Re: 2 million teachers in 2007!

[Lois Breur Krause <krause@CLEMSON.EDU>]

at Clemson, it's 3 semesters outside of ed dept. and then an additional
course in the dept. of "science teaching methods"  The 3 courses outside
are PH SC 107, Intro to earth science (geology and astronomy), and PH SC
108, intro to phsysical science (chem and phys) both of which i teach, and
BIOL 109, intro to biology.  all 3 are limited to elementary, early
childhood and special ed majors.

IMHO it's not enough. but then, i would really rather see even little kids
have a dedicated science teacher who travels from class to class, rather
than rely on the regular teacher. we just can't get the caliber of student
coming into teaching who can handle the material. they still have a tough
time doing fractions!  scarey, but true.

IMHO the biggest problem is that we don't cut them off at admissions.

-lois

> > How many science courses must one take to gain k-5 or k-8 or whatever that
> > certification is?  Remember, these teachers must learn how to teach reading,
> > writing, math, history, health, etc.  There really isn't much time left to
> > really learn science.
> >
> > Sam
> In AZ, 6-9 (Middle School) is considered secondary certification.  Primary
> cert programs require 2 lab science courses for elementary teachers; these
> are overwhelmingly BIO100 and ENV101 here at NAU.  These classes are huge,
> and money makers for the respective depts.  A few el ed students take
> GLG1xx, fewer a CHM1xx and rarest of all, we have <3 / semester who take
> a PHS1xx or PHY1xx course, usually our Conceptual Physics from Hewitt.
>
> We have just instituted a PHS101 (physical science for el ed) based on the
> AAPT/NSF Powerful Ideas in Physical Science package that will run for the
> first time this fall.  Stay tuned.
>
> Dan M
>
> Dan MacIsaac, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Northern AZ Univ
> danmac@nau.edu          http://purcell.phy.nau.edu         PHYS-L list owner