Supporting Teachers to Encourage Women in Physics

Professional Development Workshop
Wednesday, December 5, 2018
9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
South Jersey Tech Park, Classroom 246
107 Gilbreth Pkwy, Mullica Hill, NJ 08062

Five (5) Professional Development Hours
Cost: $161, lunch included

Presenters
Kathryn Woodle, American Physical Society
Trevor Smith, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Department of STEAM Education, Rowan University
Karen Magee-Sauer, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Rowan University
 
Content
The percentage of women earning bachelor's degrees in physics is declining and continues to lag behind the other sciences. The American Physical Society’s STEP UP 4 Women project is tackling the issue by designing research-based curriculum/classroom strategies for high school teachers to encourage women to study undergraduate physics. 
 
Unlike other sciences, post-secondary participation in physics falls dramatically, with high school, in most cases, being the last time we can inform and recruit large numbers of women into the field.
 
This professional development day will provide teachers with APS STEP 4 Women evidence-based resources that can be used to reduce barriers and inspire young women to pursue physics. The program will also discuss tools for developing 3-D Assessments - Crosscutting Concepts as it relates to identifying productive ideas that are often hidden in students’ incorrect answers to multiple-choice questions.
 
NGSS
Appendix D of the NGSS (Appendix D: All Standards, All Students) identifies the need for classroom teachers to ensure that the NGSS are accessible to all students. As physics is many times the gatekeeper to engineering and other physical sciences, it is important to ensure that physics as a discipline is inclusive. Many of the strategies relate to other non-dominant groups as well.
 
This professional development day will present STEP UP 4 Women evidence-based resources that can be used by classroom teachers to reduce barriers and inspire young women to pursue physics in college: 

1. Everyday Actions guide, which focuses on explicit recruitment, reducing marginalization, and promoting recognition throughout the year. 
2. Careers in Physics lesson, which helps students assess their personal values in relation to a career in physics, examine profiles of professionals with physics degrees, and envision themselves in a physics career. 
3. Women in Physics lesson, in which students examine the conditions for women in physics and discuss gender issues with respect to famous physicists, gendered professions, and personal experience to neutralize the effect of stereotypes and bias.

Tools for developing local 3-D Assessments - Crosscutting Concepts
Current research seeks to identify productive ideas that are often hidden in students’ incorrect answers to multiple-choice questions. Giving students the opportunity to express wrong ideas can help them to be more engaged in classroom discussions and activities, and give them practice negotiating their ideas with others using evidence-based arguments. We will discuss strategies for promoting intellectual negotiation in the classroom.