A thriving physics teacher preparation program at Rowan University

The Department of Physics & Astronomy at Rowan University received a 3-year (2015 – 2018) Comprehensive Grant from the PhysTEC program. As part of this grant, Rowan attempted to build a sustainable framework for recruiting, retaining, training, inducting and mentoring future high school physics teachers. Rowan closely followed PhysTEC’s “Key Components” for successful high school physics teacher education programs. A strong emphasis at the Rowan PhysTEC site was creating student research opportunities in Physics Education Research, early teaching experiences in a high school setting, an LA program to help recruit interest to teaching, and creating a vibrant high school physics teacher network in the South Jersey region. Another notable aspect was Rowan’s success in creating a community within the department dedicated to supporting PhysTEC activities and leveraging our PhysTEC experience into helping gain other external grant opportunities. In this talk, we will present ideas and actions that were particularly successful in sustaining our PhysTEC activities. Rowan University is a Carnegie-classified Doctoral University (Moderate Research Activity) with approximately 19,000 students. Its main campus is located in Glassboro, N.J., 20 miles southeast of Philadelphia.