The Department of Physics and Astronomy is a member of
The Physics Teacher Education Coalition, an association of physics
departments dedicated to the improvement of K-12 physics and physical
science teacher preparation.
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Over the last decade, physicists at the University of Kentucky have been developing courses for both pre-service and in-service teachers that promote the inquiry approach to learning and teaching science. The topics and the style of learning are those recommended in national and state standards.
For pre-service teachers we offer PHY 160, a three-credit course required by our College of Education of all pre-service elementary and soon to be required of all middle-school teachers who seek certification in science. The course meets 6 hours per week in a laboratory setting, and covers light, electricity, magnetism, and force and motion through hands-on activities No lectures are given, but rather, through observations of experiments and interpretive discussions in small groups, the aspiring teachers develop explanatory models of nature which are then discussed with faculty members and teaching assistants. Nearly 200 future teachers enroll in this course each year. Four faculty members are involved in the teaching of this course.
With support from NSF through the Appalachian Mathematics-Science Partnership similar courses are being developed at other Kentucky universities and colleges. Much of the leadership for this project comes from University of Kentucky science and mathematics departments including the Department of Physics & Astronomy. Better ways to help pre-service teachers are tied to better ways to help in-service teachers, and this aspect of the NSF project involves summer institutes and follow-up mentoring.
For in-service teachers, we also offer four one-credit-hour physics courses, delivered in a distance learning format, which may be taken for professional development or graduate credit. The topics are Light, Temperature, Heat & Energy, Electricity & Magnetism, and Force, Motion, and Energy. These courses emphasize content understanding of physics topics important for teachers, and promote learning through inquiry activities. Each is based on a kit of equipment,a CD to provide instruction, and the use of email to communicate with the instructors. Hands-on activities and learning through concrete experiences play a central role in these courses. The courses were written with the middle school science teacher in mind; they cover the core content for those grades, and make use of activities that can be imported into the middle school classroom with minimal modification. They are asynchronous, so that practicing teachers can work at their own site, on their own schedule. For previews of the courses and more description of how they work, visit the course website. These courses were developed and written at the University of Kentucky with support from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of Education. In the last year, almost 30 in-service teachers from 7 states took one or more of these courses.
These kits and activities are now being rewritten at the University of Kentucky for national distribution by Lab-Aids, Inc. Already released are the modules Investigating Light, Color and Spectrum, Reflection and Refraction, and Force and Motion; a module Temperature, Heat, and Energy is in the editorial process. Here is more information about these modules.
Students who have been taught by the teachers we have trained either as students in PHY 160 or as practicing teachers in the Science Works program are already beginning to arrive at the university, and we are beginning to reap the benefits of our efforts to improve teacher preparation.
For more information, contact
Sally Shafer Director
Science Works Program
859-257-5131
shafer@pa.uky.edu
Joseph Straley
859-257-3197
sciworks@pa.uky.edu
John Christopher
859-257-5660
jchris@uky.edu
