PTRA began in 1985 with the mission of improving the teaching and learning of physics and physical science for all teachers and students in the United States. AAPT/PTRA is the leading in-service physics professional development program and has touched the lives of thousands of teachers and countless students. PTRA owes its success to many people and partners including PASCO and Vernier. THANK YOU for your continued support of PTRA and all you have done to support physics teachers.
PTRA has been listed as a promising program in the STEMWorks Change the Equation Program. Check it out…
Well, maybe not experts, but four PTRAs know more now than they did before they went to the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, Canada in July. A week of learning about quantum physics made us realize how much we did not know and how much scientists still have to learn. CERN is next on my bucket list!
The University of West Georgia Physics Department hosted a STEM summer institute June 9-20, 2014 for teachers in grades 3-12. The project was funded by the Georgia State Education Department and was called SMITE (Science and Math Institute for Teacher Education).
Physics students at Kennedale and Mansfield High Schools studied energy, momentum, and Newton’s Laws at a waterpark, Hawaiian Falls (Mansfield, TX) on May 28, 2014. Michael Strange, a physics teacher at Kennedale HS, was looking for a different venue to determine if the students really learned what they had been taught during the year. What a cool way to assess learning!! Students used their iOS devices to read QR codes and take data. The QR codes gave students some background information for each ride as well as problems they were to solve and data they were to collect. The QR codes also had quiz questions they were to discuss and be able to solve after they worked through the calculations from their experience. The event was sponsored by UTeach, UTA Science Dept, and local businesses. NBC News covered the event http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Students-Dive-Head-First-Into-School-Work-261008901.html
There are several opportunities for teachers to receive professional development in physics related to STEM and NGSS in 2014. Specific information on the available PTRA workshops are listed under the main menu: Workshop and Institutes, 2014. For more information contact us and we will direct you to the nearest site OR we will be happy to set up a special workshop in your area designed to meet you needs. We specialize in workshops for teachers wanting to understand physics and physical science in grades K-12.
