There is exciting news from the Physics Department as more and more students will be able to graduate from the Physics Secondary Education program. Just recently, the College was awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program of $1.2 million – one of the largest grants the School of Science has received – in order to support aspiring physics teachers.
Over the next five years, between September of 2016 and August of 2021, the grant will be used to increase the number of TCNJ Physics Secondary Education majors and, in turn, produce more high school physics teachers who are qualified in the field.
Only 1 in 3 high school physics teachers are actually content-qualified to teach the subject — the lowest of any high school subject. Unfortunately, the demand for qualified physics teachers is growing substantially while more physics students are pursuing other career paths instead of teaching.
About 80 percent of the grant’s budget will fund scholarships for TCNJ students, says Dr. Nate Magee, associate professor of physics. Dr. Magee is also the program director of the Physics Teacher Education program and the lead principal director of this grant. Other co-principal investigators for the grant include Drs. Paul Wiita and A.J. Richards of the Physics Department and Dr. Lauren Madden of the Elementary and Early Childhood Education Department.
The main goals of the program are to recruit students for the Physics Secondary Education program, attract a diverse pool of students to the program, and have these newly certified physics teachers be placed in schools that are in high need of physics-certified teachers. “We want to double the output of certified physics students graduating from TCNJ,” says Dr. Magee.
Magee estimates that with this grant, the Physics Department will be able to fund seven scholarships each year. If a student receives a full scholarship for this program, he or she will commit to working at a school district in need of qualified physics teachers. Women, Latinos, and African Americans are some of the groups that Magee especially wants to support with the scholarships in order to create a more diverse pool coming from the College.
Magee describes this program as “A nexus of something that will be really beneficial to the local schools that TCNJ has the expertise and skills to deliver.” However, the teachers produced from this program do not have to commit to teaching in New Jersey schools. The NJ certification requirements would enable them to teach in-state, but New Jersey’s standards are a little more stringent than other states, says Magee. He believes that the certification could also be compatible in other states such as Pennsylvania or Maryland.
Besides coordinating the Physics Secondary Education program, Magee is also working on a project involving cirrus clouds, observing how they interact with sunlight and how that contributes to global climate change. He first became interested in physics and atmospheric science as a child when he lived in northeast Ohio in a town called the Snowbelt, which welcomed 150 inches of snow each year. He pondered over why his town received so much snow, and that opened up the door to weather forecasting which eventually turned him to atmospheric physics.
But more importantly for this project, he is focused on the science teacher roles in the Physics Department, as he wants his favorite subject to flourish with new teachers through this program.
– Kelly Corbett
For More Information:
- TCNJ Recognized as a National Leader in the Education of Physics Teachers
- TCNJ Physics Department
- Nate Magee’s Faculty Profile
- New Microscopes Take STEM Education to New Levels
- Physics Professor Nathan Magee is Unraveling Scientific Puzzles about Cirrus Clouds
- National Science Foundation–Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program