Contributed Poster Sessions:

These are "standard" poster sessions like you'd see at AAPT and other conferences.

Parallel Sessions:

There are many opportunities to engage at the conference. Check out the formats, choose what suits your work best, and submit a proposal. Deadlines for contributed abstracts can be found right after parallel session descriptions below.

• Juried Talks: The submission process for juried talks this year follows the format of PERC 2019: presenters will submit extended abstracts describing their work.  These abstracts will then be reviewed by reviewers selected by PERCOGs, PERLOC, and RiPE, with a final decision being made by the organizing committee.  More details about the juried talks process can be found at this link, along with the submission.
• Poster Symposium: In a poster symposium (formerly known as targeted poster session), the organizer chooses a theme and invites several presenters to prepare posters on their work as it is related to the theme. Generally a poster symposium will include 3-5 posters and will include time for attendees to visit each poster as well as a closing whole-group discussion.  We also encourage organizers to be creative with both the formats and content of these types of sessions, as they may have the potential to foster more interactive dialogue and engagement.
• Talk Symposium: In a talk symposium, the organizer chooses a theme and invites several speakers to present talks on this theme. Generally this will include 3-5 talks with or without a discussant who can lead a group discussion following the talks.  As with the poster session, organizers are encouraged to think about ways to expand beyond the “traditional” format and envision new ways, in line with the conference format, to engage participants and attendees.
• Workshop: Workshops generally involve one or more leaders and a group of participants working on a shared task, often for the purpose of learning more about a research methodology or program.
• Custom Format: Round Table Discussions, Interactive Poster Symposia, or Modified Poster Symposia/Workshops, as well as novel community-generated formats for breakout sessions may be proposed. To propose a custom session, please select "Custom format" and describe your session's requirements in the available fields.

We would like to exhort all organizers, even those whose content does not explicitly address informal STEM education, to consider ways of embodying and taking advantage of this year’s PERC theme. Sessions that foster deeper community engagement, prompt novel ways of thinking about physics education research, promote a more inclusive physics education research community, etc., are strongly encouraged.

For examples of each type of session from the most recent PERC, you may wish to consult the abstracts:

• Example of Talk Symposium
• Example of Poster Symposium
• Example of Workshop
• Example of Juried Talks
• Example of Discussion
• Example of Interactive Poster Symposium
• Example of Modified Poster Symposium/workshop

Important Dates

January 16, 2020: Parallel session and juried talk proposal submission opened

March 14, 2020: Abstracts for contributed posters opens

March 27, 2020: Parallel session proposal and juried talk abstract deadline

March 28, 2020: Paper submission opened

June 5, 2020: First round of paper-eligible poster abstracts and their papers are due

June 12, 2020: Second round of PERC paper submission opened.

June 19, 2020: Poster abstracts and any associated papers were due

Answers to anticipated questions

1. What abstracts are paper-eligible?
   Contributed poster abstracts are eligible as long as they are submitted by the paper-eligible deadline above. PERLOC and the editors have extended the paper deadline to the poster deadline of June 19 for those impacted by world events.
2. Does my poster or breakout session have to be on the conference theme?
   No. We encourage submissions on the conference theme but any strong PER work is appropriate for the conference. In the event that there are many more submissions than slots, connection to the conference theme or PERLOC recurring strands may be a secondary selection criterion.
3. How many proposals can I submit?
   There is no limit on proposals. Please note however that the PERC proceedings have a limit of one paper per primary author.
4. How do these deadlines differ from past years?
   The paper deadline has been moved up by approximately 4 weeks. The late June deadline was previously only open to undergraduate students, and it is now available to faculty as well.
5. Why is the paper deadline earlier?
   Because the PERC Proceedings will have double-confidential review this year, the review process will occur before the conference and the editors need to receive the papers earlier. In order to allow conference attendees to present their work, we have a later poster-only deadline. We encourage undergraduate students in REU or other summer research programs to have time to assemble abstracts on their summer work.

Now that you know everything about 2020 PERC, check out the important dates above and, please, do not miss the deadlines.

Thank you for making this 2020 PERC happen!