The following comments, developed by the APS Committee on Education, were forwarded to the Foundation by the Society's President, Kumar Patel. The following areas are those in which the APS believes important progress has been made over the past 10 years. The increased involvement of undergraduates in research may be the most important development in undergraduate education over the past 10 years. To meet the needs of the community, however, the number of undergraduate research opportunities must be increased significantly. To help meet this need, programs like the NSF's Research Opportunity Awards that would enable additional faculty to mentor students and the Department of Energy's and various other federal agencies' student and faculty research participation programs must be expanded.
Early results look very promising.
In many ways, the mathematical description of the world that we use in science is like a new language for students. One of the most exciting projects of recent years was undertaken by the NSF to help students visualize mathematical concepts. The calculus computer visualization project has helped students better understand these important constructs and concepts, and will, ultimately, help our students in their science courses. The following are areas in which the Society believes there is still a need for improvement. In general, our faculty are still not familiar with the research about learning and the positive impact of research-based learning strategies on student performance.