Arkansas Noyce Scholar and future teacher Michael "Shane" Carey (Class of 2009, center) works with undergraduates Stephen Brinson and Mark Blanko in an introductory physics class.
If you’re looking for an exciting and challenging career where you can really make a difference, consider becoming a physics teacher. Physics teachers expose young minds to the wonders of nature and touch hundreds of young lives every year. Unfortunately, millions of children around the country don’t get to learn physics from a highly qualified teacher. Now, you can be that teacher. The PhysTEC Noyce Scholarship program can help.
PhysTEC Noyce Scholarships are available to future physics teachers at any of the six PhysTEC Noyce sites: Ball State University, Cornell University, Seattle Pacific University, the University of Arkansas, the University of North Carolina, and Western Michigan University. Scholarship support of up to $15,000 per year is available to junior and senior undergraduates, and post-baccalaureate students pursuing teaching certification, for up to two years per student. For each year of scholarship support, recipients commit to teach for two years in a “high need” school after graduation.
For more information about the scholarship, please see the Frequently Asked Questions.
The PhysTEC Noyce Scholarship program recently received $150k from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to supplement the initial $750k awarded in 2008. The program, which gives scholarships to future physics teachers at PhysTEC sites, will use part of the supplement to enable PhysTEC Noyce sites to hire part-time Teachers-in-Residence, who will help recruit and mentor future teachers. The part-time TIR model is based on a pilot program at Seattle Pacific University, one of the six PhysTEC Noyce sites. The project will also provide professional development and physics education research opportunities for PhysTEC Noyce teachers, create a video designed to recruit physics teachers, and support learning communities among PhysTEC Noyce Scholars. The PhysTEC Noyce program is a partnership between the American Physical Society and the American Association of Physics Teachers, and is funded by the NSF’s Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program.
