Tim Vitale set to come back with cutting-edge particle physics information for students
The summer months are not all sunshine and days off for teachers. Lesson planning takes up much of their time along with professional development, classroom organization, faculty training and more.
Tim Vitale, Clearview Regional High School physics teacher, will be doing all of this and spending most of July in Geneva, Switzerland, — working.
Vitale just finished his fifth year as an educator, all spent at Clearview teaching physics.
During those five years, he has remained cognizant that teachers are lifelong learners and the landscape of education is constantly changing.
Last May, Vitale received a master’s degree in teacher leadership from Rowan University.
“It is really about helping my colleagues and being a leader in my department,” Vitale said.
He added, “What I’m good at is helping people with technology and showing teachers how to incorporate technology in the classroom.”
While he feels implementing new technology into the curriculum is important, Vitale also believes curriculum focused on high school physics is in need of revamping.
Affiliated with the nonprofit QuarkNet, an organization focused on helping educators modernize their curriculum via conferences and other venues, Vitale applied for a three-week stay in Geneva to visit CERN, a laboratory on the Franco-Swiss border.
The acronym, translated from French, means European Council for Nuclear Research.
CERN’s laboratory is a scientific research partnership between 22 European countries and is the home to the world’s most advanced particle accelerators and detectors.
Vitale is one of five high school teachers from the U.S. chosen to partake in the three-week program that includes workshops, lectures and curriculum-building activities based around particle physics.
“Particle physics is the most fundamental physics, which is the study of particles that make up what we used to think were the most fundamental particles — protons, neutrons, electrons. Protons and neutrons we now know are made up of even smaller particles. It is the study of how those particles interact and make up bigger particles,” he said.
Vitale said his time spent in Geneva will assist him with further modernizing Clearview’s physics curriculum.
“The exciting part is that a lot of the time I teach Newtonian physics and physics invented in the 1600s and 1700s. And what we call modern physics really happened in the late 1800s to 1950s,” he said.
However, Vitale noted new particles have been discovered recently at CERN and his trip to the laboratory will enable him to introduce his students to this “cutting-edge” information.
However, there is more Vitle is excited about.
“I think I am looking forward to meeting teachers from different countries and getting their perspectives,” he said adding that even meeting educators from other schools in the state or country is valuable but the prospect of different cultures is thrilling.
Vitale aims to introduce his students to up-to-date information and allow for hands-on activities to increase student interest.
Last summer, through the same nonprofit, Vitale took a trip to Greece for a shorter but similar event.
