PhysTEC Recruiting Grant at Salisbury University

The Salisbury University (SU) Physics Department offers a Bachelor of Science degree in physics, including a track in Secondary Education as a collaborative program with the Department of Education Specialties. SU is one of nine sites selected for the PhysTEC Recruiting Grants, which began in fall 2014. Our recruitment plan consists of three inter-linked parts: marketing, early teaching experiences, and a part-time teacher in residence. We will describe our internal and external marketing activities which include the production of various promotional materials highlighting physics teaching and developing an online presence with a Physics Teaching website as well as Facebook and Twitter pages. Our early teaching experiences consist of opportunities for physics majors to be employed as leaders in SU's Supplemental Instruction (SI) program and through our Teaching Exploration Program (TEP) which offers placements in the local schools to provide potential physics teachers with early teaching experiences with pre-college students. We hired a part-time Teacher in Residence who is a retired physics teacher with mentoring experience. She met the students in the TEP at the schools, provided orientation, and introduced them to the teachers with whom they were placed. We will share student response to and the impact of the SI and TEP experiences.