Middle School Physics Instruction and Readiness (MPIRE) Project

Project Description

Towson University (TU) and Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS) are partnering in a Middle School Physics Instruction and Readiness (MPIRE) project to provide physics and physics pedagogy professional development for middle school science teachers.

The project consists of five-day professional development (PD) institutes during two consecutive summers with PD meetings and co-planning/co-teaching support for teachers during the school year. A total of 98 hours of professional development will be provided to 24 teachers to improve physics content knowledge so that they will be better prepared to teach middle school physics.

Drs. Hermann and Sandifer serve as co-directors of the project and work directly with the BCPS science supervisor (Ekaterina Denisova) and middle school science coordinators. The physics content training is collaboratively planned by all project partners, and is connected to the Maryland State standards, the BCPS Scope and Sequence standards, and the Common Core mathematics and English-language literacy standards.

Training will be delivered by the nationally recognized Physics Teaching Resource Agents (PTRA), the project directors, Dr. Robert Blake (from the College of Education), and BCPS personnel.

This project is being funded by a $170,000 Maryland Higher Education Commission Improving Teacher Quality (ITQ) grant.

The Jess and Mildred Fisher
College of Science and Mathematics
Smith Hall, Room 312 (campus map)
Phone: 410-704-2121
Fax: 410-704-2604
E-mail: fcsm@towson.edu