Program Goals

The mission of the AAPT/PTRA Project is to improve the teaching and learning of physics topics in pre-collegiate education for all teachers and students in the United States.

To accomplish this mission the AAPT/PTRA Project has several goals:

Goals of the AAPT/PTRA Project
  1. To give outstanding practicing teachers an opportunity to improve themselves professionally. This opportunity is provided at annual AAPT/PTRA leadership institutes. At these institutes PTRA leaders grow in the knowledge and skill associated with leading teacher workshops. The knowledge and skills include, but are not limited to, workshop leadership, workshop organization, physics content, teaching techniques, trends in science education, equity issues, et cetera.
  2. To develop AAPT/PTRA Manuals. These manuals are designed to serve not only as a resource for the workshop leader but also for the practicing teachers after attending an AAPT/PTRA workshop.
  3. To do outreach workshops for teachers who have had limited opportunity to attend workshops related to the teaching of physics topics. In essence, this is our technique for spreading our excitement about teaching and learning physics topics.
  4. To become the recognized provider of accessible, highest quality, physical science and physics pre college teacher professional development workshops.
  5. To establish a system for the long term continuation of the AAPT/PTRA Project for providing accessible, highest quality, professional development for teachers of physical science and physics.