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Boston University

Boston University (BU) is one of the nation’s largest private universities with over 31,000 students. BU is an urban school with a long history of partnerships with high need districts in the Greater Boston area. As the first PhysTEC site in New England, and one of a small number of sites in a major urban center, BU intends to be a national model for projects aimed at improving physics instruction in high-need areas.

The PhysTEC project at Boston University represents the next step in the close collaboration that already exists between the School of Education and the Department of Physics. Examples of this long-standing collaboration include Project ITOP (Improving the Teaching of Physics), which consists of 10 two-credit graduate courses aimed at in-service physics teachers, currently in its seventh year of operation; and The Immersion in Science Program, started in 2007, with the primary goal of helping elementary and middle-school teachers become much more confident in teaching and doing science in their own classrooms.

The project will also be building upon recently established efforts which include:

• An internal BU grant, through which they have begun transformation of their two large introductory physics courses. Starting in Fall 2011, this grant will fund learning assistants as well as the establishment of an experimental studio section of the algebra-based introductory physics course.
• A new 4-year track by which students can receive both a physics degree and teaching licensure, along with an already existing program for in-service physics teachers.

Project Goals

The Department of Physics at Boston University is committed to the following objectives:

• increase the number of well-trained physics teachers from about 1 per year to 8 per year;
• improve the quality of undergraduate physics instruction through the adoption of research based instructional methods;
• solidify a learning community of area physics teachers, who can provide mentorship for the new physics teachers from our program;
• improve the perception, among both the students and the faculty, of teaching as a career for physics and engineering majors; and,
• provide a model for other institutions in New England and the US.

These additional physics teacher candidates will be recruited from engineering majors, physics majors, and from the learning assistants (LA’s) who will form a key component of the undergraduate program in the Department of Physics, starting in Fall 2011.

Project Recruitment and Publicity

Read BU Today's article on the PhysTEC project, "Wanted: One Good Physics Teacher"

Read the College of Arts & Sciences newsletter article about Juliet Jenkins, BU's Teacher-in-Residence