A Symbiotic Physics Teacher Preparation Partnership

Kristine Callan, Department of Physics, Colorado School of Mines
Wendy Adams, Science Education and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Northern Colorado

CSM Physics students, Libby Booton (left) and Spencer Fretwell (right), fire a vortex cannon
Photo credit: Taylor Smith, CSM Engineering Physics student.

Fig. 1: CSM Physics students, Libby Booton (left) and Spencer Fretwell (right), fire a vortex cannon during a Society of Physics Students Future Faces of Physics event at Berry Creek Middle School. Outreach activities, such as this one, are able to give CSM students a taste of teaching, and those who become “hooked” can now pursue a teaching license via our program.

Prospective physics teacher, Jordan Diemer, teaches Berry Creek Middle School students about the wonders of circular motion
Photo credit: Taylor Smith, CSM Engineering Physics student.

Fig. 2: Prospective physics teacher, Jordan Diemer, teaches Berry Creek Middle School students about the wonders of circular motion with a simple demonstration. He plans to pursue a teaching license while earning his degree in Engineering Physics from CSM.

CSM Engineering Physics students, David Grisham (left) and Libby Booton (right), practice a fascinating bead chain demonstration
Photo credit: Taylor Smith, CSM Engineering Physics student.

Fig. 3: CSM Engineering Physics students, David Grisham (left) and Libby Booton (right), practice a fascinating bead chain demonstration that always leaves students in awe.

MINES logo UNCTo help battle the shortage of highly qualified physics teachers, Colorado School of Mines (CSM) and University of Northern Colorado (UNC) have recently created a unique partnership that plays on each institution’s strengths to produce highly qualified STEM teachers: One is a highly-selective, public applied sciences and engineering research university and the other is the state’s premier teacher preparation institution. Together, we hope to produce teachers with both strong content and pedagogical knowledge from a previously untapped pool of potential educators.

The Partnership

Many students enter CSM interested in a career in engineering due to their passion for math and science, but without a clear understanding of what it actually means to be an engineer. Over time, some of these students realize that they do not want to be engineers and change to a major in the basic sciences or math, while others leave CSM entirely. Dean Kevin Moore has thought for years that a sizeable fraction of these students might be interested in persisting at CSM if they could see a viable non-engineering career path, such as secondary teaching. This would also provide an additional avenue for recruitment of new students. In 2006, a survey of 1,015 CSM students supported this idea, showing that 46.5% would be interested in pursuing a teaching minor, if one were offered. CSM had preliminary discussions with a couple of Colorado institutions, but these did not move forward.

In the Fall of 2013, independent of the above, Eugene Sheehan, the Dean of Education and Behavioral Sciences at UNC, suggested that a viable approach to addressing the needs in STEM teaching could be a partnership whereby UNC provides professional teacher training to CSM students. Faculty at UNC reached out to colleagues at CSM and initial discussions found a strong synergy between the two institutions’ goals.

By March of 2014 we had completed an MOU committing to building a teacher preparation program for CSM students. In 2014 this partnership was awarded an NSF Noyce Capacity Building Grant and in 2015, it became both a PhysTEC Comprehensive site and a 100Kin10 Partner.

While program development has progressed reasonably smoothly, our biggest challenges have been communicating effectively to all players and determining who to bring to the table and when. The design team consists of faculty from multiple colleges in both institutions (the UNC College of Education, UNC Secondary Science and Math content faculty, and the Mines content faculty) as well as their respective Deans; however, we did not anticipate the range of administrators from the two different institutions that needed to be involved. As expected, faculty, deans, and provosts were required to form the institutional agreement; however, registrars, financial aid directors, bursars, and UNC’s Extended Campus and Graduate School also had to be at the table. This program is not business as usual for any of these folks.

The Students

As part of the design process, we have collected evidence that CSM students have a very strong content preparation. Nationally, average composite SAT/ACT scores of those who enter teaching are far below those who go into engineering, research, science and other related fields1. CSM students sit in the top 5% of students nationwide with an average ACT score of 30. The CSM students who have expressed interest in this program have a slightly higher average GPA than the CSM student body. Additionally we have administered the General Science PRAXIS exam to CSM student volunteers with majors in Physics, Mechanical Engineering, Chemistry, Petroleum Engineering, Biochemistry and Applied Math. Without extra study or preparation, all students passed with scores well above the national average.

There has been a healthy response from students who are interested in the program, as well as from local schools, which are excited to have these high quality teacher candidates in their classrooms during early field experiences, student teaching, and ultimately as new teachers.

Through a new student poll in core classes and emails to select major lists, we have identified roughly 180 current CSM students who indicated that they are “interested” or “very interested” in this new program with UNC. Of these students, roughly one third are either physics majors, physics minors, or have equivalent coursework.

The Program

Just shy of two years after the initial discussions, the first cohort of students will begin this summer. The current plan is to have the first cohort of students begin their teacher preparation course work either over the summer or in the fall 2015 semester. Many of these classes can count toward the student’s CSM degree, and since they will either be delivered on the CSM campus (by a UNC faculty member) or online, the student will retain their identity as a CSM student. Each student will also have the option to 1) pursue teaching licensure only, which will require them to enroll at UNC for only one additional semester after graduating from CSM, or 2) pursue teaching licensure with a master’s degree that will include a research component, which will require them to enroll at UNC for a full year after graduating from CSM.

We are excited about the potential of this unique new program to produce a healthy stream of STEM teachers with strong physics and engineering content knowledge and a balanced preparation in educational theory and practice from a previously untapped pool of students. Additionally, this partnership serves as a model for how an education focused entity can recruit and train students from an engineering institution or department to become teachers.

The CSM PhysTEC team includes Vince Kuo and Kristine Callan from the Department of Physics, and Steven DeCaluwe from the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The UNC PhysTEC team members are Wendy Adams, Physics and Astronomy, who also serves as the Director of UNC’s Science Education Programs and Christy Moroye, Foundations and Curriculum Studies, who coordinates UNC’s Secondary Post Baccalaureate and K-12 licensure programs.

(Endnotes)

1. National Science Board, Science and Engineering Indicators 2006 National Science Foundation, Arlington, VA, 2006, Vol. 1, NSB 06-01; Vol.2, NSB 06-01A

Disclaimer – The articles and opinion pieces found in this issue of the APS Forum on Education Newsletter are not peer refereed and represent solely the views of the authors and not necessarily the views of the APS.