Big Bend Community College
For immediate release
April 8, 2008
MOSES LAKE – Representatives from REC Silicon and the Grant County PUD will address the theme of energy at the Pacific Northwest Association for College Physics annual conference at Big Bend Community College this week.
The conference will be held Friday and Saturday, April 11-12, in ATEC, Building 1800 on the BBCC campus. Approximately 50 physics instructors and some physics students from colleges and universities across the Pacific Northwest will be in attendance.
“All of us hope to learn new things we can take back to our own schools and introduce in our classrooms,” said Jim Hamm, BBCC physics instructor. “For those of us teaching in departments of one, it is also a chance to talk with others in our subject area and renew our enthusiasm for teaching.”
Grant County PUD Director of Power Management Kevin Nordt and Shawn Bowen from REC will both make presentations. Former U.S. Congressman Mike McCormack will address the group during a banquet Friday evening.
Diandra Leslie-Pelecky, author of The Physics of NASCAR, will deliver a speech titled “Building Speed: From Nanomaterials to NASCAR” Saturday. The book was recently favorably reviewed in Time and Popular Science. Leslie-Pelecky teaches at the University of Nebraska.
Other presentation topics include biodiesel, stars, technology and thermodynamics.
The Pacific Northwest Association for College Physics was created in the 1960s to promote improvements in the teaching of college physics. Members are from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Alaska.
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Catherine Holestine
Big Bend Community College
Public Information Officer
509.793.2003
www.bigbend.edu