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Tuesday morning
Too often in the conversation of women in physics and STEM women are
assumed to hold one all encompassing identity. Inevitably this identity is de-
rived from the lives of upper-class heterosexual white women from educated
homes. Rarely does the imagery of women scientists include people of color,
lesbians, transwomen, or women from low socio-economic status. When
teaching courses on gender and physics it is imperative that we include
research, examples, and stories from the lives of diverse women. Rebranding
physics as a potential home for many varied identities is critical for the suc-
cess of the field. Starting this conversation in the classroom may be one tool
to support the diversification of physics, particularly for women.
DA05:
9-10 a.m. A Women in Mathematics, Computer Science,
and Physics Course*
Poster – Jim Crumley, College of Saint Benedict / Saint John’s University, 107
PE Science Center, Collegeville, MN 56321-2000;
Kris Nairn, Lynn Ziegler, Yu Zhang, Pam Bacon, College of Saint Benedict /
Saint John’s University
Increasing women’s participation is a concern in disciplines beyond
physics. As part of our Mathematics, Physics, Computer Science Research
Scholars (MapCores) program,
1
we teach a women in science class cover-
ing these three areas. Our course is a special version of our college’s first
year seminar, which is a course designed to prepare our students to read,
write, and speak at a college-level. We structure our FYS to promote
academic confidence and interest in our disciplines for the women in Map-
Cores. It covers not only contributions that women have made and barriers
that women face in these disciplines, but also research frontiers and science
policy issues in these disciplines. While the women in MapCores find
covering these topics beneficial, the most important benefit of the course is
the supportive cohort that grows from it.
1. (
/) *Supported by NSF grant DUE-0965705.
DA06: 9-10 a.m. Preliminary Work in Developing a Women in
Physics Freshman Seminar
Poster – Jolene L. Johnson, St. Catherine University, St. Paul, MN 55105;
St. Catherine University is a small all women’s liberal arts college, looking
to add a physics major for the first time. The number of potential students
is a consideration when adding programs so we are exploring ways to
increase the number of women interested in majoring in physics and
their persistence. In the future we plan to offer a freshman seminar that
focuses on women in physical sciences. This class would cover the topics
currently covered in freshman seminar but would also include topics such
as historic women in science, differences in learning styles, and discrimi-
nation in STEM. We believe that the community this class would build
along with the discussions would improve the retention of STEM majors.
In this poster we will present student comments and reactions to a pilot
discussion that occurred in introductory physics. We will also outline the
potential topics and structure of this course.
Session DB: Sustainability of Physics
Teacher Prep Programs
Location: STSS 114
Sponsor: Committee on Teacher Preparation
Date: Tuesday, July 29
Time: 8–10 a.m.
Presider: Monica Plisch
DB01:
8-8:30 a.m. Sustained Programs in Physics Teacher
Education
Invited – Rachel E. Scherr, Seattle Pacific University, Seattle, WA 98119;
Renee Michelle Goertzen, Monica Plisch, American Physical Society
For over a decade, physics teacher education programs have been trans-
formed at a number of institutions around the country through support
from the Physics Teacher Education Coalition (PhysTEC), led by the APS
in partnership with the AAPT. In 2012-2013, PhysTEC supported an
independent study on the sustainability of its sites after project funding
ends. The study sought to measure the extent to which programs have been
sustained and to identify what features should be prioritized for building
sustainable physics teacher education programs. All of the studied sites that
sustained their production of physics teachers have a champion of physics
teacher education and corresponding institutional motivation and commit-
ment. The necessity of the champion was known from the Report of the
Task Force on Teacher Education in Physics (T-TEP report) and borne out
by this study. The necessity of institutional motivation and commitment is
a finding of this study.
DB02:
8:30-9 a.m. Driving Florida International University’s
Commitment to Physics Teacher Preparation
Invited – Laird Kramer, Florida International University, Department of Phys-
ics, Miami, FL 33199;
Florida International University’s Physics Department revitalized FIU’s
physics teacher preparation program through a Physics Teacher Education
Coalition (PhysTEC) Primary Partner award in 2007. The PhysTEC project
started an undergraduate Learning Assistant (LA) program at FIU and pro-
vided impetus to reorganize FIU’s science and mathematics teacher prepa-
ration programs into discipline-based programs. Over the past seven years,
strategic advocacy and leadership has built an institutional commitment
to teacher preparation that has resulted in an institution-wide LA program
supporting over 150 LAs serving in six disciplines, five discipline-based
teacher preparation programs, and significant external funding. These
efforts laid the foundation for awarding of FIUteach, a UTeach replication
project, in 2014. An overview of the critical steps and vital partnerships
will be presented.
DB03:
9-9:30 a.m. Sustainability: Obtaining Department
Buy-In*
Invited – Gay B. Stewart, University of Arkansas, Department of Physics,
Fayetteville, AR 72701;
John C. Stewart, University of Arkansas
Physics teacher preparation is the responsibility of physics departments,
since those are the institutional units that provide physics education to
university students. It is also a primary requirement for physics’ long-term
health in these days of the medical sciences’ dominance. Still, some depart-
ments do not fully commit to this mission! At the University of Arkansas,
one of the first PhysTEC sites, a model tied to two “champions” gained
strong institutional support and is in a transitional phase of obtaining
broader departmental support. The key to departmental buy-in has always
been the appeal of the improvements to things traditionally important
to the department, an improved undergraduate program and significant
positive attention from administration. Cultivating the next generation
of leadership has been an ongoing effort. Understanding what makes a
“champion,” and distributing this among faculty willing to commit some
time and effort, but who have other primary passions, is the key.
*This work was made possible in part by the NSF and FIPSE as part of the first
PhysTEC grant.
DB04: 9:30-10 a.m. Sustaining a Physics Teacher Preparation
Program at a Major Research University: Challenges and
Strategies
Invited – Laurie McNeil, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Phillips
Hall, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3255;
Most research-intensive universities do not regard teacher education as
being a strong part of their missions, and students who choose to attend
them rarely do so with the intention of becoming high school teachers
(and may not receive much encouragement from faculty to select such a
career path). Further, only a small fraction of students will choose to major
in physics. This means that a physics teacher preparation program at a
major research university might expect its output to constitute less than
a tenth of a percent of the students who receive undergraduate degrees in
