Concerned about the end of NSF funding for Modeling Instruction, a core group of STEM teachers formed the American Modeling Teachers Association in 2005. AMTA was created to support teachers using Modeling Instruction in their classrooms, and to continue the empowerment of STEM teachers with a community of enthusiastic supporters of student-centered STEM education. Modeling Instruction has continued to spread nationally, mainly through efforts of dedicated teachers and AMTA members who have helped organize and conduct Modeling Workshops at 60 different academic institutions and schools, involving 10% of all the physics teachers in the U.S.
The MNS program at Arizona State University has continued to attract 125 to 150 teachers each summer (two dozen Knowles Teaching Fellows as well as 15 physics and chemistry teachers sent by the Ministry of Education of Singapore). One hundred Arizona teachers each summer have been funded by ASU and the Federal “No Child Left Behind” Improving Teacher Quality program administered by the Arizona Board of Regents.
For more information about the still-existing Master of Natural Science program at Arizona State University, please see the MNS Admissions page for the ASU department of physics.
