Leadership Development of Physics Teaching Resource Agents

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This grant provides support for continuation and further development of a program of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) which developed a nationwide cadre of Physics Teaching Resource Agents. Project staff will again recruit outstanding high school physics teachers whose classroom practice has been judged to be exemplary and effective. Subsequently, these resource teachers will participate in a series of workshops dealing with strategy, techniques, content, and technological innovation which have been tested and validated by the AAPT. The participants will also develop skills in conducting their own workshops for colleagues in their own regions of the United States. The AAPT will provide follow-up support for the local workshops with resource personnel, limited amounts of funding and materials, and the loan of laboratory equipment and computers. It is anticipated that approximately 100 physics resource teachers will participate in the workshops, each reaching out to approximately 60 more teachers. Thus, the workshop may ultimately influence approximately 6,000 teachers. In 1985, 100 teachers participated in the program and by March 15, 1986, 203 workshops involving 3,370 participants had been conducted with additional workshops planned for the spring of that year. Three national meetings of the Physics Resource Teachers are planned. Attendance at two of these meetings will be supported by the National Science Foundation while support to attend the third meeting will energetically be sought by AAPT project staff from external sources. Participants have been quite effective in their first year in acquiring external support, and these efforts will continue to be promoted. It is anticipated that this program can become self-sustaining.