Major Donation Launches New Math and Science Education Initiative
 |
The NMSI was created in response to the National Academies’ 2005 report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm, which called for improving American students’ performance in math and science to ensure U.S. global competitiveness.
The NMSI will scale-up two existing programs. One is training and incentive programs for Advanced and pre-Advanced Placement courses. The AP program enables high-school students to take college-level material and often to gain college credit for their work. The other is UTeach, a program at the University of Texas at Austin that has become a national model for science teacher preparation. The UTeach program has doubled the number of UT Austin students receiving math and science teacher certification.
The University of Texas at Austin is a member of the Physics Teacher Education Coalition (PTEC), an association of physics departments dedicated to the improvement of K-12 physics and physical science teacher preparation. PTEC grew out of the APS-led Physics Teacher Education Coalition (PhysTEC) program for improving teacher preparation.
UTeach has implemented the practices that PhysTEC and PTEC promote to improve science teacher preparation. One factor in the program’s success is the significant collaboration among the College of Natural Science, the College of Education, and teachers from local schools, said Michael Marder, a professor of physics and co-director of UTeach.
“The most important element in UTeach is the fact that groups of people who used to work separately have come together,” said Marder, who is also the chair of the APS Committee on Education.
©1995 - 2008, AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY
APS encourages the redistribution of the materials included in this newspaper provided that attribution to the source is noted and the materials are not truncated or changed.
| APS Washington, D.C. Office 529 14th St. NW, Washington, DC 20045 Email: opa@aps.org Telephone: 202-662-8700 Fax: 202-662-8711 |
| Director of Public Affairs: Michael Lubell Associate Director of Public Affairs: Francis Slakey Head of Government Relations: Steve Pierson Senior Science Policy Fellow: Kimberly Duncan Legislative Correspondent: Brian Mosley Office Manager: Jeanette Russo Press Secretary: Tawanda W. Johnson |
College Park, MD One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740 |
| Executive Editor: Alan Chodos Staff Writer: Ernie Tretkoff Art Director / Special Publications Manager: Kerry G. Johnson Design and Production: Nancy Bennett-Karasik |
