Sparking Interest in Physics Teaching: Perceptions and Interventions Among Undergraduate STEM Students in a Noyce Capacity Building Project

Across USA, there is a shortage of high school physics teachers. In our Noyce Capacity Building project, we gather information on undergraduate physics and engineering students’ perception of teaching as a profession, and we pilot inventions that seek to park and enhance students’ interest in teaching physics. We gauge students’ perception of teaching careers using the Perceptions of Teaching as a Profession (PTaP) survey. In addition, we survey students in selected physics courses about how access to a Noyce Scholarship will affect their likelihood of choosing teaching as a career. We believe that to stimulate students’ interest in physics teaching, they must observe teaching in action and have access to teachers to hear stories from and ask questions to them. Two of our interventions provide these opportunities for students: 1) sponsored student visits to High School physics classroom; and 2) sponsored student meetings with invited High School physics teachers. In the poster we present the results from surveys and student responses to our interventions.