The Department of Physics at North Carolina State University has incorporated into its planning document its intention to help in the recruitment and development of future high school physics teachers. In a broader context, the state-wide university administration has made it a major priority to graduate many more science teachers than the various campuses had done in the past.

The department is well positioned to contribute thanks to its close connections to the College of Education and to The Science House, an NCSU science education outreach organization which conducts in-service teacher training across North Carolina. There is an energetic Physics Education Research group led by Professor Robert Beichner. Professors Keith Weninger and Laura Clarke teach for high school teachers a distance learning course based on the Matter and Interactions curriculum. In the last year the Physics and Elementary Education Departments collaborated to create a new physics course for future elementary school teachers. The class was first taught by Dr. Robert Riehn in Spring, 2012, and uses the Physics for Everyday Thinking curriculum in a SCALE-UP format. In summers 2011 and 2012 Dr. David Haase taught the PET curriculum to a Science House-sponsored cohort of inservice elementary school teachers in the western part of North Carolina. Also, in the last year the Physics and the College of Education constructed a new BA-MAT course of study to provide a seamless path for physics undergraduates to prepare for teacher certification.