GER-9553460 Stith The Ohio State University Physics Department is submitting a proposal to the National Science Foundation under the NSF Graduate Research Traineeship Program. Our proposal is that five Graduate Research Trainees be funded each year for five years. These students will work to earn PhD's in physics with specialties in physics education research. Their training will focus on the theory and methods of teaching and learning in physics and on the use of technology to enhance that learning. These efforts will involve collaborations with several private companies. The five specific objectives of our proposal are as follows. A) To produce PhD physics graduates who develop the research and teaching skills and the knowledge about cognition and learning that will prepare them to lead future efforts to improve science education in the United States. B) To produce PhD physics graduates who gain the knowledge and develop the skills to produce and implement effective systems of learning based in part on the use of technology. C) To increase the number of talented PhD physics graduates from traditionally underrepresented groups who have this knowledge and these skills. D) To increase the number of PhD physics graduates trained in all areas of physics who also have the knowledge of physics education research to implement new forms of instruction in the education systems in which they may work in the future. E) To help produce a positive systemic change in the learning system of a state university with over 50,000 students --a change that better prepares these undergraduate students for the twenty-first century information- age workplace. We propose that the five Graduate Research Traineeships be funded in physics at OSU each year for five years. The cost to the NSF for these Traineeships will be $112,500 per year. Ohio State University's matching contribution of $27,000 per year will be realized by paying the tuition of the NSF support ed trainees in excess of $8400 per year and in $100 per year of miscellaneous support and travel for the trainees.
