FORUM ON EDUCATION
Fall 2002

APS Education and Outreach Programs

Fred Stein

Overview

The APS Director of Education and Outreach works with all units through four APS standing committees: the Committee on Education, the Committee on Careers and Professional Development, the Committee on Minorities, and the Committee on the Status of Women in Physics. The APS/Education web site contains descriptions of programs, committees and links to current innovations in undergraduate education. /educ/.

Committees

• The Committee on the Status of Women in Physics(CSWP) continues an active site visit program (originally started with NSF funding) to universities and, more recently, national labs. Members from corporate partners raised funds to create a new brochure Physics in Your Future to encourage middle school girls to consider physics as a career. COE also coordinates the APS/IBM research Internships and has launch the listserve Friends of CWSP.
• The Committee on Minorities (COM) continues its program to award 20-30 two-year university scholarships each year to minority students majoring in physics. An email Mentor program was initiated. An evaluation of this program is on-going. COM has also launched a survey to determine the number of minority Ph.D. physicists employed at the DOE national labs. COM has also produced a new poster.
• The Committee on Education(COE) has endorsed the statement on the web, Why Study Physics. It has also approved submitting the statement Physics for Everyone to POPA and the APS Council. COE has discussed the APS role in promoting digital libraries for science education.
• The Committee on Careers & Professional Development (CCPD) has created the Web Site Bulletin Board to post announcements and inquiries about jobs and professional development activities for faculty and their students.

Programs

• Teachers' Day at the APS March and April meetings brings 50-100 high school teachers from the local area in contact with conference scientists for a day of hands-on workshops and cutting-edge talks and discussions.
• APS is helping to organize a conference in Colorado in February 2003, to promote Mobile Physics Outreach.
• APS is helping to plan the VII Interamerican Conference on Physics Education to be held in Cuba July 4-7, 2003.
• APS is a partner in the National Task Force on Undergraduate Physics and their current project of college and university site visits.
• APS is a partner in the annual New Faculty Workshops and in the Conferences for Physics Department Heads and Chairs held annually at ACP.
• APS is an active, registered lobbyist informing and assisting the U.S. Congress to consider policies that will ensure a high level of resources for science research and science education at all levels.

Physics Teacher Education Coalition: A Grant Supported Program

• PhysTEC is a program to improve the science preparation of future K-12 teachers. It aims to help physics and education faculty work together to provide an education for future teachers that emphasizes a student-centered, hands-on approach to Learning science. APS, in partnership with AIP and AAPT recently hired a full-time PhysTEC Coordinator, Kevin Aylesworth to manage the project. http://www.phystec.org

For additional information, contact:

Dr. Fredrick M. Stein, Director of Education and Outreach, American Physical Society (301) 209-3263 stein@aps.org