The Department Physics & Astronomy at the University of Missouri and the MU Center for Science Education have a long history of collaboration for teacher education, including the support of a jointly-appointed faculty position in physics and education, and several initiatives to recruit new teachers and improve teacher quality.

Preservice teacher education is one a focus of our efforts. Currently, we offer specialized science courses in physics for early childhood, elementary, and special education majors. Additionally, we have launched a dual-major program to enable physics majors to obtain teacher certification along with their degree.

We also support inservice teacher education K-12. Physics and Education faculty collaborate through an NSF Math and Science Partnership Program   Leadership in Freshman Physics . Additionally, the QUEST program (Quality Elementary Science Teaching) serves to strengthen K-6 Missouri teachers' physical science content knowledge and pedagogical skills. Both classroom teachers and MU education majors participate in the three-year project.

Another successful initiative, the Science and Mathematics Academy for the Recruitment and Retention of Teachers (SMARRT) enables individuals with a bachelor's degree in physics or other science/mathematics to obtain initial teacher certification through an accelerated program.