The Florida Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers will hold its Spring meeting in Avon Park. The Friday evening dinner will be at 6:30 p.m. This will be followed by a talk on Electron Microscope Technology by Brenda Prenitzer, CEO of NanoSpective Inc.

NanoSpective Inc. is a materials characterization company founded in 2002. Dr. Prenitzer holds a B.S. in Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering with the Materials Science option. Both degrees are from the University of Central Florida. Her primary professional focus has been on materials characterization using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and related microanalytical techniques including energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (X-EDS), electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and energy filtered transmission electron microscopy (EFTEM). Prior to founding NanoSpective, Dr. Prenitzer spent four years at Agere Systems using TEM in the evaluation of integrated circuit and opto-electronic devices, two years at the UCF Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers (CREOL), and two years at the UCF Materials Characterization Facility (MCF). Dr. Prenitzer's areas of technical expertise include optical and electronic materials as well as the theory and application of the ion-solid interactions that govern sputtering processes. She is the co-author on over 45 publications, and has presented at numerous national and international conferences.

The Saturday session will be held at the new science facility at SFCC. We'll begin at 8:30 a.m.with a panel discussion on physics for non-science majors. FLAAPT members who are involved in teaching physics to non-physics major are asked to volunteer to participate on the panel. This will be followed by presentations by participants focusing on tools for physics teaching. Participants are encouraged to share favorite demonstrations, teaching techniques for the laboratory, uses of technology in teaching, and other resources for physics teaching. We would also ask that those participants who attended the AAPT Winter meeting in Baltimore present about the highlights of the meeting.

Following lunch, workshops will be scheduled from 1 pm. - 3 p.m.

The meeting is open to all high school, community college, and university physics teachers and their guests. For more information, contact

Frank Lock
Lemon Bay H.S.
2201 Placida Rd.
Englewood , FL 34224
Phone: 941-475-1578
e-mail: faster lock@ewol.com