Free In-Class Resource For Science Teachers

modernphysics writes "Canada's non-profit and independent Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics is now providing a free in-class, educational resource for high-school science teachers to help guide students through interesting topics in modern physics. The first module on 'The Mystery of Dark Matter' can be viewed online and features a 25-minute video, teacher's guide with hands-on demonstrations, and student activity sheets in Word format that can be edited to suit individual classes. This resource helps fulfill the number one request from the hundreds of high-school teachers who attend the popular EinsteinPlus Workshops on Modern Physics at PI each summer — to have access to enrichment materials for students in grades 11 and 12 in a flexible, comprehensive, and easy-to-use format that makes abstract ideas visual and shares the joys of research and discovery."

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Tufts Uni offers training fellowships for teachers

[SpaceWanderer]

The Wright Center for Innovative Science Education at Tufts University offers fellowship opportunities for teachers of elementary and high school science, workshops for teachers and free posters and curriculum materials on request by teachers. Some materials are available on-line for free download. Materials range from Space Science and Cosmic Evolution to the Physics of Music and Ben Franklin and Electrostatics. Visit http://www.tufts.edu/as/wright_center to learn more.

Re:they try so hard

[FooAtWFU]

America does a poor job of coupling teacher pay to teacher performance (they attach it instead almost exclusively to Seniority). This is not conducive to getting good teaching at schools. As government-related entities, moreover, there are (in various jurisdictions) a lot of regulations which (whatever else good they do or don't do) make it very difficult to get rid of bad teachers. My understanding is that New York City public schools are a particularly egregious example of this, and totally incompetent teachers can stick around for years and years.

Every now and again people attempt to throw money at the problem without actually fixing the problem. This is wasteful and stupid, and leads to some justified complaints. Then there are occasional budgetary cuts. These seldom correlate very well with the merits of the programs or teachers being funded. On a related note, exceptional students can find it difficult to thrive in the rather homogeneous academic environments you can find at many schools, particularly in smaller systems with fewer resources overall.

Many reasonable-sounding way to encourage better education have involved attempts to measure the education. This, however, tends to lead to more "test prep" learning and less learning learning.

I don't think anyone seriously advocates "no public education" per se. Much of it is just undirected complaint. However, advocating massive restructuring involving a system of school vouchers (or even minor restructuring and the introduction of similar vouchers) such that private educational institutions can receive some portion of public funds (since they're no longer attending public schools) is not uncommon, particularly by those with Libertarian sympathies.