Calvin Prof Honored by State Association

From: Phil deHaan (dehp@calvin.edu)
Date: Tue Apr 29 2003 - 09:57:04 EDT

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    April 29, 2003 == MEDIA ADVISORY

    Calvin College physics professor David Van Baak is the 2003 winner of a
    Physics Education Distinguished Service Award.

    The award is presented annually "in recognition of dedication and significant
    contributions to physics education" by the Michigan Section of the American
    Association of Physics Teachers (MIAAPT).
    http://www.aapt.org/Sections/officers.cfm?section=Michigan

    Interestingly the MIAAPT award program is sponsored by Ann Arbor-based Arbor
    Scientific, Inc. That company makes a variety of physics-education equipment,
    including a spectrum demonstration kit that Van Baak invented for a talk he
    once gave at an MIAAPT meeting.

    The kit, which sells for $19 and is described by Van Baak as "very simple but
    visually pleasing," allows physics teachers to use their overhead projector to
    project a broad, bright spectrum of light onto a classroom wall. It includes
    color filters to show color addition and subtraction and an "anti-slit" mask to
    show complementary colors.

    Van Baak is known across the state for his work in physics education.

    "David has regularly made presentations at meetings (of the MIAAPT)," says
    Paul Zitzewitz of the University of Michigan at Dearborn. "These presentations
    are models of innovation and elegance and have been appreciated by teachers in
    high schools, community colleges and universities."

    For a pic of the award see
    http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2002_03/vanbaak.htm

    -end-



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