Education News from APS

Effective Practices Book Released

The Physics Teacher Education Coalition has released a new peer-reviewed book — Recruiting and Educating Future Physics Teachers: Case Studies and Effective Practices, edited by Cody Sandifer and Eric Brewe (see APS News, October 2015). The book provides a practical guide to innovative, state-of-the-art physics teacher education programs, with a special focus on implementation advice, ongoing challenges, and lessons learned. It is freely available for download at the PhysTEC website.

Registration Open for 2016 PhysTEC Conference

The Physics Teacher Education Coalition (PhysTEC) Conference is the nation’s largest meeting dedicated to physics teacher education. The 2016 PhysTEC Conference will be held March 11-13 at the Royal Sonesta Harbor Court in Baltimore, immediately preceding the 2016 APS March Meeting. Come hear exciting talks by national and international leaders in physics teacher education, and participate in interactive workshops. Register now

Physics Learning Through Best Practices

Periscope is a set of video lessons showing how best practices in teaching can facilitate physics learning in college and university classrooms. The goals of Periscope are to support physics learning assistants, teaching assistants, and faculty. These goals include:

• Learning to notice and interpret classroom events.
• Relating pedagogical knowledge to content knowledge.
• Understanding course transformation.

Periscope is free to qualified educators at the PhysPort website.

Award for Improving Undergraduate Physics Education

The APS Committee on Education (COE) annually presents the COE Award for Improving Undergraduate Physics Education to recognize excellence in undergraduate physics education and to support related best practices. This year’s selection process was highly competitive, with the 2016 award going to Western Washington University and California State University, Long Beach. More information on this award and a list of past recipients can be found at the Award for Improving Undergraduate Physics Education web page.

Join the APS National Mentoring Community

The APS National Mentoring Community (NMC) is an effort to increase the number of underrepresented minority students who earn bachelor degrees in physics. The NMC identifies mentors throughout the country who can establish a personal relationship with students and provides these mentors with guidance and support. Please visit the NMC web page to join the NMC, and then invite your mentees to join as well.