Eisenhower Project (Teacher Professional Development Program):
Center for Teacher Training
Department of Physics and Geology

Most teachers in Rio Grande Valley are far more familiar with the Eisenhower Project than the people at UTPA itself. Five years ago, Dr. Bhatti (department of Physics & Geology) applied for the Eisenhower Professional Development grants Program to obtain funds for teacher training in strengthening the physics concepts. This project was supported by the Dean of Colledge of Science and Engineering (COS&E). Dr. Bhatti began training science teachers of the Rio Grand Valley in 1997. The Target Districts provided 15 teachers to be trained for "physics Concepts through Discovery Approach." This project has boosted pre-service and in-service teachers' content knowlede in physics and made them more comfortable teaching physics to their own studens. Dr. Bhatti applied every year for the Eisenhower Grants and received about $110,000 every year. Once grant is approved, the training of the teachers starts for the total of 45 hours each day 6-hours long sessions from 8:30 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. every day during the summer. The training continues for 4 days once every month in the Fall and for 6 days in the Spring of each academic year. This provided the participants 99 hours of extensive training in understanding the concepts of physics. Teachers say that this training has far more better impact on teachers implementing the science curriculum than the few days workshops. Some of the teachers participating in the program had never had a single course in physics before entering the program and yet they are required to teach physical science and physics in the schools.

The grants brought a total of $550,000 to UPTA in external funds in the last five years. The consecutive grants have had great impact not only on the middle school teachers, but also on our own graduate and undergraduate student who have been working as lab assistants in training the teachers. Mr. Carlos, Joey Resendez , Ginie Rogers, Carman Ponce, Frank Achievera, Jon Landon, Maria Supelveda,Faranak Zarnani and Daniel Morley are the students who worked on the Eisenhower grants and have benefited financially as well as intellectually. To expand the Eisenhower benefits and great incentives, Dr. Bhatti will continue seeking external educational grants for teacher training in the area of physics with different district as a new training target every year. So far about 110 teachers have beeen trained in the area of physics from several districts PSJA, McAllen, Edinburg, and Mission. As a result of these grants, new courses are being offered to undergraduate and graduate students of  UTPA. We have already offered two courses strating from Fall 2000, Physics by Inquiry I and Physics by Inquiry II to better prepare sicence education students as well as physics majors. As a result of these new courses a pool of better-prepared students is reaching UTPA. TAAS results are up about 98% in several schools in the community due to teacher trainings. Enrollement in physics major is up by 60%, MSIS and Physics Master grograms are being started in the Physics and Geology department at UTPA.

For more information,
e-mail: bhatti@panam.edu phone: (956) 381-2393.