Master's in Physics for Educators (MPED)

Master of Science
mathematics for educators
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Current physics teachers find WPI’s Master of Science in Physics for Educators program is just what they need to advance their careers, deepen their content knowledge, reignite their passion for their field, and encourage their students to discover the joys of physics.

Designed to meet the time constraints and content needs of middle school, high school, and community college educators, the program helps teachers improve course offerings, assessment tools, and approaches to lessons with strategies they will use immediately in their current classrooms. You’ll also become part of an extensive, supportive network of physicists. This program is an excellent choice for earning the advanced degree necessary for professional licensure in Massachusetts.
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Curriculum

With a blend of physics and classroom technique course work, this flexible program delivers on-target information in a timely and efficient manner that makes the advanced physics topics easily accessible to educators and the students they teach.

Course work in education theory and physics content includes topics like modern physics, methods in physics, and physics for citizens and leaders. A self-designed major project in a STEM area is also part of this program. Many teachers solve a problem or design a better solution to something in their own classrooms for the major project, giving them a chance to both design and test a theory. 

Similar Majors

grad students
Master’s in Mathematics for Educators (MME)
physics
Master’s in Physics
Professor Dick teaching
Master's in Mathematics for Educators (MMED)

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Research

The culminating self-designed major project helps you merge the theory and practice of this degree program with research in your field. The project is not a thesis nor an exam, but instead an activity designed to help you in the classroom.

Composed of three parts—proposal, implementation, and assessment—your research questions are based on education, not industry or academia. We want your project to be enriching and useful and to help you teach more effectively.

Recent MPED research projects include:  

  • Reorganizing and restructuring an entire teaching portfolio from classroom notes and lectures to activities
  • Building a recurring project for students involving windmills
  • Developing modules to a smart learning system
  • Creating a comic book physics textbook
Explore Our Research

Our state-of-the-art labs provide opportunities for you to work closely with expert faculty who are passionate about physics. You’ll have access to the latest equipment and instruments, like fiber optical tweezers and atomic force microscopy, and to WPI’s physics labs, such as the IPG Photonics Laboratory, the Atomic Force Microscopy Laboratory, the Soft Matter Laboratory, and the Center for Computational Nanoscience. 

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Graduate Studies Series

Team members from Graduate & Professional Studies host quick and convenient webinars designed to highlight popular topics when starting grad school. Take a deep dive into specific areas of interest such as how to secure funding, how to ace your application, an overview of student services, and more!

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Faculty Profiles

Germano Iannacchione
Germano Iannacchione
Professor, Physics

Germano Iannacchione is a Professor in the Physics Department at WPI, joining the faculty in August 1998, with an area of expertise in thermo-physical property experimental research on order-disorder phenomena in condensed matter, with a focus on soft-matter materials, colloids/composites, and emergence far-from-equilibrium.  To date, there have been 11 Ph.D., 14 M.Sc., and 121 B.Sc. (senior thesis or MQP) physics students who have matured and graduated at WPI under his mentorship. 

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Izabela Stroe
Izabela Stroe
Associate Professor of Teaching, Physics

For me, Physics is like a sandbox. It gives me the opportunity to play and discover, test, be creative, learn something new. At the same time, I am passionate about passing the thrill of discovery to my students. Teaching is a two-way street in which both parties get enriched from each other. I welcome and embrace the partnership. I also believe that college is the biggest and best opportunity in one's life to discover one's calling and do something about it and I invite students to take full advantage of it.

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Physics Department
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