I’m at physics summer camp.
That’s what I called the llinois Physics and Secondary Schools Partnership Program today while on the phone with my husband.
It’s not new information that teachers of physics are pulled in a lot of directions and are often under-trained.
Additionally, outside of major metropolitan areas, or areas with Universities, it’s not uncommon that a school has ONE physics teacher without any other physics teachers nearby. This is a deadly combination that not only leads to burnout, but in many cases mediocre to poor physics teaching. This is no fault of the teacher, but rather a consequence of their limited resources: knowledge, time and access.
Enter IPaSS. The program addresses all three.
Three years ago the team at UIUC contacted me about being one of the “master teachers” for the first year of the program. The main intention was to see how AP Physics C teachers would incorporate the recently redeveloped intro sequence (211/212) in their classes. Our summer was a lot of training and messing around, and also some sharing of practices. The four of us all came from very different schools and philosophies of thought, even through 3 out of the 4 had an education from UIUC.
Last year the program started to formalize a little by introducing 8 new teachers to the program, and now we are fully formalized with another 12. We get to spend an entire week (ok 4 days) sharing experiences, pedagogies, philosophies and materials…and we also have access to the high quality research-based materials from the University.
Knowledge
By bringing together teachers with 0-30 years experience, there is a wealth of knowledge in the room. This knowledge is not limited to physics, but also pedagogy and classroom practices. After your first year you are expected to bring your wealth of knowledge to the table in a more formal manner by presenting or running sessionrs.
Access
The University of Illinois has a large and strong Physics Education Research group. The main professor of the program, Tim Steltzer has been doing PER for decades. This program gives teachers access to all of the materials that University Students in introductory physics use in their courses. This includes supplying teachers with a class set of iOLabs.
Time
One of the best parts of the summer institute is that we have concentrated time to focus on specific areas of our teaching that we simply don’t have during the school year. During this time we are working with other teachers who have similar values and goals. The sessions are set up with enough flexibility that if you need to go off and work independently on a project you are able to do so.
Another cool part of the program? It is whatever you choose to make of it.
IPaSS physics summer camp with a smorgasbord of anything your heart could desire:
- You want to lead other teachers in awesome methods you’ve learned? You’ve come to the right place
- You need to boost your practice because you’re out of field or new? You’ve come to the right place
- You are an experienced teacher that feels stuck in old ways? You’ve come to the right place
- Your school lacks resources for high quality instruction? You’ve come to the right place
- You want to be involved in scholarly research, publishing and presenting? You’ve come to the right place
- You’re a PER post-doc or professor and need access to high school students/teachers for research? You’ve come to the right place.
Literally anything you can fathom can come out of this space.
Here was the schedule the first day
I’m so thankful to be part of such an amazing group of educators.
Physics.Teacher.Momma. 