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Collaborate with ComPADRE and AAPT

The Communities for Physics and Astronomy Digital Resources in Education library, or ComPADRE, is a service of the AAPT that provides online tools and resources that support physics and astronomy education.

The AAPT/ComPADRE library consists of:

• Focused collections of teaching resources and reference material for specific courses or serving specific needs. Examples include teaching resources for high school physics and upper level college courses, and research-based assessments of student learning.
• User communities that participate in the development and operation of these collections, such as the Physics Education Research community and the Open Source Physics developers and users.
• Services delivered to the communities for support and interaction. An example is web hosting for a wide range of conferences and workshops, including delivering presentations and proceedings.
• An experienced staff that can provide the technical infrastructure and recommendations needed to establish new collections and communities.
• A set of flexible content databases holding diverse materials on which collections are built. This foundation enables the sharing of materials between users and communities.

ComPADRE invites those interested in physics and astronomy education or digital collections to explore potential collaborations, including:

• Add your resources to an existing ComPADRE collection
  

  Submit your online resources to a ComPADRE collection! Any registered user can suggestion materials for the library. We will be happy to help content developers wishing to add larger collections of resources.

• Share your existing collection through federated search
  

  We use federated search to share resources in ComPADRE collections and in other digital libraries. Our approach complies with well-defined web standards. We are open to sharing and exchanging data with other physics and astronomy education collections.

• Take a lead role in developing a new ComPADRE collection
  

  ComPADRE can provide assistance with the creation and dissemination of educational resource collections. We can assist in or manage many technical aspects of collection development, including design, database development, library functions, and implementation. We will also collaborate in grant-writing efforts.

Content Collaborators

ComPADRE is working with multiple groups interested in facilitating physics educators. For example:

• Open Source Physics
  The Open Source Physics project provides instructors, students, and programmers with a wide range of educational, computational, and modeling resources suitable for physics and astronomy classes. This project includes Easy Java and Javascript Simulations, Tracker video analysis, and Physlets. ComPADRE organizes, hosts, and delivers these materials through the web.
• Physics Education Research Topical Group
  PERTG is the physics education research community affiliated with the AAPT. This community provides the research on learning and research-based curricular materials that is driving the change and improvement in science education. ComPADRE hosts PER Central containng research results and community communications, PhysPort for dissemination of research-based resources, and PER-related conference materials.
• Interactive Video Vignettes
  Interactive Video Vignettes, or IVV, is using web-based video to provide interactive learning activities for physics students. This project is publishing ready-to-run examples as well as the Vignette Studio for those wishing to create their own. ComPADRE is the dissemination venue for this effort.
• SERC Pedagogic Service
  The Pedagogic Service provides tools to connect developed, research proven teaching methods with examples of how the methods are being used in classes. Explanations of the pedagogic methods on SERC, the "Why", and user-submitted and editor reviewed descriptions of usage, the "How", are used as the context for learning activities, the "What". ComPADRE and SERC have collaborated to provide examples for some of the pedagogic methods most commonly used in physics and astronomy classes, and are included as resources in the ComPADRE library.

Program Collaborations

ComPADRE collaborates with groups to bring unique programs to physics educators.

• PhysTEC

  Physics Teacher Education Coalition, or PhysTEC, is a collaboration of the APS, AAPT, and institutions around the country interested in improving the number and preparation of high school physics teachers. Efforts of the coalition include the support of local teacher education programs, sharing of best practices through conferences and workshops, and a library of physics teacher education information. ComPADRE provides the web-based services for the entire project.

• Adopt-a-Physicist

  Adopt-a-Physicist is a joint project of the AIP/SPS and AAPT, hosted by ComPADRE. In annual events, classes of high-school students “adopt” and communicate with physicists from a wide range of fields. Over three weeks the students discover more about how real science is done and what physicists are really like.

Federated Search

ComPADRE partners with multiple groups to bring federated content to our users. We have working agreements with the following entities on use of federated search to facilitate physics educators.

• ADS Education – Bibliographic database of physics and astronomy education research
• BQ Learning – Questions and learning activities developed around physics simulations
• MERLOT – Global collaboration to collection, share, and peer-review learning materials across all disciplines
• National Science Digital Library – Central Science, Engineering, and Mathematics online library, now hosted by OER Commons.

If you are interested in collaborating, or for more information about ComPADRE, please contact us.