Achieving the Goals: Goal 4 Teacher Professional Development

A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n

Achieving the Goals: Goal 4 Teacher Professional Development - August 1996

Smithsonian Institution

* - designates programs that have a particular usefulness at the school or school district level

Harvard-Smithsonian Case Studies in Science Education*

The project will create a series of 25 half hour video case studies accompanied by written guide materials, for use in K-8 preservice and in-service teacher education programs. The project's primary goal is to create visual models of science education reform, and to provoke discussion and critical analysis by the audience of the issues surrounding their application in real-life classrooms.

Nancy Finkelstein
60 Garden Street, Mail Stop 71
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: (617) 496-7687
Fax: (617) 496-7670

InSIGHT: Investigative Stimuli for Intuitive Growth using High Technology*

InSIGHT focuses on advanced high school and introductory college physics courses. The project seeks to identify aspects critical to the design of computer simulations for teaching sophisticated physical concepts to students in introductory physics classes.

Philip M. Sadler
60 Garden Street, Mail Stop 71
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: (617) 495-9798
Fax: (617) 495-5405

MicroObservatory*

The MicroObservatory project focuses on grades 9-12, and will develop a network of portable, automated, CCD-based (charge-coupled device) reflecting telescopes, accessible to students at their schools and over the Internet. A prototype instrument has been built, and five have been assembled to form a nationwide pilot network.

Steve Leiker
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street, MS71
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: (617) 495-9798
Fax: (617) 496-5405

National Science Resources Center's Resource Collection*

The National Science Resources Center maintains a comprehensive and growing collection of effective science teaching resource materials. Housed at the Arts and Industries Building of the Smithsonian Institution, the collection holds more than 5,000 volumes. The resource collection is cataloged and accessible through computerized information databases that include annotations as well as bibliographic data. The Resource Center has also produced an annotated guide to elementary science resources, Science for Children: Resources for Teachers. The completely revised and updated second edition is available under a new title, "Resources for Teaching Elementary School Science." A companion volume for middle schools is also under development.

Douglas Lapp
Executive Director
National Science Resources Center, MRC 403
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, DC 20560
Phone: (202) 357-2555
Fax: (202) 786-2028

NSRC Elementary Science Leadership Institutes*

Each summer the National Science Resources Center conducts two Elementary Science Leadership Institutes at the Smithsonian Institution. These Institutes provide teams of administrators, curriculum specialists, teachers, and scientists from school districts across the country with the information and skills they need to develop and maintain effective hands-on elementary science programs. The Institutes are staffed by science educators and scientists who have implemented exemplary elementary science programs in their districts. This Initiative includes technical assistance to school districts across the country that are working to reform their elementary science programs.

Douglas Lapp
Executive Director
National Science Resources Center
MRC 403
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, DC 20560
Phone: (202) 357-2555
Fax: (202) 786-2028

The Private Universe Project*

The Private Universe Project is developing a six-part nationally broadcast television series to help science teachers address student preconceptions in science. The 3-year project, funded in 1992, focuses on grades K-12. The series is derived from work pioneered in Project STAR: Science Teaching through its Astronomical Roots, and is an extension of that project's award-winning video, A Private Universe. The project will alert science teachers to problems posed by their students' preconceived ideas and will encourage them to devise solutions tailored to students' specific needs.

Nancy Finkelstein
60 Garden Street, Mail Stop 71
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: (617) 496-7687
Fax: (617) 496-7670

Professional Development Opportunities for Teachers*

Regional workshops and summer institutes conducted in collaboration with local institutions, are designed to strengthen ties between museums and schools nationwide and to contribute to the improvement of teaching methods and materials. Summary courses for metropolitan DC area teachers were taught by educators from throughout the Smithsonian on subjects ranging from African Art to historical documents to zoo animals.

Ann Bay
Office of Elementary and Secondary Education
Smithsonian Institution
Arts and Industry Building, Room 1163
Washington, DC 20560
(202) 357-2425
Phone: (202) 357-2111
Fax: (202) 357-2116

Project ARIES: Astronomy Resources for Intercurricular Elementary Science*

ARIES was funded in 1992 for three years; its initial focus is grades 3-4. The project will develop a modular, hands-on, discovery- based, intercurricular, multicultural physical science program using astronomy as the central focus. Teacher enhancement videos will also be developed in parallel with the curriculum.

Dr. R. Bruce Ward
60 Garden Street, Mail Stop 71
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: (617) 495-9798
Fax: (617) 495-5405

Project Designs (Doable Engineering Science Investigations Geared for Non-science Students)*

This program is an NSF-funded project to develop modules of design-based activities using design-to-constraints and testing against nature for inclusion in grades 6-9. The program consists of technology education and physical science courses; development and field trials starting in Fall 1995, to expand nationally in 1996.

Hal Coyle, Senior Writer
Science Education Department
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street, MS-71
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: (617) 495-9798
Fax: (617) 496-5404
E_Mail: hcoyle@cfa.harvard.edu

Project IMAGE: Investigative Materials About Global Environments*

IMAGE focuses on grades 7-12, with an emphasis on grades 7-9. The project developed and field-tested 17 hands-on, investigative activities using satellite and high altitude imagery to confront students with the problems and challenges of our global environment. A manual of these activities with a teacher's guide will be published in late 1995.

Hal Coyle
Senior Writer
Science Education Department
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street, MS-71
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: (617) 495-9798
Fax: (617) 496-5404
E_Mail: hcoyle@cfa.harvard.edu

Project SPICA: Support Program for Instructional Competency in Astronomy*

Project SPICA provides astronomy education support to precollege teachers, particularly in grades K-9. The project has prepared some 180 expert teachers in 41 states to provide workshops to other teachers who want to enhance their use of astronomy in their classrooms. The SPICA agents may be contacted through the project office. In addition, a manual containing 37 astronomy activities for grades 2-12, Project SPICA: A Teacher Resource to Enhance Astronomy Education, is available from Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company.

Judith Peritz
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street, MS71
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: (617) 496-4785
Fax: (617) 496-5405

Science and Technology for Children*

Science and Technology for Children, a curriculum project of the National Science Resources Center, is producing a complete program of science instruction for children in grades 1-6. The 24 units involve children in hands-on investigations of scientific phenomena that enable them to learn by doing.

Douglas Lapp
Executive Director
National Science Resources Center
MRC 403
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, DC 20560
Phone: (202) 357-2555
Fax: (202) 786-2028
-###-

[National Science Foundation]

[Appendix I]