Invitation to ICTP Colloquium on Wednesday 22 November 2017: "What Research on Learning Tells Us About Teaching Physics", by Prof. Helen Quinn

[ICTP Director]

Dear All,

ICTP is pleased to announce that the forthcoming ICTP Colloquium, "What 
Research on Learning Tells Us About Teaching Physics", by Prof. Helen 
Quinn, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford University, will 
take place *next week, on Wednesday 22 November at 16:30 hrs*, in the 
Budinich Lecture Hall, Leonardo Building, ICTP.

BIOSKETCH: Helen Quinn, originally from Australia, is Professor Emerita 
of Particle Physics and Astrophysics at SLAC National Accelerator 
Laboratory. She received her Ph.D in physics at Stanford in 1967. She 
has taught physics at both Harvard and Stanford and is an 
internationally recognized theoretical physicist who holds the ICTP 
Dirac Medal, the Klein Medal (from The Swedish National Academy of 
Sciences and Stockholm University) as well as the Sakurai Prize (from 
the American Physical Society) and the Compton medal (from the American 
Institute of Physics, awarded once every 4 years). She is a member of 
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of 
Science and the American Philosophical Society. She is a Fellow and 
former president of the American Physical Society. Dr. Quinn has been 
active in science education for some years. She served as Chair of the 
US National Academy of Science Board on Science Education (BOSE) from 
2009-2014 and as a member of the BOSE study that developed the report 
“Taking Science to School” as well as chairing the committee for the 
“Framework for K-12 Science Education”, which is the basis of the Next 
Generation Science Standards (NGSS) that have now been adopted by 
multiple states in the US. In 2015 Helen was appointed by the President 
of Ecuador as a member of the initial “Comision Gestora” to help guide 
the development of the National University of Education of Ecuador.

ABSTRACT: Almost all physicists are also physics teachers during their 
career. We all learned, so we think we know how to teach. But teaching 
as you were taught is unlikely to be the best approach. Repeated 
experiments at many Universities and with many students, have 
demonstrated what works and what does not. Dr. Quinn will summarize the 
work of physics education research, and talk about how to become a more 
effective teacher by paying attention to what this research has shown.

The abstract of the talk is available at http://indico.ictp.it/event/8244/

The Colloquium will be livestreamed at ictp.it/livestream

The poster is attached.

Light refreshments will be served after the lecture.

You are all very warmly invited to attend.

Office of the Director, ICTP