9554130 Herr This three year project, sponsored by Catlin Gable School of Portland, Oregon, will prepare high school teachers of physics to use teaching techniques based upon the latest developed instrumentation and to apply this knowledge in their high school physics classes. Twenty teachers will attend three-week workshops at three sites: Portland, Oregon; Omaha, Nebraska; and Palo Alto, California, for a total of 60 teachers enhanced each year. The program will teach the teachers physics content as well as pedagogy based upon the latest research on student misconceptions. When the project is over, the teachers will be able to use instrumental techniques to clarify key physics concepts. They will be taught how to build some of their own equipment from components easily found at local electronics and hardware stores and develop laboratory modules based upon these instruments. In total each participant will have about 100 instrument based experiments which can be used in the classroom. Each module developed by the participants is evaluated by a well know physics educator. When these teachers return to their schools, they will be provided access to the internet and thus will be given support and information from other teachers using these techniques. Each participant is required to carry out two workshops for other physics teachers within a year after leaving the project. Matching funds constitute about 30% of the NSF award.
