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    MODELING WORKSHOPS FOR HIGH SCHOOL PHYSICS REFORM: openings in Chicago

        (I posted this announcement last fall and in February.  As of April
11, openings are available for 3 exceptionally motivated high school
physics teachers, university, college, or two-year college physics
teachers. The openings are at our Chicago site, at the University of
Illinois at Chicago Circle.  Dates: June 26 through July 28.  A marvelous
group of participants!  Should be very interesting and stimulating!  Single
dorm rooms are available.
If you are interested, send an e-mail to dukerich@asu.edu.)

                        ANNOUNCEMENT:

        In-service high school teachers nationwide are invited to apply for
an NSF-funded program of intensive workshops to help them upgrade their
teaching.  The Modeling Workshops involve a thorough restructuring of the
high school physics curriculum design to incorporate (1) computer
technology and (2) teaching methods grounded in recent educational research
and the experience of exceptional teachers.

The workshops are of two types:

I. LEADERSHIP WORKSHOPS - open to exceptionally qualified high school
teachers who wish to be involved in the training of other teachers.
Successful applicants participate in 5-week workshops in summers 1995-96,
with a 2 or 3-week wrap-up in summer of 1997 (thus a 3-year commitment).
Sites are at Arizona State University and the University of Illinois at
Chicago. Participants will be paid $300 per week and given room and board
and travel allowances.  Participants will be networked in an Internet
learning community during the school year.  The NSF encourages teams of
participants to apply, and also a few post-secondary physics teachers.

II. LOCAL WORKSHOPS - open to all in-service physics teachers, subject to
organizational constraints.  Taught by participants in the leadership
workshops starting in 1997, preferably in association with a college or
university for academic credit.

        The instructional approach is called the Modeling Method, because
it emphasizes the construction and use of scientific models to describe, to
explain and to predict physical phenomena.  Rather than lecture, the
teacher engages students in lab activities and promotes interactions with
other students which induce them to articulate, evaluate and defend their
points of view.  Computers are used to simplify data gathering and
analysis, so students can concentrate on understanding the results.  The
method was developed for more than 10 years by Malcolm Wells, a high school
teacher and co-author of the Force Concept Inventory and Mechanics Baseline
test.  It has been thoroughly tested in previous Modeling Workshops
supported by the NSF.  Teachers who have completed the workshops report
that their teaching behavior has been radically and permanently changed!




Jane Jackson (Professor of Physics, Scottsdale Community College--on leave)
Dept. of Physics, Box 871504, Arizona State University, Tempe AZ 85287-1504.
E-mail: jane.jackson@asu.edu  (My alias is jacksonj, if you're on BITNET.)
PHONE: (602)965-8438.  FAX: (602)965-7331.