Author(s):
The Organization for Physics at Two-Year Colleges (OPTYCs) (NSF-IUSE-2212807) is a four-year project that creates a sustained virtual national center for physics and astronomy faculty at two-year colleges (TYCs) to address their needs: •Isolation: 60% of TYCs offering physics or astronomy courses have one or zero full-time faculty members teaching these courses.•Lack of Networking Opportunities: Few TYCs have resources for faculty members to attend conferences and other venues where exchanges of ideas take place.•Lack of Relevant Professional Development: While many programs exist for university researchers and for high school teachers, TYC faculty face unique challenges that are seldom addressed.•Lack of Data on Students and Faculty: While the American Institute of Physics Statistical Research Center (AIP-SRC) surveys four-year faculty and high school teachers annually, TYCs surveys rely on external funding; only two surveys have ever been conducted.•Student Diversity: TYC students, compared with their four-year counterparts, include proportionately more underrepresented races and ethnicities, veterans, working parents, and people with disabilities.Deliverables for this grant project are:1.Professional Development Workshops: To provide targeted learning opportunities across a wide range of topics, such as computational use and scientific reasoning, equitable practices, student outreach, and alternative pedagogical approaches. 2.Physics Education Research (PER) Translation: To introduce the results of PER to the TYC physics community, to support the few TYC faculty who are conducting research, and to forge connections across different practitioners and researchers. 3.Mentoring and Networking Program: This program aims to forge relationships for TYC faculty in traditional mentorship pairs, in mutual mentoring groups, and in focused working groups. 4.New Faculty Development Series: A 15-month program for faculty new to teaching at TYCs, aimed to build a supportive community as they learn effective and inclusive teaching strategies. 5.TYC Leadership Institute: A year-long program to network faculty learning practical leadership skills as they progress in a self-described project.6.Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Capacity-Building Program: A two-year program supports classroom, and community-wide change towards inclusive and equitable practices through mutual mentoring during participant-defined action plans.7.TYC Tandem Conferences: Two one-day conferences for TYC faculty in tandem with American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) national meetings. The first was held in July 2023, with the largest attendance historically. 8.TYC Physics Program Guidelines: The AAPT’s Program Guidelines delineated best practices for curricula, departmental support, and professional development. Much has changed in the past 20 years, and this publication is being re-written based on current research.9.Comprehensive TYC Physics Survey: The AIP-SRC is contracted to conduct a comprehensive survey of two-year college physics and astronomy.10.Digital Library: Improving access to widely available resources by curating those applicable specifically to TYCs, and institutionalizing knowledge and initiatives so the community can build on past projects.OPTYCs provides accessible, low-cost, discipline-specific professional development for faculty. By increasing the implementation of research-based instructional methods, OPTYCs impacts a large student population, adding to the STEM workforce. The project is creating a cohesive, diverse, and future-focused community of physics-teaching faculty.
Coauthors
Kris Lui, OPTYCs, Sherry Savrda, OPTYCs, Rachel Ivie, AAPT
