PROJECT PTRA-PLUS is a program of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) to provide updated instruction over three summers for 125 outstanding U.S. high school teachers previously trained to conduct teacher workshops as Physics Teaching Resources Agents (PTRAs). Twenty-five new participants will be added to the group in each of the three years to bring the PTRA-PLUS complement to 200 by 1994. In addition to an enhanced emphasis on physics content, particular attention will be devoted to increasing the enrollment and success of girls in physics classes and subsequent interest in the profession. A second distinguishing characteristic of this new effort is the progressive movement to self-sufficiency of the PTRA program; AAPT plans to continue both the training of teacher workshops leaders and the administrative/logistical support of the workshop-outreach programs as the NSF funding is phased out. Program participants will be required to conduct a minimum of five full-day teacher workshops per year in their home regions or states, resulting in some 2500 workshops reaching as many as 50,000 physics and physical science teachers nationally over the three-year period of the National Science Foundation grant. A comprehensive database fed primarily by an electronic network of program participants and maintained by the Project Directors for AAPT will assist in the scheduling, reporting, and monitoring of the outreach workshops as well as evaluating the effectiveness of summer training sessions. Other distinct features of PROJECT PTRA-PLUS include the encouragement of partnerships between the participating high school teachers and college/university faculty and with teachers of minority students in their locale. To further extend the effective duration of instruction and interaction, summer training sessions are typically scheduled for the week preceding the regular AAPT Summer Meeting, on the camps site of the meeting. The first such session is scheduled for August of 1992 at the University of Maine in Orono. Cost sharing equals 10% of the NSF award.
