Re: Evolution in schools (was Re: Evolution...)

[Glenn Knapp <kahuna@VCN.COM>]

>Am I nuts here? I freely admit that I am not a high school teacher.

>Who on this list is a high school teacher? What think you? I want to

>know if I am full of baloney.

>

>

>Stefan Jeglinski

Stefan,

I don't think you're nuts.  I'm a high school physics teacher, but not the best example (I got my degree in nuclear engineering and then spent 24 years in the Navy before I went back to school to get my teaching degree at the University of Wyoming).

Most of the physics teachers I know are not physics majors.  In my state, to teach science you have to collect so many hours in life sciences, physical sciences, and earth sciences.  Then you have to collect a total of 35 hours in either earth science, life science, chemistry, or physics.  That gets you certified in that subject.  You also have to have 20 hours in one of the other disciplines -- which also gets you a certification.  You can then be certified in any other science by amassing 12 hours in it.  Most physics teachers have just the 12 hours in physics.

The schools are having a heck of a time.  I teach in the largest high school in Wyoming, we added a second year of physics and our physics enrollment has increased every year since I got here, so we needed to hire another teacher.  We had 12 people apply for the position.  None of them were even certified to teach physics - had the 12 hours.  They all were willing to give it a try, however, but we didn't hire any of them.  We ended up getting a lead from the university on a good candidate who was a physics major and ended up, happily, hiring her.  But it's tough out there.  Teaching school doesn't pay well and someone with the intelligence to major in physics  doesn't see teaching as a good use of their talents.  For an old retired sailor, education is a better deal.

I've been teaching for seven years, have gone up a "step" each year, and moved over onto the master's degree column this year, yet, I still make more money from my Navy retirement than I do form teaching.

That said, I think that we have to keep the bar elevated  in secondary science.  You have to have high expectations, or you're selling the students short.  It is true that there is a lack of really qualified science teachers, but we can's use that as an excuse. 

So what can be done to develop a good crop of science teachers?

At UW, the physics department (which has been through some trying times - the state legislature tried to eliminate it to save money [what message does that send to the state's young people?]) is not terribly interested in secondary educators.  Only one of the professors is enthusiastic about working with the college of education.  Very few undergraduate physics majors are in the pipeline.

Glenn

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