Workshop Series for New Physics Faculty

American Association Of Physics Teachers, College Park MD

Investigators

Abstract

Physics (13) This project consists of a series of workshops for new physics faculty that provide undergraduate teaching enhancement activities in a concentrated four-day workshop accompanied by a continuing program of follow-up activities that seek to solidify and expand the gains of the workshop. The audience is newly-hired physics faculty, usually in the first three years of their initial tenure-track position. The workshops aim to involve 20-25% of the entire number of U.S. physics faculty hires at four-year colleges and universities during the project, and thus the program has a significant impact on physics teaching throughout the U.S. The project is based on prior workshops. Those activities are expanded in several ways: (1) The size of the annual program is being increased from 50 to 70 participants, and faculty from all 4-year colleges and universities are invited. (2) Along with AAPT, the American Physical Society (APS) is a joint sponsor of the program and plays a significant role in the follow-up activities. (3) The American Astronomical Society (AAS) is also sponsoring the program, departments of astronomy are being invited to nominate participants, and about 10 astronomers are included among the annual participants. The AAS is also sharing in promoting the follow-up activities. (4) There is a national steering committee to provide oversight to the program. The follow-up activities are a particularly important component of this program. By scheduling followup sessions at national and regional meetings of the AAPT, APS, and AAS, the participants in these workshops can participate in discussions relevant to the improvement of teaching and to general problems faced by new faculty. In this way the project promotes a continuing active interest in these topics among former participants and also brings into the discussions new faculty who were not able to attend the Workshops as well as postdocs and advanced graduate students who are contemplating faculty careers. The program thus enlists a significant share of the resources of the national physics and astronomy communities to the advancement of undergraduate teaching.