Maximizing the Workshop Experience: An Example from the PTRA Rural Initiatives Program

Abstract

Since the summer of 2001, the Rural Initiative of the Physics Teaching Resource Agents have led summer workshops for high school and middle school physics teachers at several universities nationwide. From the site at Coastal Carolina University where teachers learned about radioactivity and nuclear physics, assistant professor Teresa Burns describes how high school teacher Lucas Mullen was able to build a curriculum tied to South Carolina State Science Standards around the content he learned at the workshop. This is one example of how a workshop experience can lead to better teaching practices through exposure to content material and current accepted practices in physics education research.