Texas State Joins The 5+ Club With Newly Minted Physics Teachers

SAN MARCOS – Texas State University has earned a membership in the 5+ Club, from the Physics Teacher Education Coalition (PhysTEC).

Texas State graduated five qualified physics teachers in the 2019-2020 academic year, putting the university in the 99th percentile of all U.S. colleges and universities.

Texas State is one of eight universities in the country and only two in Texas to receive this 5+ Club designation.

The American Physical Society (APS) and the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) launched PhysTEC in 2001 to address a severe national shortage of qualified physics teachers.  

In 2015, Texas State became a comprehensive PhysTEC site — focusing on the national effort to improve the number of physics teachers and the quality of their preparation.  

Eleanor and Hunter Close are associate professors in the Department of Physics and PhysTEC Site co-leaders.

“Achieving membership in the PhysTEC 5+ Club is a great accomplishment for us, but it is also just a mile marker on a long journey toward a new normal for physics teacher preparation at Texas State. It takes a lot of encouragement and support over several years to help new physics teachers grow into this identity,” said Hunter Close, who directs physics teacher education.

“They often need financial support in the form of a $10,000 a year scholarship from our RADIANS Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program. These scholarships are technically loans that are completely forgiven if a scholar fulfills the commitment to teach for two years in a high-needs school, which is most places.

“Just as important as financial support, however, are social, emotional, and intellectual supports which we try to provide all along the way. Becoming a physics teacher means you develop an intellectual life of really caring about how students think about the physical world, and about providing interesting experiences that invite and challenge them to think differently. It takes a lot of coaching and mentoring to get there, but when you get there, it’s really satisfying.”

The five Texas State physics graduates  for 2019-2020 are: Lisa Vu (B.S. ’19), Daniel Chonis (B.S. ’20), Ian Anderson (B.S. ’19) Sanjog Udas (’18), and Shahrzad Hesaaraki, (M.S. planned 2021). Each student earned their teaching certificate in 2020.

Awardees in the 5+ Club will be recognized at the 2021 PhysTEC Conference in March.