Integration of Earth and space science contexts for teaching physics

This paper describes the results of a survey administered to members of the American Association of Physics Teachers and the National Earth Science Teachers Association to measure the nature and frequency of the integration of Earth and space science (E&SS) concepts into physics courses, as well as the need and interest of physics teachers to do so. Data included 92 responses from secondary physics and physical science teachers around the US. Results showed that physics teachers typically include E&SS content during the teaching of universal gravitation, circular motion, and Doppler effect, but that integration is usually limited to contextualized word problems. While the teachers surveyed are highly interested in learning more about E&SS integration, they are limited by time and a scarcity of quality resources.