The Department of Physics and Astronomy at Moorhead State University is offering a series of three, four week, institutes providing professional development opportunities for underprepared high school physics and physical science teachers. The institutes will be held over three successive summers beginning in 1990. The overall objective of the institutes is the upgrading of breadth of content and teaching skills. The content areas are mechanics, waves, electromagnetism, optics and selected areas of modern physics. These institutes will provide opportunities for 20- 24 high school teachers, per year, from the tri-state region of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. It is expected that the majority of the teachers will attend all three institutes. Selected participants will represent a good mix of private and public school teachers, as well as an equitable gender mix. Participants can earn (8-10) graduate credits per summer. Since the institutes are designed to focus on the upgrading of the content and teaching skills of underprepared teachers, planned activities will involve lectures, activities and readings on basic mathematical skills pedagogy and teaching methods, as well as the physics content. A major emphasis will be on hands-on activities, such as projects, development of lecture demonstrations, the use of computers as teaching/learning aids, and the critical analysis of subject matter content. Opportunities will be available for help sessions/tutorials which will enhance the participant's problem solving skills and for the development of simple, inexpensive, but pedagogically sound, physics demonstration and laboratory materials. Guest speakers, including accomplished high school teachers, will be invited to interact with the participants on various aspects of teaching methods, pedagogy and research, and industrial innovations. Follow-up activities include one-day sessions at Moorhead State University and site visits to teachers classrooms. Two high school teachers, (Presidential Awardees or PTRAS) who have expressed a long term commitment for improved science education will be involved in the planning and delivery of the institutes' activities and in developing comprehensive evaluation procedures to determine the effectiveness of the project. Cost sharing in an amount of $89,000 equals 40% of the NSF award.
