PhysTEC is a project to improve the education of future physics teachers. The project is led by the American Physical Society, in partnership with the American Association of Physics Teachers. Funding is provided by the National Science Foundation and APS’s 21st Century Campaign.

VOLUME 5 . WINTER 2012

PhysTEC Adds Four New Funded Sites

PhysTEC Conference, UTeach Join Forces Chemists Take on Teacher Education

From left to right: a Boston University Learning Assistant works with two physics students; Virginia Tech’s TIR with two students; two students do a demo at SUNY Geneseo; two students work together at CSU San Marcos. Photos courtesy of Andrew Duffy; Beate Schmittmann; Kurt Fletcher; Ed Price.

The Physics Teacher Education Coalition (PhysTEC) project announced in May 2011 that it would provide funding for

four universities to develop their physics teacher education programs. The new awardees, which began project activities in Fall 2011, are Boston University (BU); California State University, San Marcos (CSU San Marcos); State University of New York at Geneseo (SUNY Geneseo); and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech).

The winning institutions were selected during a two-stage review process that began with a pool of 70 applicants. Proposals were evaluated on a number of criteria, including sites’ ability to develop their programs into national models, the strength of departmental and institutional support for teacher preparation efforts, and the experience and commitment shown by the proposing teams. The review panel included representatives of APS and AAPT, which jointly lead the project, as well as external reviewers.

APS leadership expressed strong support for the project’s site selections and current directions. “As APS’s flagship education program, PhysTEC sets a high standard for the reform of physics education nationwide,” said Kate Kirby, Executive Officer of APS. “I am confident the new PhysTEC sites will continue to maintain this standard, while adding new innovations to the project.”

Beth Cunningham is Executive Officer of AAPT and serves on the PhysTEC leadership team. “I am impressed with the understand-ing of local context that our new sites have demonstrated,” said Cunningham. “They have clearly built connections with local school districts that will help immensely as they prepare teachers to work in these schools.”

The New Sites Boston University is one of the largest

private universities in the country, and is one of only a few PhysTEC sites located in an urban center, as well as the only site in New England. BU’s PhysTEC project

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will build on the physics department’s existing educational efforts, which include a transformation of the large introductory courses to include Learning Assistants and other reforms, and a newly added four-year track that allows students to earn both a physics degree and teaching licensure. Project leaders plan to recruit future teachers from physics majors, engineering majors, and Learning Assistants, and to involve area teachers in a professional learning community that will provide mentorship to program graduates.

CSU San Marcos is a regional compre-hensive university in the San Diego area, and is both an Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) and an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI). Project leaders plan to cre-ate a physics education option within the applied physics major, and to build on exist-ing strengths such as a Learning Assistant program, physics education research exper-tise, and collaboration between physics and education faculty. CSU San Marcos’s project will work closely with and recruit future teachers from Palomar Community College, a nearby two-year college that is a major source of transfer students.

SUNY Geneseo is a primarily under-graduate institution (PUI) in upstate New York, and is among the top PUIs in terms of number of physics majors who graduate each year. Project leaders plan to create a five-year program leading to a bachelor’s degree in physics, a master’s in educa-tion, and teaching certification. The site

During two warm, workshop-packed days in May 2011, 120 physicists and educators came together in Austin,

Texas for the seventh annual PhysTEC Conference, the nation’s largest event focusing on physics teacher preparation. The 2011 conference was organized jointly with the annual meeting of the UTeach Institute, a project based at the University of Texas at Austin that prepares science and math teachers at “replication sites” around the country.

The theme of the conference was sus-tainability, and workshops developed this concept in a number of contexts. Panels explored ways to sustain various components of teacher education projects, including physics-specific pedagogy courses, the hiring of master teachers to work in phys-ics departments, and teaching reforms in introductory physics courses. Numerous speakers presented results from data-driven teacher preparation and science education efforts; such data are crucial for building lasting support from adminstrators and funders.

Many conference attendees remarked on the community the PhysTEC Conference has helped build. University of Colorado physics professor Noah Finkelstein, a seven-time conference veteran and frequent presenter, said that the conference is “the

right size and scale, friendly, and person-able.” Kathy McCloud, a program officer at the National Science Foundation added, “It’s encouraging to see people who care about teacher education exchanging ideas.”

The sessions on the afternoon of the second day of the conference were open to both PhysTEC and UTeach conference attendees. Several participants noted that PhysTEC was in a good position to provide an extra push in physics for UTeach sites, many of which have not seen the same increases in physics teachers as they have

“I am impressed with the understanding of local context that our new sites have demonstrated.”

—Beth Cunningham, Executive Officer, AAPT

Laurie McNeil of the University of North Carolina and Chance Hoellwarth of Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. Photo by Theodore Hodapp.

Readers of this publication probably know that U.S.physics teachers are in short supply. But the problem is not

limited to physics—chemistry teaching posts rank almost as difficult to fill, according the American Association of Employment in Education’s 2009 “Educator Supply and Demand” report.

To address the nation’s critical need for chemistry teachers, the American Chemical Society (ACS) has taken steps toward forming a Chemistry Teacher Education Coalition (CTEC). PhysTEC project leaders have been working with ACS education staff for several years to lay the groundwork for this effort. Chemistry faculty from depart-ments that have endorsed an ACS statement supporting chemistry teacher preparation have received reduced registration fees to PhysTEC conferences for the past two years, and ACS representatives have led workshops at these meetings.

In June 2011, PhysTEC project leaders and ACS staff collaborated on a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded workshop that drew chemistry and physics faculty from universities around the country, as well as representatives from ACS, PhysTEC, NSF, and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. Workshop participants agreed on concrete steps for moving forward on a CTEC project with the mission “to actively

engage chemistry departments in the prepa-ration of future chemistry teachers.” The ACS’s Society Committee on Education has also endorsed the creation of CTEC, according to Mary Kirchhoff, the director of ACS’s Education Division.

The CTEC project, as envisioned at the June workshop, would be modeled after PhysTEC in a number of ways, including creating a competitive proposal process for funding sites, incorporating Learning Assistants, and holding meetings for the chemistry teacher education community. “PhysTEC has a number of years of experience in this area, and that has been essential in helping us identify the elements of a paral-lel initiative in chemistry,” said Kirchhoff. “We couldn’t do this without PhysTEC.”

“Physics and chemistry are closely related disciplines, and we see CTEC as a natural extension of PhysTEC efforts,” said Theodore Hodapp, Director of Education and Diversity at APS and PhysTEC project director.

“We couldn’t do this without PhysTEC.”

—Mary Kirchhoff, Director of Education Division, American Chemical Society

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Four New PhysTEC Funded Sites

PhysTEC Noyce Program Advances

Minority Serving Institutions Take on Teacher Preparation

In Spring 2011, ten future teachers were selected for the third cohort of PhysTEC Noyce scholars. Seven of these students

had received scholarships from the pro-gram in previous years, while three were first-time applicants; seven are currently post-baccalaureate students, two are col-lege seniors, and one is a junior. These students will receive up to $15,000 for the 2011-2012 academic year; in return, the scholars commit to teaching for two years in a high-need school district after graduation.

“We are really pleased with the diversity of experience among this group of scholars,” said Monica Plisch, Associate Director of Education and Diversity at APS, who has led the PhysTEC Noyce Program since its inception. “Their applications showed that they understand the needs and circumstances of the students they will be teaching.”

To provide mentoring and support to Noyce scholars as they complete their education and start their careers, the project has offered funding to its sites to hire Visiting Master Teachers (VMTs). VMTs are experienced teachers recruited from local school districts who work with Noyce scholars as they make the transition from university to the classroom. The position is modeled after the Teacher-in-Residence (TIR) position that exists at most PhysTEC sites.

PhysTEC Conference

in other math and science fields. Middle Tennessee State University and the University of Colorado at Boulder are both PhysTEC and UTeach replication sites.

Future DirectionsThe 2012 PhysTEC Conference will

feature a change in the way workshops are selected. For the first time, conference organizers have solicited workshop propos-als and are evaluating them based on a set of criteria that include relationship to the conference theme, potential for stimulating productive interactions, and application to PhysTEC project components. “With this new format, we’re hoping to tap the creativity of the physics teacher education community,” said Jacob Clark Blickenstaff, Teacher Education Programs Manager at APS, who is lead organizer of the 2012

Cornell Noyce Scholar Jonathan Smythe demonstrates physics concepts at the USA Science and Engineering Festival. Photo courtesy of Jim Overhiser.

Jim Overhiser, a master teacher from Cortland, New York, served as VMT at Cornell University during the 2010-2011 academic year. Overhiser, who had previ-ously served as Cornell’s TIR, worked closely with Noyce scholars Jonathan Smythe and Andrew Flye, encouraging their interest in teaching, and, in Smythe’s case, serving as his cooperating teacher

also plans to develop and test a model of collaborative “Activity Teams,” bringing together upper level teacher candidates, first- and second-year physics majors, and area high school students, in order to encourage physics majors to consider careers in high school teaching.

Virginia Tech is a large, public, land-grant university in southern Virginia, and is among the institutions graduating the most physics majors in the Appalachian region. Project leaders plan to enhance their teacher recruitment efforts, focusing on high school students in the surrounding region, and on students in their large intro-ductory courses. Sections of these courses will be transformed to the collaborative SCALE-UP model, and will incorporate Learning Assistants. Site leaders also plan to build a strong professional development network of program alumni, offering physical and online meeting space, in collaboration with and supportive of existing mentoring programs.

According to Theodore Hodapp, Director of Education and Diversity at APS and PhysTEC project director, this year’s crop of new sites shows exceptional institutional commitment to making their programs sustainable. “We fund sites for three years, enough to get their programs off the ground,” said Hodapp, “but we expect them to show us up front how they will sustain things in the future. We’re confident that this year’s sites will be able to keep their programs running after PhysTEC funding ends.”

In addition to funding new sites, the project has made a one-time award to a team proposing a video project illustrating interactions Learning Assistants and students whom they work with. This project will be led jointly by researchers and faculty members from Seattle Pacific University and Florida International University, both universities that have received PhysTEC funding in the past.

PhysTEC is funded by a five-year, $6.5-mil-lion grant awarded by the National Science Foundation in 2009, as well as APS’s 21st Century Campaign.

Hodapp also points to ways in which the engagement of chemistry departments can enhance PhysTEC efforts at universi-ties around the country. According to the American Institute of Physics, most physics teachers are also asked to teach other sub-jects, of which chemistry is one of the most common. “Physics teachers who are also prepared to teach chemistry will have a leg up in finding jobs,” Hodapp said. “Funding agencies and university administrators have also made it very clear that they want to see the science disciplines collaborating on education.”

Minority groups that are underrepre-sented in physics generally are even more severely underrepresented

among U.S.physics teachers. Twenty-five percent of our nation’s black and Hispanic students now take physics in high school, and as Table 1 shows, they are very unlikely to have a minority role model teaching their physics classes.

% Hispanic

% Black

U.S.high school physics teachers 1.5 1.5

U.S.physics majors 3 3

U.S.college-age population 16 14

Table 1. Sources: American Institute of Physics; U.S.Department of Education

PhysTEC has since its inception reached out to minority-serving institutions (MSIs), which educate almost 60% of underrepre-sented minorities who earn college degrees in the US. These include Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and Primarily Black Institutions (PBIs). Table 2 shows the engagement of minority serving institutions in the project.

For more information about PhysTEC efforts to engage minority-serving institu-tions, see the article on pages 7 and 8 of the Spring 2011 edition of the APS CSWP & COM Gazette, the newsletter for the Committee on the Status of Women in Physics and Committee on Minorities: www.aps.org/programs/women/reports/gazette/upload/spring11.pdf

Table 2.*Xavier University of Louisiana suspended its PhysTEC project after Hurricane Katrina, and is not counted in the total number of PhysTEC Supported Sites. Sources: Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities; U.S.Department of Education

Chemistrycontinued from cover

conference. “We’re excited to see what workshop proposals are submitted.”

Clark Blickenstaff noted that some workshops will likely still be invited. For

Minority serving institutions are strongly encouraged to apply to become PhysTEC Supported Sites. Look for more information in Fall 2012.

Institution Type HSI HBCU/PBI All

PhysTEC Member Institutions (U.S.physics degree-granting institutions only) 14 11 226 (11% MSI)

PhysTEC Supported Sites 2 2* 20 (15% MSI)

U.S.physics degree-granting institutions 44 48 800 (12% MSI)

during student teaching. Smythe is now starting a teaching position at a high-need high school in Washington, DC. The VMT “gives [Noyce scholars] a safe place to ask questions, share experiences and get advice,” says Overhiser.

“We see the VMT serving as a critical bridge for the Noyce scholars between their college experience and the high school classroom,” said Jacob Clark Blickenstaff, Teacher Education Programs Manager at APS. Clark Blickenstaff now manages the PhysTEC Noyce Program.

In addition to mentoring from VMTs, all scholars in their first two years of teaching are invited and funded to attend a sum-mer professional development workshop, as well as a day-long program put on by the project in conjunction with the AAPT Summer Meeting. The project also provides funding for scholars to spend a summer doing physics education research. Brittany Johnson, a University of Arkansas Noyce scholar, spent the summer working with the University of Washington’s Physics Education Group, and will present her work at the 2012 AAPT Winter Meeting.

“AAPT has a lot of resources to offer these teachers as they begin their careers,” said Beth Cunningham, AAPT Executive Officer. “And the scholars’ energy really adds a unique element to our meetings as well. It’s a mutually beneficial situation.”

more information on the 2012 PhysTEC Conference, see the announcement in this newsletter.

The 2012 Physics Teacher Education Coalition Conference is the nation’s largest meeting dedicated to physics teacher education. It features workshops, panel discussions, and presentations by national leaders, as well as excellent networking opportunities. The 2012 conference will be held in conjunction with the American Association of Physics Teachers Winter Meeting.

www.ptec.org/conferences/2012

New Paradigms for Physics Teacher Education

PhysTEC Annual

ConferenceFebruary 3-4, 2012Ontario, California

The 2012 Physics Teacher Education Coalition Conference is the nation’s largest meeting dedicated to physics teacher education. It features workshops, panel discussions, and presentations by national leaders, as well as excellent networking opportunities. The 2012 conference will be held in conjunction with the American Association of Physics Teachers Winter Meeting.

www.ptec.org/conferences/2012

New Paradigms for Physics Teacher Education

PhysTEC Annual

ConferenceFebruary 3-4, 2012Ontario, California

PhysTEC Quick Tips

If you want to boost your department’s efforts to prepare physics teachers, but do not know where to start, PhysTEC has prepared a list of steps you can take to begin having an impact right away. Go to www.PhysTEC.org/quicktips.php.

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Updated December 2011

Physics Teacher Education Coalition (PhysTEC) membership has reached 255 institutions (as of press time),

ranging from major research universities to regional comprehensives, liberal arts colleges, two-year colleges, and even one national lab. The 226 US-based phys-ics degree-granting members represent nearly 30 percent of such institutions in the country, and graduate over one-third of U.S.physics majors.

PhysTEC members endorse a statement supporting physics department involvement in teacher preparation, and commit to supplying the project with physics teacher graduation data annually. Nearly every member has sent a representative to a PhysTEC confer-ence or workshop, and many have applied for PhysTEC funding or become engaged

in the project in other ways. Membership is not required for attending conferences, but members receive steeply discounted registration rates; membership is required for applying for funding.

The Coalition was founded in 2003 (under the acronym PTEC), but growth picked up in early 2005, around the time of the first PhysTEC conference. “When I joined the project, we had just a handful of members, and few opportunities for them to become engaged,” said Theodore Hodapp, APS Director of Education and Diversity and PhysTEC director since 2004. “We realized we needed a much broader base to have the kind of impact we wanted to have.”

Since then, the Coalition has grown at a rate of around 40 institutions per year, and shows no sign of slowing. “It has been exciting to see the growth not just in membership, but in the enthusiasm and commitment toward physics teacher educa-tion,” said Monica Plisch, APS Associate Director of Education and Diversity, who has led the Coalition’s expansion since 2007. “Joining the Coalition is a great way for any physics department to start getting involved in teacher education.”

To become a PhysTEC member institu-tion, go to www.ptec.org/join.

PhysTEC Membership Continues to Grow

Learning Assistant Programs Expand

PhysTEC Teacher Profile: Hilary Kakanis

Like many physics teachers, Hilary Kakanis’ path to the profession took a few interesting turns along the way.

In fact, her original dream was to be a planetarium director. “I’ve always loved talking about space,” she says. “I would love to live in a planetarium.”

But at a meeting with a planetarium director, Kakanis learned there were only around a thousand planetariums in the entire western hemisphere, meaning the job market might be tight. So around the end of her sophomore year at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), she decided to pursue physics teaching. Kakanis then learned about the great need for phys-ics teachers, and that she was good at it. “When I started teaching, I got a whole lot of positive feedback,” she says. “People said I made the subject approachable, and I made them want to listen.”

The MTSU Physics Department had recently received funding from the NSF’s Noyce Scholarship Program, which enabled Kakanis to get a scholarship to fund her final two years of education. MTSU then became a PhysTEC site, and Kakanis took the department’s first offering of the course

in that state require that all students take physics in order to graduate high school, and Texas universities are not prepared to supply the teachers needed to teach these students (see “The Big Picture,” back page).

In Texas, Kakanis hopes to teach ninth graders in a “Physics First” class, also known as the “Inverted Curriculum,” where students take physics before chemistry and

In November 2011, PhysTEC and the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU-Boulder) co-sponsored the third

Learning Assistant Workshop, which drew over 40 science and education faculty members from around the country. The workshop was hosted by science and educa-tion faculty at CU-Boulder, who launched its program in 2003 in order to improve student learning in the university’s science courses, and recruit future teachers. The program recruits talented undergraduates who work with faculty members to make large-enrollment courses more collaborative, student-centered, and interactive.

When CU-Boulder became a PhysTEC site in 2004, PhysTEC project leaders rec-ognized that the Learning Assistant model was a method of recruiting teachers that could be replicated around the country. Nearly every funded site that has joined PhysTEC since 2004 has implemented a Learning Assistant program in some form, as have numerous unfunded member institu-tions. At many universities, these programs have spread from physics to other science and math departments, similar to what happened at Boulder.

“The Learning Assistant model is not just a method for recruiting teachers, it is also a catalyst for changing the culture of science departments,” said Monica Plisch, Associate Director of Education and Diversity at APS and PhysTEC project co-director.

Cody Sandifer, professor of science education and now PhysTEC project leader at Towson University, attended the first Learning Assistant workshop in 2007, and then launched a program at Towson. “The workshop was useful for me in understanding the components of a successful Learning Assistant program,” Sandifer said. “It allowed me to have access to people who were using Learning Assistants, and to ask them questions.”

Although the workshops focus on CU-Boulder’s program, this year’s schedule also included a poster session showcasing the programs of “experienced users and emulators”—universities that have adapted the model to local circumstances and needs. For instance, Learning Assistants at Florida International University use a curriculum adapted from the Modeling Instruction Program (see PhysTEC News, Fall 2010), while Seattle Pacific University Learning Assistants conduct mock “physics interviews” to develop inquiry-based teaching skills. “To see the Colorado Learning Assistant Program emulated and adapted around the country is heartwarming,” said Valerie Otero, a professor of science education at CU-Boulder, and one of the main driving forces behind the program. “Most phys-ics and education faculty care a lot about their instruction, but at the same time they face challenges that pull at their time. The Learning Assistant program is a reasonable solution that allows faculty and institutions to make small- to large-scale change.”

Among the innovations featured at this year’s workshop was the first video workshop created by a PhysTEC-funded project led by researchers from Seattle Pacific University and Florida International (see “PhysTEC Adds Four New Funded Sites,” page 1). There was also a planning session for par-ticipants to begin developing programs at their own institutions.

Learning Assistant workshops are open to all member institutions, whose representatives receive free workshop registration. For more information about the 2011 Learning Assistant workshop, see www.ptec.org/conferences/cula11.

“The Teaching of Physics,” which intro-duces students to inquiry-based teaching practices that are specific to physics. She was inspired to see that other physics majors were also becoming interested in teaching. “I’m really excited about programs like PhysTEC and Noyce that are encouraging young people to get into teaching,” she says.

MTSU project leaders expect that Kakanis will be the first of many physics teacher graduates who go out and teach in high-need schools in Tennessee and elsewhere. “We are pleased that our first major to graduate with an endorsement to teach high school physics in over 15 years will be Hilary,” says MTSU phys-ics department chair Ron Henderson. “Hilary will embody what the physics education community has learned about good physics instruction.”

In December, Kakanis graduated with a bachelor’s degree in physics and concen-trations in astronomy and teaching. And although she has lived in Tennessee since she was nine, she is planning to take her skills to a different place, where they are also badly needed—Texas. New standards

biology. “I like the idea of Physics First,” says Kakanis. “Usually when kids get to high school, they hear ‘physics’ and start to freak out because they hear it’s a senior-level class and everybody flunks it. With Physics First, you’re getting the kids when they’re still fresh and new, and have never done anything like that before.

“I want to catch them when they’re young!”

Hilary Kakanis with fellow MTSU future teachers Paul Turner (left) and Dylan Russell. Photo courtesy of Ron Henderson.

Map created by Nancy Bennett-Karasik, APS.

“To see the Colorado Learning Assistant Program emulated and adapted around the country is heartwarming.”

—Valerie Otero, Professor of Science Education, University of Colorado at Boulder

“Joining the Coalition is a great way for any physics department to start getting involved in teacher education.”

—Monica Plisch, Associate Director of Education and Diversity, APS

Institutions in red have received PhysTEC funding■ Supported Sites • Member Institutions

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PhysTEC Management Team

Theodore Hodapp, Director of Education and Diversity, APS Monica Plisch, Associate Director of Education and Diversity, APS Beth Cunningham, Executive Officer, AAPTJacob Clark Blickenstaff, Teacher Education Programs Manager, APS

Robert Hilborn, Associate Executive Officer, AAPT Sara Webb, Project Coordinator, APSBushraa Khatib, Education and Diversity Projects Coordinator, APSJon Anderson, Teacher and TIR Coordinator

PhysTEC News

Editor: Gabriel Popkin Designer: Krystal Ferguson

For More Information

Email: khatib@aps.orgPhone: 301-209-3297

The Big Picture: Where Will the Teachers Come From?By Theodore Hodapp

Nuts and Bolts of Teacher Preparation: Sustainability

The last few years have seen either the closure or the threat of closure of numerous physics departments in states

including Texas, Louisiana, Missouri, Maine, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Idaho. These are not isolated incidents. Declining state budgets, a rising anti-intellectual stance in some corners, and real concerns about how public funds are spent all contribute to this issue.

What’s more, the PhysTEC-supported National Task Force on Teacher Education in Physics has shown that regional universities and former teacher colleges are some of the largest producers of high school physics teachers. Sadly, many of these institutions are the ones being targeted for closure.

In Texas, five physics undergraduate programs are slated to be closed this fall. Five additional programs were put on probation with the threat of closure if they cannot boost their graduation rates in the next few years. What is surprising, and a matter of deep concern, is that the state of Texas now requires all high school students to take physics in order to graduate, but is closing many of the departments that have the greatest chance of educating the teachers who serve those students.

If all states were to apply the same criteria to their public institutions that Texas is using (closing all programs that graduated fewer than 5 majors per year averaged over the last 5 years), we would lose nearly half (49%) of

“Sustainability” is a word that gets used a lot these days, and it is important for PhysTEC, too—in fact, it is one

of the project’s “key components,” which all funded sites are expected to address. So what does the concept of sustainability mean for a project like PhysTEC, which supports sites for a limited time and then expects them to maintain project elements on their own?

“We expect sites to find ways to fund project components, but that is just the beginning of what we mean by sustainabil-ity,” says Theodore Hodapp, APS Director of Education and Diversity, and PhysTEC project director. “True sustainability means changing institutional attitudes so that teacher education becomes part of a physics department’s core mission.”

Since its inception in 2001, PhysTEC has funded 20 sites to improve their teacher preparation programs. The original sites received five years of funding; since 2004, funding has been for three years, with the option of splitting the last year of funding between two academic years. Though not all sites have succeeded in sustaining all project components post-funding, every site has maintained some project reforms, and many have expanded on their successes by institutionalizing programs, bringing in new funding, and involving other campus departments.

Model of SuccessCalifornia Polytechnic State University,

San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly), which received PhysTEC funding from 2003 to 2007, has funded one Teacher-in-Residence (TIR) since the site’s PhysTEC funding ended, and began funding a second TIR in 2010. TIRs are master teachers who work at universities in a variety of roles related to teacher preparation; they often return

to the classroom after one or two years, but sometimes take permanent positions at a university.

At Cal Poly, both TIRs work directly with middle and high school teaching candidates, supervising student teachers and teaching methods courses. They also team-teach physical science courses for future elementary teachers. Cal Poly provides a variety of early teaching experiences for potential teachers, and continues to gradu-ate two to three physics teachers per year, compared to less than one per year before PhysTEC funding.

“My dean is very supportive of providing sabbaticals for high school teachers, and he realized that faculty may not be the best people to supervise students teachers,” says Chance Hoellwarth, physics profes-sor, PhysTEC site leader, and co-director of the Center for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Education at Cal Poly. “Hiring TIRs frees up tenure-track faculty, gets us better student teacher supervision, and builds links within the community.”

“Having TIRs teach physical science courses for elementary teachers is an attrac-tive funding model for department chairs and deans,” says Monica Plisch, Associate Director of Education and Diversity at APS. “We have seen many sites create a hybrid role that allows the TIR to move into a partial faculty line in this way, while continuing to mentor and support future high school teachers.”

“It’s crucial that the project have broad support on campus, and, especially in this era of tight budgets, that all constituencies see it in their best interest to keep things going,” says Hodapp. “When faculty, admin-istrators, and students are working together to improve education, that’s when lasting change happens.”

The PhysTEC project leadership has added several new people in the past year. In June 2011, Jacob Clark Blickenstaff

joined APS as the Teacher Education Programs Manager, with half of his time devoted to PhysTEC. Clark Blickenstaff’s responsibili-ties include managing the PhysTEC Noyce Program, organizing the annual PhysTEC Conference, and developing a new program of teacher professional development for APS. He joins the project with five years of experience teaching high school physics in California, a PhD in Science Education from the University of California, Davis, and having held professorships at Western Washington University and the University of Southern Mississippi.

Beth Cunningham has been AAPT’s Executive Officer and co-Principal Investigator to the project since January 2011. Prior to joining AAPT, Cunningham was Provost, Dean of the Faculty, and Professor of Physics at Illinois Wesleyan University. In September, Robert (Bob) Hilborn joined AAPT as Associate Executive Officer, and will work to connect the project with

the physics programs at public institutions in the US. (If we include private colleges, the number goes up to 60%.) Included in this group are all of the undergraduate phys-ics programs at public Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Reducing the number of programs that educate qualified teachers when there is already a shortfall is exactly the wrong way to prepare the next generation for the challenges of the 21st century.

What can be done? Arguing that “we must have physics because we always have!” is not going to win the day. Instead, commit-ting to educating more highly qualified high school physics teachers not only demonstrates community engagement, but can also be a means to increase enrollments, because these teachers are often the best recruiters to your physics program. In parallel, we can make the case to policy makers that closing departments endangers our ability to educate physics teachers—a sentiment that will likely resonate with constituents. You may not convince state bean counters that a department’s existence should con-tinue based on precedent, but you have a much better chance to convince them that we are addressing the very real needs of educating the next generation. We must act responsibly: create sustainable, high-quality programs to educate future physics teachers; and advocate publicly about the importance of such programs.

AAPT’s networks and resources. Prior to joining AAPT, Hilborn was a Professor of Physics and Head of the Science/Mathematics Education Department at the University of Texas at Dallas. He comes to AAPT with a long history of leadership in physics educa-tion, including a term as AAPT president in 1996-1997.

In October, Bushraa Khatib joined APS as Education and Diversity Programs Coordinator. Khatib’s responsibilities will include writ-ing, data gathering, and analysis for project proposals, reports, and publications. Khatib graduated from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and previously worked for APS as a Science Writing Intern.

In other personnel news, Jack Hehn, Manager of the Education Division at the American Institute of Physics (AIP), has retired from AIP after twelve years of service. Hehn served as co-Principal Investigator on the original PhysTEC grant, and continues to advise the project. Gabriel Popkin, PhysTEC project manager from 2007 to 2011, is now a project consultant.

PhysTEC People

From left to right, Jacob Clark Blickenstaff, Robert Hilborn, Beth Cunningham and Bushraa Khatib. Photos courtesy of APS (Clark Blickenstaff and Khatib) and AAPT (Hilborn and Cunningham).

Chance Hoellwarth, physics professor and PhysTEC site leader at Cal Poly, works with Nancy Stauch, who is now in her seventh year as Teacher-in-Residence. Photo courtesy of Chance Hoellwarth.

100K in 10

Inspired by President Obama’s 2011 State of the Union Address, the nonprofit groups Carnegie Corporation of New York,

Opportunity Equation, and the NewSchools Venture Fund launched 100Kin10, a move-ment to prepare and retain one hundred thousand science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teachers over the next 10 years. PhysTEC has been selected as a member of this movement, along with AAPT, the Science and Mathematics Teacher Initiative (SMTI), and Florida

International University, among others. To become a member, the project made a commitment to increase efforts to prepare highly qualified physics teachers in the coming decade. Funding partners like JP Morgan Chase, the Gates Foundation, and Dow have pledged millions of dollars to support the movement. To see the PhysTEC commitment, along with all the other com-mitments from 100K in 10 partners, go to www.100Kin10.org

By Jacob Clark Blickenstaff

“True sustainability means changing institutional attitudes so that teacher education becomes part of a physics department’s core mission.”

—Theodore Hodapp, Director of Education and Diversity, APS