WebSights features reviews of select sites presenting physics
teaching strategies and resources, as well as shorter announcements of sites of
interest to physics teachers. All sites are copyright by their authors. This
column is available as a web page at <http://PhysicsEd.BuffaloState.Edu/pubs/WebSights/>.
If you have successfully used a
site to teach physics that you feel is outstanding and appropriate for WebSights, please email me the URL and describe how you use it
to teach. The best site monthly will receive a T-shirt. <macisadl@buffalostate.edu>
Summer
course opportunities for Physics Teachers
I
recently received a commentary from Sal Tatto of Fox Lane HS Physics discussing
the role that attending summer physics courses for teachers has played in his
early professional development. He
suggested this list of a number of summer courses for physics teachers.
Most
notably, the Modeling Physics network will offer about eighteen modeling
workshops for physics teachers nationwide this summer 2007; most of these are
intensive full time daylong courses of two or three week duration and carry
graduate credit. Some offer
financial support for attendees. A
complete list of modeling courses and sponsoring colleges and universities is
found at <http://modeling.asu.edu/>
under the title Opportunities for Professional Growth. Tatto
writes of his personal growth after two summers at the Buffalo State modeling
courses at <http://tinyurl.com/3ab327>.
The
physics departments of many college and universities famous for teacher
preparation or for physics outreach offer summer workshops, courses and
institutes for teachers, including the following representative examples with
up to date web pages available as of late March:
Arizona State University: <http://modeling.asu.edu> -- the national
modeling physics headquarters, offering four modeling workshops and graduate
summer courses for their Masters of Natural Science (MNS) degree for teachers.
Ball State University: <http://www.bsu.edu/physics/summer/>
-- both one week and more traditional courses; see especially Teacher
Updating and Retraining Workshop Courses, including AP workshops.
Cornell University: <http://www.cns.cornell.edu/cipt/> -- the Cornell Institute for Physics
Teachers (CIPT)
Montana State University: <http://scienceteacher.org/sum07.htm>
-- live summer courses in Bozeman MT; part of the famous year round and
online NTEN / NSTA collection of professional development courses for
inservice teachers
Princeton University: <http://science-education.pppl.gov/SummerInst/>
-- one week Plasma Physics and Fusion Energy Institute for HS Physics
Teachers
SUNY-Buffalo State College: <http://physicsed.buffalostate.edu/programs/>
-- summer courses for teachers, including an online + summer M.S.Ed. program
for HS physics teachers.
University of Virginia: <http://galileo.phys.virginia.edu/outreach/ProfessionalDevelopment/summer-program.html> various summer courses for teachers, including
an online M.A.T. program for physics teachers.
University of Washington: <http://www.phys.washington.edu/groups/peg/2007institute.html> -- the NSF Summer Institute in
Physics and Physical Science for Inservice Teachers
A
unique program Tatto points out is the weeklong Einstein Plus
International Teachers' Workshop on Modern Physics in Waterloo, Ontario Canada conducted by the
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics <www.einsteinplus.ca>. All expenses save transport to Toronto
are paid for non-Canadian applicants.
Vernier Software also maintains web pages for independent and corporate workshops for
physics teachers at <http://www.vernier.com/workshop/independent.html>. PASCO does the same at <http://www.pasco.com/training/>.
More
online calculus based physics video lectures
Frank
Nochese of John Jay HS physics suggests the following calculus-based physics
video lectures by Walter Lewin of MIT:
Physics 1: Mechanics <http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-01Physics-IFall1999/CourseHome/>
Physics 2: E&M
<http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-02Electricity-and-MagnetismSpring2002/CourseHome/>
Physics 3: Waves <http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-03Fall-2004/CourseHome/>