By Catherine M. Welch
Wilmington, NC – The University of North Carolina, Wilmington launched a new program delivering graduate science courses for middle and high school science teachers.
It's the first program in the state focused on giving science teachers a boost in knowledge.
The courses are open to current teachers, professionals from the science field moving into teaching jobs, and graduate students working toward a teaching degree.
Jim Reeves is chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. He says science teachers in the classroom are often having to teach classes outside their discipline.
The faculty in those high schools just don't have the expertise to teach some of the science courses that the kids really need. They're great teachers but they just don't have the background.
In his inauguration speech, UNC System President Erskin Bowles pointed out that the entire UNC system produced three, high school physics teachers in the last four years.