On behalf of the American Association of Physics Teachers, thank you for encouraging your students, Ryan Alexander Green and Aija Mayrock, to participate in the 2012 AAPT High School Physics Photo Contest. This year’s contest will be held in conjunction with the AAPT Summer Meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 28-August 1. Following a preliminary round of judging, the top 100 photos will be displayed at the meeting and attendees will be able to vote on them. Meeting attendees always express amazement at the level of photographic skills and physics understanding exhibited in the photos and essays.

With more than 1,200 submissions, the competition was tough! I am pleased to advise you that Ryan Alexander Green’s photo, “gravity”, and Aija Mayrock’s photo “Roman Sky”, made it into the top 100 this year. Your support helped to make this contest a very successful one. If you are interested in viewing the winning photos, they will be on display following the meeting on the AAPT website at http://www.aapt.org/programs/contests/winners.cfm.

For many years this contest has provided teachers and students an opportunity to learn about the physics behind natural and contrived situations by creating visual and written illustrations of various physical concepts. Students compete in an international arena with more than 1,200 of their peers for recognition and prizes.

Thank you, again, for participating in this year’s contest. We hope that you enjoyed sharing this experience with your students and will continue to support High School Physics Photo Contest.

Sincerely,

Beth A. Cunningham
Executive Officer