Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2016 PhysTEC Conference
Volume 61, Number 1
Friday–Sunday, March 11–13, 2016; Baltimore, Maryland
Session W7C: WORKSHOP 7C |
Hide Abstracts |
Room: BRIGHTONS |
Saturday, March 12, 2016 4:45PM - 4:57PM |
W7C.00001: Secondary Education Recruiting Efforts at Boise State University Tiffany Watkins, Daryl Macomb The Physics Department at Boise State University is experiencing strong growth amidst significant changes in the degree program and academic environment. Boise State is the largest-enrollment university in the state of Idaho, and has primarily been an undergraduate institution, although there are an increasing number of graduate programs and a growing research emphasis, particularly in the STEM fields. Historically we have always offered a secondary education degree, but have seen very few graduates. Two and a half years ago Boise State University became a U-Teach replication site, and more recently received a PhysTEC recruiting grant. We describe the student population, academic setting, and historical trends for our secondary education majors, changes to the degree program and our current and future recruiting efforts. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, March 12, 2016 4:57PM - 5:09PM |
W7C.00002: Building the Sonoma State University Physics Teacher Pipeline Scott Severson We present an array of changes that represent our concerted effort to recruit students into high school physics teaching pathways and to develop a supportive structure for students to gain teaching experiences during their undergraduate years at Sonoma State University. These include: the creation of an active PhysTEC community on campus including a part-time Teacher-in-Residence; The establishment of a Teacher Advisory Group that we call Physics in our Neighborhood (PION); the development of recruiting materials, including a well-received promotional poster for our department with a teaching focus and participation of our students; the coordination with our campus tutoring program to incorporate Physics majors as Supplemental Instructors following concepts of the successful CU-Boulder Learning Assistant model; and the incorporation of PhysTEC inspired ideas in our recent Department of Physics & Astronomy Program Review and subsequent program changes. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, March 12, 2016 5:09PM - 5:21PM |
W7C.00003: The OK PhysTEC Collaborative Steven Maier, Jennifer Sattler The OK PhysTEC Collaborative consists of the four PhysTEC member institutions of Oklahoma. The goal of the project is to increase the number of physics education candidates statewide over a three-year span (2014/15 -- 2016/17 academic years). To do this, high school and undergraduate students are being recruited into physics and science education programs. In addition, support for travel to physics education conferences is offered to high school teachers, undergraduate physics students, and in-service physics teachers. Participating institutions include Northwestern Oklahoma State University (lead institution), East Central University, Oklahoma State University, and Southwestern Oklahoma State University. In this poster, recruitment efforts to date will be reported, along with summaries of enrollments, program changes motivated by the project, and challenges that remain. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, March 12, 2016 5:21PM - 5:57PM |
W7C.00004: Recruiting More Physics Education Majors at the University of Wyoming Invited Speaker: Daniel Dale The University of Wyoming has recently ramped up its recruitment of future high school physics teachers. One effort focuses on training local high students to develop and give public shows in our new digital planetarium. Another effort recruits STEM-educated officers from a local military base to our Noyce program. We will report on all our activities and our latest numbers of physics education majors and post-baccalaureate students pursuing physics teacher certification. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, March 12, 2016 5:57PM - 6:33PM |
W7C.00005: PhysTEC Recruiting Grant at Salisbury University Invited Speaker: Gail Welsh The Salisbury University (SU) Physics Department offers a Bachelor of Science degree in physics, including a track in Secondary Education as a collaborative program with the Department of Education Specialties. SU is one of nine sites selected for the PhysTEC Recruiting Grants, which began in fall 2014. Our recruitment plan consists of three inter-linked parts: marketing, early teaching experiences, and a part-time teacher in residence. We will describe our internal and external marketing activities which include the production of various promotional materials highlighting physics teaching and developing an online presence with a Physics Teaching website as well as Facebook and Twitter pages. Our early teaching experiences consist of opportunities for physics majors to be employed as leaders in SU's Supplemental Instruction (SI) program and through our Teaching Exploration Program (TEP) which offers placements in the local schools to provide potential physics teachers with early teaching experiences with pre-college students. We hired a part-time Teacher in Residence who is a retired physics teacher with mentoring experience. She met the students in the TEP at the schools, provided orientation, and introduced them to the teachers with whom they were placed. We will share student response to and the impact of the SI and TEP experiences. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, March 12, 2016 6:33PM - 7:09PM |
W7C.00006: IUSB-PMT’s – a PhysTEC recruiting initiative at Indiana University South Bend Invited Speaker: Jerry Hinnefeld The focus of the PhysTEC recruiting initiative at Indiana University South Bend (IUSB) is a pairing of physics with mathematics. The goal is to increase our rate of production of physics teachers from 0.2/year in the five years preceding the project to 2/year, either as physics majors with a math minor or as math majors with a physics minor. Key elements of our initiative include identifying – and creating – multiple pathways to licensure; creating opportunities for meaningful early teaching experiences facilitated by a part-time Teacher in Residence; and development of a robust Learning Assistant program from an existing program of tutoring and supplemental instruction. This presentation will describe our progress and challenges in each of these areas. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, March 12, 2016 7:09PM - 7:45PM |
W7C.00007: The 4+1 physics teacher preparation pathway at UMass Dartmouth Invited Speaker: Jay Wang We describe the PhysTEC recruitment project at UMass Dartmouth. Our goal is to build an interdisciplinary model to increase the number of qualified physics teachers via targeted recruiting and streamlined pathways for teacher preparation. The Physics Department and the STEM Education and Teacher Development Department have established a 4+1 physics teacher preparation pathway (PTPP) to streamline the pathways to becoming a fully licensed physics teacher in a five-year program. We put concerted effort on aligning the BS & MS programs with a formal plan of study which leads to Physics BS/MATi (4+1 pathway) degrees. This carefully designed, intentional program replaces the ad-hoc routes students have previously taken. After the 5-year PTPP program, a student will be well prepared in both physics content and education courses to be a highly qualified and certified Physics teacher. We also built into the project successful components of other existing projects including strong outreach and teacher in residence. The 4+1 PTPP is now institutionalized and sustainable after the funding. We will discuss the results and experiences of the project up to date. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, March 12, 2016 7:45PM - 8:21PM |
W7C.00008: Back to the Classroom: Recruiting New High School Teachers Invited Speaker: Beverly Smith Very few high school Physics teachers in Tennessee have undergraduate degrees in Physics. To encourage Physics majors to consider high school teaching as a career, for a group of Physics majors we organized an intensive 2-day teacher's training workshop on radio astronomy at nearby Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI), a STEM education center and astronomical observatory. At the workshop, students were given intensive training in lesson plan development, as well as a review of the necessary concepts in Physics and Astronomy. These students then used this training as `learning assistants' in an introductory class at ETSU, under the supervision of an experienced faculty member. Third, the students presented this material to local high school classes. The goal of this project is to `break the ice' for many Physics majors, and provide them with the confidence to consider high school teaching as a career option. [Preview Abstract] |
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