Association for Physics Teaching (AIF)

(Founded in 1962)

Aim
To promote and contribute to the improvement of education in physics.

Membership
Somewhat more than 2000, divided in:

• individual members (about 1400)
• schools and collective members (about 800)

The individual members are mainly secondary school teachers of physics or physics and mathematics. A small percentage are university professors with a special interest in education.

Organization
Steering Committee: a nine-person Steering Committee is chaired by a President. The President and the other eight members of the Steering Committee are elected every three years.

Working Groups and Committees: "Ad hoc" Working Groups and Committees are organized in view of special tasks or with attention to special fields and/or aspects of physics teaching. Some working groups are permanent, others stand with the task.
Examples of permanent working groups are:
In-service teacher training, Physics in compulsory education (6-13), History of physics, Physics Olympiads, Foreign Relations, Committees administrating and evaluating the two annual prizes and awards offered by AIF.
Temporary Working Groups usually are set up when the Association is called on to perform surveys for the Ministery of Education.

Local Sections: a Local Section can be founded wherever at least 8 members agree to do so. To date about 50 Local Sections are open throughout Italy, with varying degrees of activity. The activities of the local sections are usually centered on organizing in-service courses for teachers.

Publications
Ordinary communication with members is held through regular issues of the 60-page quarterly journal "La Fisica nella Scuola" (LFnS), its biannual special issues (the thematical "Quaderni", the Proceedings of Meetings organized or co-organized by AIF, the texts of national and international contests related to the Physics Olympiads) and the Association's biannual 60-page newsletter "Notiziario".
The responsibility of publications lies with the President but the editing of the main journal LFnS is usually entrusted to a member of the Steering Committee.
The ordinary issues of LFnS are fed by unsolicited articles submitted by AIF members and by others and, furthermore, by articles from foreign journals, usually translated by the Foreign Relations Committee. The articles are refereed.
Topics for the thematical issues are proposed by groups of members with special interests who take up the task of collecting and editing the contents. Examples of Quaderni topics are: Science and Toys, History of Physics in Physics Teaching, Teaching quantum physics, Labs and computers in Physics Teaching.
Furthermore, the book "Guida al Laboratorio di Fisica", Zanichelli, 1995, ISBN 88-08-09036-1, contains a selection of materials on school physic experiments from "La Fisica nella Scuola".

Meetings
Meetings are of two kinds:

1. One annual four-day National Congress at the end of October. The Congress activities include: four invited lectures on the Congress general theme (in 1996, for example, "Physics and the other sciences"); one round-table or forum on an issue of general educational policy (in 1996, "Perspectives for science education in Europe"); parallel sessions of members' communications and papers; four parallel topical workshops; members' general assembly.
2. One biennial topical Conference (Conferenza Orlandini), co-organized by AIF and SIF (Societa' Italiana di Fisica), held in Spring. Examples of Orlandini Conferences are: "Teaching the second law of Thermodynamics", "Teaching about radioactivity", "The laser in physics teaching", "The role of problem-solving in physics education", "The role of practical work in physics education", etc.

Awards and Prizes
AIF organizes two prizes each year:

• the Cesare Bonacini Prize for experimental work by groups of pupils, separately for middle (11-13) and secondary (14-19) school;
• the Antonella Bastai Prat Award for the year's best final dissertation on physics teaching at the end of University.

The two events are funded by the Bonacini Fund and the Bastai Prat Fund respectively.

Exchanges with other Associations
In Italy, AIF is in good relations with the other Italian organizations that are involved with teaching science and science-related topics in schools, such as Educational Section of SCI (Societa' Chimica Italiana), ANISN (Associazione Nazionale Insegnanti di Scienze Naturali), Educational Section of SAIt (Societa' Astronomica Italiana), Mathesis (Mathematical Society).
Since many years, AIF nurtures direct relationships with foreign (mostly European) Science Teaching Associations and Organizations: ASE (UK), UdP (France), MNU (Germany), NVON (The Netherlands), VeLeWe (Belgium), SSPMP/VSMP/SSIMF (Switzerland), APFA (Argentina).
Other international links are realized through AIF's membership to ICASE (International Council of Associations for Science Education).

Contracts
The Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione (Ministery of Education) entrusts AIF with the performance of special tasks.
Since the beginning of Italy's participation in the International Physics Olympiads, AIF takes care of the nationwide selection and final preparation of the Italian team.
Occasionally AIF performs national surveys on different aspects of science teaching in schools (such as modes of implementation and effectiveness of new curricula).

For information e-mail to Luigi Gambetti: cgambetti@linknet.it