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On Sunday, February 15, 2009 Kristine Kurpiewski and Paul Shafer presented a paper at the 9th annual American Association of Physics Teachers – American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAPT-AAAS) meeting held at the Hyatt Hotel on Michigan Avenue, Chicago. They presented a paper entitled “Project‐Based Freshman Physics at Small Inner City High Schools” as part of an AAPT Symposium – “Early High School Physics‐Building a Foundation for Understanding the Sciences” led by Nobel-Prize winner, Dr. Leon Lederman. Their presentation was well received by those present. Many positive comments were received about how project‐based freshman physics at Aspira High Schools started and has changed in 5 years. People were impressed how inexpensive projects built by 9th graders out of scrap wood, pop bottles, old radiators, mouse traps and other “junk” materials could lead to very rich experiments and experiential engaged learning for students. Paul Shafer was asked to come back on Monday to work with an AAPT panel on discussing how freshman physics could be improved, enriched and project ideas shared. People were very interested in how we are planning to incorporate Earth Space Dynamics into the freshman physics curriculum, so that formulas that students have previously learned in conceptual and applied physics could be used in the last quarter of the freshman year to help students understand the real power of earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, tsunamis, meteor impacts and gravitational attraction between planets and moons. Diamond Montana & Monica Gomez contributed to this paper.
