PhysTEC at Cornell: A Progress Report

written by Robert Thorne

This article reports on Cornell's role as a primary PhysTEC institution in addressing the national shortage of high school physics teachers. Many Cornell faculty engage in K-12 outreach activities, but the training of undergraduates to become educators is closer to Cornell's core mission and competency, and few activities can match the impact of placing a highly qualified teacher in the classroom. By embracing high school physics teaching as a career option for Cornell students, by bringing in talented high school teachers to serve as mentors and role models, and by partnering with colleagues in Education, Cornell can strengthen its undergraduate programs and help produce the teachers and educational leaders of tomorrow.

http://www.aps.org/units/fed/newsletters/spring2010/thorne.cfm

PhysTEC

written by Fredrick Stein

The purpose of PhysTEC is to serve the American Physical Society community as the focal point for the improvement of graduate physics, undergraduate physics, and pre-college (K-12) science education. To sponsor programs designed to increase the number of women and minorities in physics, and to increase awareness of career opportunities for physics graduates at all levels.

http://www.phystec.org/

UTeach Replication

written by Michael Marder

This presentation from the PTEC 2008 conference describes efforts to extend the UTeach program from the University of Texas, Austin to other universities across the country. The needs for more, better trained, and more diverse high school science teachers are presented and the steps being taken to use the UTeach model in other schools are outlined.

http://www.compadre.org/PTEC/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=6842&DocID=299

Teacher Recruitment at the University of Arkansas

written by Gay Stewart

The University of Arkansas has changed the structure of its undergraduate classes in order to more effectively recruit teachers.  The article cites statistics relating to the effectiveness of this change and other aspects that contribute to undergraduate teacher recruitment.

http://www.aps.org/units/fed/newsletters/fall06-spring07/gstewart.html

Recruiting the Next Generation of Science Teachers

written by Ingrid Novodvorsky

Undergraduate students at the University of Arizona who wish to become middle or high school science teachers have a unique opportunity to pursue their goal in the company of other science majors and under the guidance of science educators and experienced mentor teachers. This article presents some of the methods used to recruit science majors into the program, as well as plans to increase the number of students recruited.

http://www.aps.org/units/fed/newsletters/fall06-spring07/novodvorsky.html