Speakers
Description
PhysTEC (Physics Teacher Education Coalition), a joint effort of the American Physical Society (APS) and the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT), aims to address the severe national shortage of qualified high school physics teachers. Supported by a PhysTEC capacity-building grant, a faculty member at Delaware State University—an HBCU—has developed a collaborative partnership with an early-career physics teacher at Dover High School within the local school district. This partnership aims at strengthening local K-12 physics education and expanding student pathways into STEM careers. Key efforts of the current project period include launching an Advanced Placement (AP) Physics course at Dover High School, collaborative curriculum design, classroom visits, and monthly mentoring meeting. Additionally, this partnership creates a direct pipeline to higher education by bringing Dover High School students to DSU for lab tours, engineering activities, summer research opportunities, and a dedicated "DSU Day in Physics and Engineering." By boosting student interest and readiness, this initiative aims to increase college applications to physics and engineering programs while cultivating the next generation of secondary physics educators. We will present the project planning and implementation strategies at the CSAAPT meeting.
