Experiences Teaching Inquiry-Based Physics to Prospective Elementary School Teachers

I will discuss my experience in teaching a laboratory-based introduction to physics intended for students in the elementary teacher education program at Mesa State College. This course was taught for three years and used the textbook and curriculum ``Physics by Inquiry'' developed by the Physics Education Group at the University of Washington. In this class students spend most of their time working on exercises and doing experiments, while the teacher circulates and engages students in discussions of their work. In addition to giving an overview of the curriculum I will talk about some of the successes, pitfalls, and difficulties in teaching such a course.