Physics and Society Education

This is the home of "Physics and Society Education" (Physoc). We are an interest group within the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT). We focus on ways in which awareness and knowledge of societal topics with a physics component can be incorporated in physics classes and in programs of the AAPT, and be more widely discussed in the physics community and disseminated to the public. Among the topics that have concerned us are energy and the problems related to its sources and the ways it is being used, the environment and the sustainability of resources, arms control, and pseudoscience. We meet at the national summer meetings of the AAPT, and in cyberspace at other times.

An important way for us to communicate with each other is through the "PHYSOC" e-mail list. To join, send a message to Art Hobson with your name and e-mail address.

This website was started in October 2004. Its links to related sites, to news, reviews, and articles on energy, population and sustainablility are being added to gradually. The "Teachers Clearinghouse Newsletter for Science and Society Education" is now archived here. There is also a link to Art Hobson's newspaper column on issues of science and society.

The website is being maintained and edited by Peter Lindenfeld at Rutgers University. Please send your comments and suggestions to him at lindenf@physics.rutgers.edu. The most recent additions and revisions were made in November 2016 with the addition of the latest issue (Fall 2016) of the Teachers Clearinghouse Newsletter. (Art's newspaper columns get added automatically when they appear.)