Sunday, July 23, 2023
By:
Hello everyone. I’m actually writing this in the airport waiting for my flight back to D.C. It got delayed an hour, and now I have some time to kill. I figured I should be productive and write my blog. As you might know, this past week I was in Sacramento, California for the AAPT and PERC conference. It was an exhausting week, but for many good reasons.
Monday was my big presentation day! I got up nice and early and headed to the first-timers gathering where I learned some insider info about the conferences. Quickly after, I went to set up for my presentation. I honestly was not that nervous. I presented my work from my REU last summer where I worked with Dr. Geraldine Cochran. The presentation went realty well, and I got a lot of nice compliments from many people afterwards. I was really proud to finally present the work I had been working on for the past year at a conference as big as this one. After, I went to my friend Vanni’s talk. Vanni attended Lafayette with me, so it was good to catch up. Then, I went down to the exhibit hall and met Bree and Bryn from the STEP UP program. I had met Bree online last week, so it was nice to quickly say hello in real life and not through a computer screen. I ate lunch with AAPT intern Melissa, her mentor, and Jack Hehn. We had a really good conversation about the internship and the conference. *Tip for future interns: Talk to Jack! He has so many interesting stories and a lot of great advice.* After lunch I attended a few more talks, including Melissa’s, and snagged a free cupcake. I had dinner with Sierra, who is a grad student that is also helping my mentor Nicole with PhysicsQuest, specifically the web-design. I met her on a zoom call during my first week, so it was nice to have a familiar face in the area. I was so tired by the end of day 1 that I went to bed around 9:30.
On Tuesday I went to a K-12 session with STEP UP. Again, I’m not a teacher, but Nicole had encouraged me to meet the STEP UP team since I am sort of working with that program as part of my edits to PQ. It was really interesting to hear teachers explain the impact of the STEP UP lessons in their classrooms. After this talk I found out one of my Lafayette professors, Professor Stonaha, was actually attending the conference. I had to miss his talk but I was able to catch him in the exhbit hall. I also met Michael Wittmann, APS’s Head of Education, in the exhibit hall. We met on zoom a few weeks prior, and it was very nice to meet an APS employee in real life. We talked a bit about APS and my internship, and then headed to the plenary session. For lunch I met Professor Ben Pollard from WPI. We were put in contact through APS employee Sarah Monk, and we had a great conversation about graduate school in PER, and PER in general. He was even able to give me a list of programs that I should consider for graduate school. It was a great conversation, and he is definitely a contact I will keep in case I have further questions. After a quick nap I went to the PERCOGS student networking session. Not many attended which always makes things a bit awkward, but I still was greeted with friendly faces. Here I learned a bit about what PERCOGS is. (It is a group of graduate students who all do PER.) I then attended a poster session where I met Chandra Turpin, who Ruthie suggested I meet, and Diana Sachmpazidi. I read a lot of Diana’s work for my research and it was great to finally put a face to the name. She even said she was interested in collaborating with us- how cool! I went to dinner with Sierra again. We were supposed to go with someone Sierra had met, but he ended up leaving before we got to the restaurant. It was so bizarre, and Sierra and I could not stop laughing about it.
On Wednesday I slept in a little bit but made it in time for Sierra’s presentation about her work with PhysicsQuest. I was even given a shoutout! I then went to Liam McDermott’s presentation. He was my grad student mentor last summer and he gave a great talk on his research in neurodivergence in physics. Actually, on this trip I was able to meet all of Dr. Cochran’s students in person, many of which I had talked to on zoom calls before. We took a group pic (see below). I then went to the Plenary with Rachel Ivie from AIP. I felt special since I knew her and worked in the same office as her for these last few weeks. She gave a really good presentation presenting a lot of statistics about people doing physics and astronomy. After seeing Brad, I was invited to a SPS lunch. It was a little out of the blue but I could not say no to this special SPS lunch. I even made it on Brad’s Instagram. I will be signing autographs! When I returned to the conference center, I attended the PERC bridging session and then presented my poster. I think I talked to about 10 different people, all who were so impressed with my work. It felt really good to hear all of the feedback and compliments. I also realized that my research mentor, Dr. Cochran, is pretty famous in the PER world. I consider myself really lucky that I got to work with her. I then had dinner with Téa and Nax, who are some of the research students in my group.
I’m writing this on Thursday and it has been a LOONNGGG day. I stayed in my room until I had to check out at 12, but then had about 10 more hours to kill. I got lunch, attended the last PERC poster session, and then sat in the hotel lobby. I sat in the same spot for almost 6 hours and left once to get myself dinner. I watched a lot of dance moms and also called my sister. Samantha if you're reading this here is your shoutout. I am now at the airport waiting for my flight…
This conference was overwhelming, but in all of the right ways. I met so many incredible people and built connections that will definitely help me in my future. It did also make me confused about what I want to do post-grad. There are just so many options. I definitely have a lot to think about, but the PER community is definitely one I would like to stay involved with in one way or another. Big shoutout to Dr. Cochran, her other research students, Rutgers, and Nicole for letting me take a few days off to come to California.
-------
Hey to whoever is reading this! I’m back in Foggy Bottom. After a long and delayed flight I returned back to Foggy Bottom Friday around 10 am. I then proceeded to basically sleep and recover for the next two days. I think I am finally back on East Coast timing. It is now Sunday and I just got back from the National Museum of African American History and Culture with Emily and Hannah. I heard so many great things about this place, and it did not disappoint. We were there for 3 hours and only explored the main exhibit. I will definitely have to come back and do the rest in the future.
Thanks for reading! Check out the photos below :)
Jenna Tempkin