There is this course.  It’s called Physics for Elementary Education Majors (PHYS 142) – maybe that’s not surprising.  Anyway, I really like this course – it’s awesome.  Let me tell you a little about the history and future of this course.

According my email archive, I think this course was created in 2003.  Ok, technically it was created before that but 2003 is when we started offering the course again.  Actually, the fact that the course already existed made it much easier to get it going.  If you have ever been part of a university curriculum committee, you know what I mean.

We created the course for the College of Education.  They needed a science course for their elementary education majors that satisfied some particular component of NCATE (the accrediting agency for Colleges of Education).  I honestly don’t know (or can’t remember) what specific thing the course was supposed to do – but there it was.  This course was perfect for them.

The first semester I taught this course, I used the Physics by Inquiry (McDermott) curriculum.  This curriculum was especially designed for education majors – and it’s quite awesome.  However, there was one problem – maths.  There isn’t a ton of math in PBI but there is enough to make students panic.  I think they should indeed work through their issues with math, but it was causing problems with the course. Note: I tell students that they shouldn’t say “I’m not a math person”.

After math troubles, I decided to switch to a new curriculum.  At the time it was called Physics for Elementary Teachers (PET) but was later changed to Physics and Everyday Thinking (also PET – by Goldberg, Otero, Robinson).  Here are some of the awesome features of PET.

• Student learning based on evidence collected (not authority learning from the textbook or instructor).
• Explicitly includes ideas about the nature of learning.
• Emphasis on model building and the nature of science.
• Includes children’s ideas about physics.
• Math isn’t a barrier.
• OH, the best part.  The new version of the curriculum is called Next Gen PET.  This version explicitly aligns with the Next Generation Science Standards.  This should be a huge win for the College of Education.

Honestly, it’s great stuff.  Oh, there are still problems.  Students get caught up in the whole “why don’t you just tell us the answer?” thing – but I can work around that.

But like I said – this is the course that we have been teaching for 15 years (wow – even writing that is incredible).  This course was designed for the College of Education.  We typically have been teaching three sections of the course each semester with an average of about 25 students per section.

PHYS 142 Today

I accidentally discovered something recently.  The education majors informed me that PHYS 142 is no longer required in the curriculum.  What? How can that be?  Yup, it’s true.  The new science requirements for elementary education majors have the following three courses:

• Biology 1
• Biology 2
• Earth Science

That’s it.  I’m sure those are fine classes – but they miss a big thing.  They don’t emphasis the nature of science.  In fact, I suspect that these three classes might actually decrease the students’ understanding the nature of science.  Since these three courses have quite a bit of memorization elements in them, students might come away with the belief that science is about facts and not model building.

Yes, I’m not too happy about this.  Not only do I think this course is perfect for education majors (who will be the first to introduce science to children in many cases).  I also genuinely enjoy teaching this class. It’s great to interact with students and see them increase their understanding.  There’s nothing quite like being there when a student starts putting different ideas together.  It’s great.

On a logistical note, this course as some other huge impacts.  First – teaching load.  If we have 3 sections of this course, that would be 15 hours (it’s a 5 contact hour course).  Getting rid of the course will lose 15 contact hours for the department.  That’s one instructor position.  That sucks.

Oh, also I usually teach this course during the summer session. That’s going to suck to not have this.