Thank you for your interest in this extraordinary professional development opportunity for middle school and high school teachers of physical science and/or physics. In cooperation with University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Pembroke, and Charlotte, the Physics Teaching Resource Agents (PTRA) Project of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) is offering a series of five-day summer institutes specifically for North Carolina teachers at no cost to schools or participants! Each participant will receive a stipend of $360 plus up to $50 per day travel and meals. The source of funds is a Mathematics-Science Partnership grant from the NC Department of Public Instruction under the Federal No Child Left Behind legislation.

Each summer institute will be taught by highly regarded and specially prepared mentor-teachers, and will focus on content and strategies appropriate for preparing students for the North Carolina Standard Course of Study in Science with emphasis on Middle School 7th Grade Competency Goals 1 and 6, High School Physical Science Competency Goals 1 and 2, and High School Physics Competency Goals 1, 2, 3, and 4.

Professional Development Credit (CEU credit) will be available for all participants in each institute.

The institutes cover the following topics:

--- kinematics and Newton’s laws

--- energy and momentu

--- static electricity and DC circuits

--- waves and sound (in 2010)

--- waves and light (in 2010)

It is not necessary that a teacher enroll in the institutes in any particular order. Teachers may sign up for one institute in a summer, or two institutes in a summer. Preference will be given to teachers who have attended previous summer institutes and who request summer institutes in their local area. Teachers may only attend one institute on a given topic and will need to complete the application form for each Institute they wish to attend.

If you are not familiar with the AAPT/PTRA Program, please visit their website at www.aapt.org/PTRA/. The following description of the program is provided by PTRA: “The AAPT/PTRA Program is national in scope and maintains a cadre of about 200 trained, certified, and updated workshop leaders to provide professional development opportunities for teachers of physical science and/or physics in their local regions. Some 40 learning-research-based workshops have been developed to enhance content, classroom and laboratory instruction, use of technology, assessment tools, etc., in a mode of guided inquiry and in a hands-on, minds-on environment”.

If you would like more information, please contact any of the PTRA Program directors at the American Association of Physics Teachers 301-209-3344 or Steve Danford at UNC Greensboro (phone (336) 334-3308 or danford@uncg.edu) or Jose D'Arruda at UNC Pembroke (phone (910)521 6423 or Jose.darruda@uncp.edu) or Mike Corwin at UNC Charlotte (phone (704)687-8133 or mcorwin@uncc.edu).

Applications are available at

http://www.uncg.edu/phy/workshops/ - Select “Application Form”