is now in its now in its ninth edition and has sold more copies than any other college physics textbook ever written. Written for the one-semester survey course, Physics 10 at the City College of San Francisco, his book has provided the stepping stone for many a non-science student to get “turned on” to physics and become a science student. When he first started teaching at City College in 1964, he had one section of Physics 10 with 16 students enrolled. By the time the first edition was published, in 1971, he had built that up to five sections of over 200 students each, capped only by fire regulations for the lecture hall. A quarter of the students graduating from City College in those days had taken his course as an elective, attracted to physics by his reputation as a wonderful teacher. His high school level book, first published in 1987, is now the most widely used high school physics textbook now in print. Starting life as a sign painter and cartoonist, Paul is known for his blackboard technique and has taught many national workshops on the subject for physics teachers. Samples of Hewit Drew-it can be found on his website.  Of this project, Hewitt has this to say: As you well remember, I packed 1000+ students into my classrooms each semester back in the 70s and 80s at CCSF some years back. And as you remember, showing and explaining demos was a large part of the draw of this number of students. And as we’ve previously discussed, the pity of demos in physics classes is too often that the point of them is lost on the students (who enjoy them anyway as entertainment). Encouraging new or even experienced teachers to make demos a part of their instruction is unwise unless correct interpretations of them are made. And always accompanied with questions to the students eliciting productive responses. How an instructor guides student thinking is an art that can be passed on, as I know you believe. So a library of experts showing demos, especially with their comments, would be a tremendous service to better physics teaching.

Harvey Leff of Cal State Polytechnic University, Pomona is a master teacher and locally famous demonstrator. He is currently President of the 10,000 member AAPT, has been a leading member of the Southern California section of AAPT, and served as Chair of his department for many years before retiring in 2005 As chair, Harvey was an inspiration to his faculty. His many accomplishments included encouraging and supporting department technicians in creating a first-rate department demonstration manual and developing a vibrant department seminar program that actually kept faculty and students on campus late Friday afternoons. “Styx” is a most unusual musician in that he did not take up his instrument until age 60, when his children bought him a drum set for his birthday. After learning a few beats, he joined the department stockroom technician and lab instructor, Jolene “Throte” Houser, for a few on-campus musical performances. After seeing them perform, the two of us joined with them to form the Out-Laws of Physics (http://www.outlawsofphysics.com). While the Out-Laws have yet to reach the dizzying professional heights of the Stones or the Beatles, we have great fun playing local gigs and raising funds for a new scholarship program in our department.

Harvey Leff in his natural habitat as lead drummer in the internationally unknown band Out-Laws of Physics

John Hibisz in his natural habitat, working with classroom teachers while wearing one specimen  from his fabulous collection of T-shirts.

John Hubisz is a master teacher who taught physics for 22 years at the College of the Mainland in Texas City, TX., where his colleagues nominated him five times for the Piper Professor of the Year Award. After retiring, he moved to North Carolina, where he is a Visiting Professor of Physics at North Carolina State, Raleigh. He has long been active in the Texas Section, North Carolina Section, and national AAPT. He has served as the national member-at-large on the AAPT Executive Board and has been awarded the Distinguished Service Citation. He served as national President of that organization and continues to serve on various committees. With the support of the Packard Foundation, he is currently engaged in evaluating middle-school science textbooks. He is interested in ways of teaching physics to the general public and students in grades K-14. He encourages students as well as the general public to examine unusual events, such as  claims of ancient astronauts, crop circles, the Bermuda Triangle, Bigfoot, UFOs, etc., in the light of the physics principles.

 

Eric Mazur holds a triple appointment as Harvard College Professor, Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics, and Professor of Physics at Harvard University. An internationally recognized scientist and researcher, he leads a vigorous research program in optical physics and supervises one of the the largest research groups in the Physics Department at Harvard University He has taught introductory physics at Harvard since 1984. In addition to leading a research program in optical physics, Mazur maintains an active interest in educational innovation. In 1991, Eric Mazur developed Peer Instruction, a simple yet effective method for teaching science. His approach involves students in the teaching process, making physics significantly more accessible to them. His technique has been highly successful and numerous instructors are already using Mazur's approach in their classes.

 

Edward F. (Joe) Redish is a Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland in College Park. He received his undergraduate degree Magna Cum Laude from Princeton University and his Ph.D. in theoretical nuclear physics from M.I.T. in 1968. He has been at the University of Maryland ever since, and served as Chairman of the Department of Physics and Astronomy there from 1982-1985. His research in nuclear theory emphasized the theory of reactions and the quantum few-body problem. As a nuclear theorist he served on the national Nuclear Science Advisory Committee and served as Chair of the Program Committee for the Indiana University Cyclotron. Since 1982 he has been actively involved in the subject of physics education. He was founder and co-principal investigator of the Maryland University Project in Physics Education and Technology (M.U.P.P.E.T.) and Comprehensive Unified Physics Learning Environment (CUPLE). His current research effort is devoted entirely to physics education. Currently he is doing research on on cognitive models of student thinking in physics, and on student difficulties with the use of mathematics in physics, especially upper division physics. For more information, see the homepage of the Physics Education Research Group (PERG) at the University of Maryland. Prof. Redish is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the AAAS, and the Washington Academy of Science. He has received awards for his work in education from the Washington Academy of Science, the Maryland Association for Higher Education, Dickinson College, Vanderbilt University, and the Robert A. Millikan Medal from the AAPT. In 2005, he received the NSF Director's award as a Distinguished Teaching Scholar. In 2006 he was named a Distinguished Scholar Teacher at the University of Maryland and in 2007 he received the University of Maryland Board of Regents Award for Teaching.

 

Clint Sprott is a nationally famous demonstrator as is his colleague, Bassam Shakhashiri in the Univ. of Wisconsin chemistry department. Both present annual public shows. The Sprott collection of 31 videos are the closest examples of we want to create. His popular show The Wonders of Physics aimed at a general audience has been presented over 180 times to a total audience of about 60,000 His research interests have been in experimental plasma physics. Before working on ion cyclotron resonance at the University of Wisconsin he did research at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory on an electron cyclotron heated mirror device (ELMO) and on the design of its toroidal successor (Elmo Bumpy Torus).

 

Tom Zepf taught physics for 40 years at Creighton University where he research is in solid state physics and laser optics. He received Creighton University's Distinguished Faculty Service Award in 1987 and the Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1997. He is famous for his Haunted Lab and his presentation of science as a mystery to be solved. He is also a magician who debunks pseudoscience and teaches physics teacher workshops on the use of rope magic in the classroom.

 

Paul Robinson of San Mateo High School is a master teacher at the high school level and has taught numerous New Teacher workshops for the Northern California-Nevada section of the AAPT. His workshops emphasize the use of physics demonstrations in the classroom and are always full. He is Section Representative and Historian of that section and holds its Distinguished Service Citation.

Paul Robinson sandwiched between his beds of nails, waiting for a blow from Paul Hewitt's hammer.

 

Lynda Williams of Santa Rosa Junior College is the famous Physics Chanteuse. She is a master teacher, performer, and popularizer of science.