Dr. Vasudeva Rao Aravind, assistant professor, Clarion University Department of Physics, was invited to present a plenary talk and conduct a teachers' workshop at the American Association of Physics Teachers (Mexico Section) Annual Meeting Nov. 17-20 in San Luis Potosi, Mexico.

Aravind's plenary talk was "Hands-on and Minds-on Physics Education." He described how involving activities and experimentation can make a physics class fun for the students and teachers alike. He also described some activities that faculty in the physics department at Clarion University conduct to communicate the beauty and excitement in physics.

Aravind's workshop was "Using Technology Tools to Enhance Understanding of Physics Concepts." Aravind went over many freely available applications on the internet that teachers can use to elucidate physics concepts to the students in their class.

"There is a popular misconception among students today that physics and engineering belong only to students who have sufficiently advanced math skills. This proves to be expensive to mankind in general, as many potential physicists are diffused into other professions. Although we use mathematics extensively to describe physical phenomena, the underlying concepts are what make physics interesting.

In this workshop and plenary talk, I shared my knowledge on a few of the multitude of opportunities available to be exploited in teaching physics to the present and future generation of students," Aravind said.

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