| Brief Summary of Proposal | We propose to develop a new course to address specific educational needs for science teacher candidates. This new course will provide students with Physics content in a way that will be useful to them as teachers. Inquiry, discovery, and experiential learning in a laboratory environment will be part of the course, in addition to take home lab activities and field trips to extend learning beyond the classroom. Inexpensive and simple equipment will be used as much as possible, in order to provide students with a means of learning physics and learning to teach physics with everyday materials. The course ran on a trial basis in Spring 2004 as “Selected Topics: Everyday Physics”, and will run again in Spring 2005 in this format. According to the standards proposed by the National Science Teachers Association, elementary and middle level general science teachers need to be prepared to lead students to understand many physics related topics. There are also standards concerning the nature of science, inquiry, social issues, and many others. These standards are intimately connected with the Ohio Academic Content Standards, which provide benchmarks for the physical sciences, inquiry, and ways of knowing. A mixture of pedagogies and consistent student journaling and feedback will encourage student participation and ownership in this course. The empowerment of the students will provide for a safe learning environment that leads to gains in student self-confidence and attitudes about themselves and about science. We believe that the student-instructor dialogue enabled by daily journaling, direct access to the instructor, and feedback will be particularly effective for improving student attitudes and enhancing learning. The course has strong support from the College of Education. |
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