APS member and University of Colorado PhysTEC site leader Noah Finkelstein cited PhysTEC in testimony to the Research and Science Education Subcommittee of the House Committee on Science and Technology. Read the testimony
A letter delivered to President Barack Obama by University of Kentucky President Lee Todd on behalf of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities' Science and Math Teacher Imperative cites PhysTEC as an exemplary program. Read the letter
PhysTEC News, Fall 2009 editionThe Fall 2009 edition of the PhysTEC newsletter contains the latest project news and results; profiles and interviews with PhysTEC teachers, Noyce scholars, and Teachers-in-Residence; and perspectives on the broader issues surrounding physics teacher preparation.
The 2009 request for new PhysTEC sites has closed. The project received over 50 letters of interest, and will announce final selections in early 2010. PhysTEC anticipates offering additional rounds of funding in Fall 2010 and 2011.
Download the Request for Sites
The American Physical Society and the American Association of Physics Teachers recently received a five-year, $6.5 million award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to continue work on PhysTEC. More...
PhysTEC site leaders, Teachers-in-Residence, and newly graduated teachers gathered in Ann Arbor, Michigan for project meetings, professional development workshops, and the AAPT Summer Meeting. Presentations by PhysTEC Teachers-in-Residence are available on the PTEC website.
Project advisor Paul Hickman talks with Florida International's new Teacher-in-Residence Diane Crenshaw
PhysTEC requests proposals for new sites to develop model physics teacher preparation programs, to begin in the 2010-2011 academic year. Proposals are solicited for two types of sites:
Comprehensive sites, which will receive up to $100k per year for three years. These sites will implement the full PhysTEC program.
Pilot sites, which will receive up to $25k per year for three years to implement specific elements of teacher preparation programs.
Institutions wishing to apply must submit a letter of interest by 2 November 2009. For a full description of the program as well as detailed application guidelines:
Download the Request for Sites
Only applications from institutions that are PTEC members will be considered. Joining PTEC is free; please see www.PTEC.org/join for the application procedure.
Minority-serving institutions are strongly encouraged to apply.
Project leaders Ted Hodapp of the American Physical Society, Jack Hehn of the American Institute of Physics, and Warren Hein of the American Association of Physics Teachers co-authored an article entitled "Preparing high-school physics teachers." The article appears in the February, 2009 edition of Physics Today.
The 2009 PTEC Conference was held in Pittsburgh on March 13 and 14, 2009. Over 100 participants attended workshops, panels, and talks by leaders in physics teacher preparation.
Presentations from the conference are available for download on the PTEC website.
PhysTEC Teacher-in-Residence wins prize for particle physics presentationJon Anderson, Teacher-in-Residence at the University of Minnesota, won second prize in a contest at the 2008 Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics Teachers Conference. Read a recent article by Anderson about the University of Minnesota's PhysTEC program in the APS Forum on Education newsletter.
Inside are articles about
Read articles by site leaders from North Carolina, Florida International, Towson, and Ball State.
The American Physical Society (APS) and the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) recently won a $750k award from the National Science Foundation to provide scholarships to around 30 new physics teachers over the next 5 years. These PhysTEC Noyce Scholars will receive up to $15,000 of scholarship support per year, in exchange for a commitment to teach in a “high-needs” school after graduation.
APS Assistant Director of Education Monica Plisch will lead the project, which includes the PhysTEC sites Ball State University, Cornell University, Seattle Pacific University, the University of Arkansas, the University of North Carolina, and Western Michigan University. Funding comes from the NSF’s Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship program, which is designed to increase the number of qualified science and math teachers in high-needs school districts. Several PhysTEC institutions, including Arkansas, Seattle Pacific, the University of Arizona, and the University of Colorado at Boulder, already offer Noyce scholarships to their teachers, and the project will be able to take advantage of the expertise these sites have gained.
Read about our recent activities in the very first PhysTEC Newsletter
Teacher Preparation Quiz Answers
Thanks to the new UNC-BEST program, physics and biology majors at the University of North Carolina can now earn teaching certification and complete their undergraduate science degrees all in four years. View press release.
