ComPADRE Pathway II: Sustaining Physics and Astronomy Resources for Education

American Association Of Physics Teachers, College Park MD

Investigators

Abstract

The ComPADRE digital library is an NSDL Pathway to support Physics and Astronomy Education. ComPADRE supports a network of resource collections targeted at specific audiences and provides specialized tools and services for communications, sharing, and content development. The ComPADRE support for different resource collections, each focused on a particular physics or astronomy community of educators and learners, puts resources in the context of their use for learning. ComPADRE Editors and collaborators created 14 resource collections for communities including high school teachers, undergraduate science majors, and university faculty teaching advanced courses. The Physics and Astronomy education community has recognized ComPADRE as an important partner in the support of educators and learners and in the dissemination of best practices in science education. ComPADRE collaborates with curriculum development projects and education researchers to distribute proven learning resources. ComPADRE continues to strengthen existing collaborations and establish new collaboration using web enabled interest groups and by featuring curriculum sequences to highlight the best uses of the materials available. ComPADRE also is reaching new users through expanded workshops and tutorials, both live and online, in collaboration with professional societies and other partners. ComPADRE is using the technical and outreach capabilities of the NSDL to extend its web services and connect resources to education standards. The ComPADRE technical staff and editors are in the process of streamlining the project infrastructure and operations to become more sustainable. Intellectual Merit: The ComPADRE team selects teaching and learning resources of the highest quality with particular consideration given to proven effectiveness. Collaborations with physics education researchers, curriculum developers, and the professional societies place ComPADRE in the midst of the latest in research and development to improve learning and teaching best practices. For these materials, researchers have shown positive learning impact but need more information about usage outside of the research setting. ComPADRE provides a platform for both disseminating these resources and gathering information on how they are being used by teachers and students. Surveys, requests for comment, and virtual focus groups are being used to study content usage, as well as improve the design and dissemination efforts of ComPADRE. Broader Impact: Many of ComPADRE's projects and collaborations directly support broader communities and meet national STEM needs. ComPADRE provides technical support for virtual mentoring of high school students by physicists, increasing their exposure to real science. ComPADRE hosts a coalition for improving the training of physical science teachers, a great need in this country. ComPADRE provides resources to help undergraduate physics and astronomy majors become integrated into the physics community, an outcome that can strengthen the nation's science workforce. ComPADRE resource collections and outreach efforts are aimed at supporting new physics teachers to help keep them in the classroom.