Western Michigan University

Western Michigan has focused its PhysTEC efforts on reforming its introductory course sequence, recruiting additional majors and minors, and preparing their teaching graduates to use interactive methods. As at many institutions, faculty adoption of course reforms has been uneven, and as a result, the PIs have been able to gather data to show convincingly that interactive courses yield higher gains on concept assessments than do traditionally taught courses. Western Michigan project leaders also reports that although they did not set out with this goal, they have “built a community of physics teachers composed of preservice teachers, novice teachers, and experienced local teachers of physics.” 

Project Report 2007