Rochester Community and Technical College (RCTC) is excited to announce that physics instructor Rod Milbrandt, Ph.D., was selected to be part of the Temple/American Association of Physics Teachers group of the NASA Heliophysics Education Activation Team (HEAT). Milbrandt was one of only eight instructors selected to participate in the training in San Juan, Puerto Rico, from June 28 – 30, 2022.
The NASA Heliophysics training materials were produced for introductory physics teaching at the community college and university levels with applicability across secondary education. The training materials included integrated physics and heliophysics content. Materials topics addressed were velocity of coronal mass ejections, stellar spectra and their interactions with planetary atmospheres, and terrestrial magnetism and the heliosphere.
As one of the eight participants, Milbrandt is considered a Temple/AAPT NASA HEAT “Space Physics Ambassador,” and has developed leadership plans to offer professional development using these materials to other physics educators across the country. NASA’s Heliophysics Education Team reaches 341 teachers in 23 states and 7 countries. The materials and training will impact thousands of students.
NASA HEAT identifies a different theme each year for which all partners can collaborate and create educational resources. Access the resources developed by the Temple/AAPT team: https://aapt.org/Resources/NASA_HEAT.cfm
The NASA HEAT project is supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number 80NSSC21K1560 and is part of NASA’s Science Activation Portfolio. Learn more about NASA HEAT: https://science.nasa.gov/science-activation-team/nasa-heliophysics-education-activation-team.
Rod Milbrandt, PhD has taught in RCTC’s Physics Department since 2002. He earned his B.A. from St. Olaf College, followed by two M.S. degrees and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. For further information about NASA HEAT training, contact rod.milbrandt@rctc.edu.