The Education Corner

New Educational Offerings on APS Website

The APS website features a trove of new education content for physics faculty, researchers, and educators.

Ethics Case Study Guides
APS recently produced a discussion and activity guide to accompany a set of ethics case studies that were developed by the APS Task Force on Ethics Education. The guides are intended to help ethics educators lead research ethics training and seminars. You can download teacher and student editions of the study guides.
  Ethics Case Studies

Research Mentor Training Seminar Guide
APS and the University of Wisconsin-Madison recently completed a guide for a Physics Research Mentor Training Seminar. The seminar is intended for faculty, postdocs, and graduate students who mentor others as part of their work. The manual is available at the PhysTEC website.  This issue of APS News has an article describing the mentor training seminar.
  APS Develops Mentor Training Seminar and Guide
  Mentor Training Seminar

SPIN-UP Report
In 2003, the Strategic Programs for Innovations in Undergraduate Physics (SPIN-UP) report came out, describing common features of departments with thriving programs. APS now features the report and more recent developments in undergraduate physics.
  SPIN-UP: Learn How Your Department Can Thrive

Physics Education Research Speakers Database
If you’re looking for a speaker to give a physics education research (PER)-related colloquium or talk, you can search the APS PER Speakers Database. Talks are sorted by intended audience, topic, and level, and can also be searched by keywords. If you have a PER-related talk, you can also add it to the speaker database.
  Physics Education Research Speakers

Undergraduate Research Week
On November 16, 2010, the US House of Representatives designated the week of April 11, 2011 as “Undergraduate Research Week.” The measure, House Resolution 1654, was championed by Representative Rush Holt of New Jersey, a physicist and former assistant director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, and a longtime supporter of undergraduate research. During consideration of the resolution, Rep. Holt and other supporters spoke of the importance of undergraduate research in spurring future US innovation. Rep. Holt said, “Around the country, thousands of students at hundreds of colleges and universities are involved in undergraduate research experiences that will shape the future trajectories of their lives and careers, yet we would benefit if thousands more were involved.”

APS also supports expanding the number of research experiences for undergraduates in physics. Ted Hodapp, Director of Education and Diversity at APS, says, “Undergraduate research is one of the best ways to help students fully appreciate the excitement of doing science. The APS Committee on Education recently recognized this by endorsing a statement calling for research experiences to be available for all students.”
  Committee on Educations’s Statement: A Nation Calls for Education Reform (2009)
  About House Resolution 1654

Robert Noyce Scholarship Program Solicitation
The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program is the number one source of dedicated scholarship support for future science and math teachers. Since its inception in 2002, it has funded 413 institutions, which have collectively awarded over 3,600 scholarships of up to $15,000 per year. Proposals for the next round of funding for both Noyce Scholarships and NSF Teaching Fellowships/Master Teaching Fellowships are due by March 23, 2011.
  Noyce Scholarship Program.