What are career paths that combine physics and education?

[Koyuchi24]

Hello,
I'm currently doing an REU to eventually land a position as a PhD student, but I've come to the realization that a PhD lifestyle is not something that I want to do.

I have had previous experience working in an educational setting helping kids overcome difficulties in reading, and that is something I particularly enjoyed doing.

However, I also enjoy doing science and expanding our current knowledge of the world.
I want to find a career path that is able to combine these two aspects. I want to work in an environment that showcases the power in doing physics as a discipline and engages young minds to it. There is a lot of work that I still have to do to get to this stage.

I would love to know if any of you have similar experiences you would like to share as well as any tips or advice that would guide me to this sort of path.

I would appreciate any help

 

[jedishrfu]

Sadly, I don't think there is a happy medium here. You are either a teacher of students, content provider who teaches via video shorts or a working physicist doing applied physics or an academic researcher with a focus on getting grants and publishing papers who might teach on the side.

An example of a content provider are folks who make publicly available educational videos. The most notable being Veritaseum of YouTube fame.

In the research realm, physicists are divided into experimentalists and theoreticians. There is a much stronger need for experimentalists more than theoreticians.

 

[Koyuchi24]

Thank you for replying.
I understand that in the field of physics. We go into research and become scientist, or go the other route and become communicators and educators to current science.
I am still figuring out what is it that I want to pursue, and something that aligns with both who I am and my values.
I appreciate the insight.

 

[symbolipoint]

Koyuchi24
Spend a bit of time learning about public school science teaching. Maybe a fit for you or maybe not.
How is your literary skill? Would any transfer into Journalism be possible for you?

 

[jrmichler]

I would love to know if any of you have similar experiences you would like to share as well as any tips or advice that would guide me to this sort of path.

Sometimes, you just need to try something to find if you really like it. And be willing to change if you don't like it.

My first professional job was as a mechanical engineer in a paper mill. It was an excellent job for 9 years, then I grew out of it. It was time to change.
I then tried starting my own business. I found that could run a business, but did not want to. It was time to change.
I went to grad school, graduated, and got a job as a professor of mechanical engineering. I found out that was not what I wanted to do. It was time to change.
So I got a job doing machine design, and happily did that until I retired.
About the time that retirement started to get boring, I fell into a part time research scientist position with the DNR.
And now, I'm a politician with a part time position as town board chair.
It was all good experience, and I do not regret any of it.
And who knows what's next.

 

[jtbell]

If you can finish a PhD, it can lead to being a professor not only at research-oriented universities, but also at smaller institutions that focus mainly on teaching undergraduates. Professors at those schools usually have to do some research, but it's mainly oriented towards giving undergraduates research experience. A common pattern is to spend most of their time during the academic year teaching, and do most of their research during the summer.

I did my undergraduate at that kind of school. In fact, I returned there this month for my 50-year class reunion. When I finished my PhD at a much larger university (U of Michigan), I decided that I would rather focus on teaching than research. I ended up at a small school similar to the one that I had graduated from, and retired from there several years ago.

According to your profile, you're in California. My impression is that such small undergraduate schools aren't common on the West Coast: Harvey Mudd near LA, Mills College near SF, Reed College in Portland OR, Whitman College in Washington state,... what else? They seem to be more common in the midwestern and eastern states. See for example Wikipedia'a list of colleges in Ohio, and note the entries for "Baccalaureate Colleges" and "Master's Colleges and Universities".

You do need to have a backup plan, because there's a lot of competition for positions at these schools. (Mine was to go into computer programming, because I did a lot of it in graduate school.) Also, financial problems are increasingly common at these small schools, and a number of them have closed during the past decade. The number of high-school graduates per year in the US is starting to decline right about now, the so-called "demographic cliff", which adds to the pressure.

(I now see that Mills College has merged with Boston's Northeastern University, and is now "Mills College at Northeastern University", still at their campus in Oakland CA.)

 

[Koyuchi24]

Sometimes, you just need to try something to find if you really like it. And be willing to change if you don't like it.

My first professional job was as a mechanical engineer in a paper mill. It was an excellent job for 9 years, then I grew out of it. It was time to change.
I then tried starting my own business. I found that could run a business, but did not want to. It was time to change.
I went to grad school, graduated, and got a job as a professor of mechanical engineering. I found out that was not what I wanted to do. It was time to change.
So I got a job doing machine design, and happily did that until I retired.
About the time that retirement started to get boring, I fell into a part time research scientist position with the DNR.
And now, I'm a politician with a part time position as town board chair.
It was all good experience, and I do not regret any of it.
And who knows what's next.

I love this!
Thank you for sharing. Working with children is something I've enjoy doing, but the work itself was something I also grew out of. I'll definitely keep looking for something that would serve me.
What would you say helped you in all the different changes you made?

 

[Koyuchi24]

Koyuchi24
Spend a bit of time learning about public school science teaching. Maybe a fit for you or maybe not.
How is your literary skill? Would any transfer into Journalism be possible for you?

Symbolipoint,
Teaching is something I have considered, but frankly, I don't believe I have the energy to maintain this type of career.
I would say my literary skills are not the strongest. It is something I need to work on, but I don't think journalism is something I want to do.
I have been considering working on the backend of science education and possibly be responsible on improving current science curriculum.
We'll see how things work out.

Thank you!

 

[Koyuchi24]

If you can finish a PhD, it can lead to being a professor not only at research-oriented universities, but also at smaller institutions that focus mainly on teaching undergraduates. Professors at those schools usually have to do some research, but it's mainly oriented towards giving undergraduates research experience. A common pattern is to spend most of their time during the academic year teaching, and do most of their research during the summer.

I did my undergraduate at that kind of school. In fact, I returned there this month for my 50-year class reunion. When I finished my PhD at a much larger university (U of Michigan), I decided that I would rather focus on teaching than research. I ended up at a small school similar to the one that I had graduated from, and retired from there several years ago.

According to your profile, you're in California. My impression is that such small undergraduate schools aren't common on the West Coast: Harvey Mudd near LA, Mills College near SF, Reed College in Portland OR, Whitman College in Washington state,... what else? They seem to be more common in the midwestern and eastern states. See for example Wikipedia'a list of colleges in Ohio, and note the entries for "Baccalaureate Colleges" and "Master's Colleges and Universities".

You do need to have a backup plan, because there's a lot of competition for positions at these schools. (Mine was to go into computer programming, because I did a lot of it in graduate school.) Also, financial problems are increasingly common at these small schools, and a number of them have closed during the past decade. The number of high-school graduates per year in the US is starting to decline right about now, the so-called "demographic cliff", which adds to the pressure.

(I now see that Mills College has merged with Boston's Northeastern University, and is now "Mills College at Northeastern University", still at their campus in Oakland CA.)

Thank you for sharing!
I have thought about becoming a professor, but the way I saw my professors at my undergrad in PA and during my masters here in CA. It doesn't seem to be a career I want. I went to state colleges in both states, and they were always severely underfunded that it made it challenging to provide students with classes they were interested, but my physics professor in undergrad is the reason why I enjoyed learning about physics, and it is one of the reasons why I want to help bring people to physics as a discipline.

 

[jrmichler]

What would you say helped you in all the different changes you made?

Attitude. A positive attitude. Something like: "That was good experience, but now it's time to do something different." And always live on less money than I made. That meant that I had a cash cushion so that I could afford to start a business or go to grad school.

And I missed a couple:
I started college majoring in electrical engineering. Realized after two years that EE was the wrong field for me, and that I did not know what I wanted to do. It was time to change.
So I quit college and enlisted in the US Air Force. Four years of that was enough. It was time to change.
I went back to college majoring in mechanical engineering. Graduated and got a job in a paper mill.

 

[berkeman]

Teaching is something I have considered, but frankly, I don't believe I have the energy to maintain this type of career.
I would say my literary skills are not the strongest. It is something I need to work on, but I don't think journalism is something I want to do.
I have been considering working on the backend of science education and possibly be responsible on improving current science curriculum.
We'll see how things work out.

I wonder if @kuruman might be able to offer some thoughts on this. The below quote is his biography from a PF Insights article that he wrote about an EMF phenomena:

kuruman

I am a retired university physics professor. I have done research in biological physics, mostly studying the magnetic and electronic properties at the active sites of biomolecules and their model complexes. I have also dabbled in Physics Education research.

Reference: https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/how-to-model-a-magnet-falling-through-a-solenoid/

 

[kuruman]

I wonder if @kuruman might be able to offer some thoughts on this. The below quote is his biography from a PF Insights article that he wrote about an EMF phenomena:

I suspect that @berkeman is referring to my "dabbling" in Physics Research Education. Shown below is the AI-generated synopsis of the field.

Physics education as a field of study encompasses the exploration of how students learn physics and how to improve the effectiveness of physics teaching. It involves both the theoretical study of learning processes and the practical application of that knowledge to enhance physics education at various levels. This field also focuses on preparing future physics teachers and promoting public understanding of physics.

My dabbling was stimulated by this article in Physics Today that seems to have started it all several decades ago. My personal interest was in figuring out ways to identify and remove barriers to learning. Such barriers were pre- and mis- conceptions that students brought with them to the classroom. Teaching them what is the case is often not sufficient to get them to remove from their heads the preconceptions they acquired in the first two decades of their life after observing the world around them. For example

A book rests on a table.​

If I push the book with my hand it moves across the table.​

If I stop pushing with my hand it stops.​

All correct, but the following inferences are not

Therefore an object is moving, there must be a force acting on it in the direction of motion.​

Therefore if an object is not moving, no force is acting on it.​

Therefore when a rock is thrown straight up, the force of the hand acts on it on the way up but this force diminishes and becomes zero at maximum height at which point gravity takes over until the rock returns to the ground.​

. . . and so on.

Teaching what's right, e.g. the kinematics equations and Newton's laws, is not sufficient to ensure student learning unless one identifies and eradicates the excess baggage of preconceptions that students bring with them into the classroom. You gotta take the old stuff out before you try putting the new stuff in.

Anyway, I've said more than I intended. Since @Koyuchi24 likes science and working with young minds a possible career path might be setting the young minds straight as early as possible by placing reasoning above equations and algebraic manipulations. I understand that a Ph. D. lifestyle, whatever that is, is unappealing. Perhaps @Koyuchi24 might consider a Master's Degree at some institution (not a for-profit online "university") where there is an active group engaged in Physics Education Research and then consider teaching.

 

[Choppy]

Some other directions that might fit in the Venn diagram...

• Corporate Educator
  Larger companies like Siemens/Varian employ people with backgrounds in physics to run courses on various products they offer, and I'm sure they're not the only ones. I'm sure there's one side of the spectrum that's running people through mind-numbing power point presentations, but on the other side you're challenged to keep up with rapidly changing technologies and highly-invested, intelligent clients. It might be worth looking into
• Science Journalism
  I think someone already brought up content creators, but on the less popular side, you have people who report on recent advances in certain fields, translating the latest research into interesting articles that are digestible by the mainstream public. And the more people doing this well, the better.
• Science Tourism
  I don't know how much you can build a career out of it, but there are lots of small businesses that offer basic astronomy sky tours - often in popular tourist sites, for example. Eco-tours are big business too.

 

[Koyuchi24]

Thank You all for the help!
I've definitely gotten some clarity as to how I am going to approach the next steps. I want to start getting some experience before I commit to a PhD in Physics Education.

 

[TensorCalculus]

Don't know if you're still open to advice on this thread, but could I recommend teaching in a selective school? Perhaps with younger children, in Middle or High school. You would find you are teaching a pool of really bright, curious children and that a lot of them would really value what you teach, and you would have children who learn beyond their age, coming to you with questions about what they see outside of class. It would be quite fulfilling. They tend to be a bit easier to teach too (it would be less exhausting than in a public school in general), you can gain experience with these types of children and then maybe go to another school where the kids may not be so interested in learning physics or as nerdy and try and help children become curious there. If you teach in a private school, the pay would be good as well. Here in Cambridge (UK), the pay for a private school secondary teacher can be anywhere from £55k - £90k, keep in mind that the national average is £37k for full-time employees.

If that sort of career sounds unappealing, maybe helping write public exams (in America there's less Physics related ones I believe, but lots of other countries have physics public exams, such as GCSEs and A-levels in England)? Or working on the national curriculum? I do not know if this would pay well, or be a job that's easy to obtain, but it is an option nevertheless.

to work in an environment that showcases the power in doing physics as a discipline and engages young minds to it

This is a wonderful goal. We need more people to do this... as someone who has seen few of their peers enjoy physics... and I think it is because they have not seen its beauty yet...

(As a student I have no experience whatsoever with anything careers related so take this advice with a BIG pinch of salt)