TOPS '08
June 22-August 5 2008
 TOPS is a six-week summer program aimed at physics and engineering majors who are currently in their sophmore or junior years and are considering careers in teaching at the secondary level. The program is hosted by the Center for Ultracold Atoms (CUA) at MIT and Harvard. The goal of TOPS is to provide college students with an exceptional experience that can be a decisive factor in leading them to choose a teaching career.
Participants will work in teams of four, each team under the supervision of an experienced lead teacher. They will design courses, emphasizing hands-on experience, which they will teach to middle school students at the Museum of Science in Boston and to high school students at MIT. Participants will learn about the opportunities and challenges of teaching, and acquire skills and expertise that are most effectively transmitted by personal interactions in a small group setting. The topics for this year's groups will be waves and light, and heat and energy.
The scientific focus will be on subject matter of central interest within the CUA, whose themes of light, heat, energy and atoms embody concepts of the physical sciences that naturally connect the CUA research to core curricular topics.
Activities will include:
Developing hands-on learning material including demonstrations and laboratory sessions.
Workshops on teaching techniques with the master teachers
Presentations by CUA scientists connecting their frontier research with the teaching topics
Learning about the wide range of teacher certification opportunities
Laboratory tours conducted by CUA researchers
The Center for Ultracold Atoms is funded by the Division of Physics of the National Science Foundation. It has twelve principal investigators at MIT and Harvard with research programs devoted to developing new techniques for creating ultracold atoms and for applying these atoms to a variety of scientific goals, including atom optics, atomic quantum fluids, and novel spectroscopy.
Further information:
- Participants are expected to attend for the full six weeks of the program and should plan to arrive at MIT on Sunday, June 22.
- Participants will receive a stipend of $3,500, plus housing at MIT.
- TOPS will have scheduled activities Monday through Friday. There will be informal activities on some weekends.
- Development space at MIT will be available to the TOPS teams, with equipment, materials and supplies for the design and construction of the hands-on activities.
- There will also be opportunity to use exhibits and facilities at the Museum of Science to support the teaching there.
Application Due Date: February 1, 2008
More about TOPS
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High School Physics Workshop |
