Collaboration with Teachers

• Courses, Workshops, and Symposia for K-12 Teachers
• Laboratory Experiences
• Field Experiences
• Long-term Professional Development

One of the most effective ways of reaching students is by working with their teachers. As Andries van Dam, a principal investigator at the Center for Computer Graphics and Scientific Visualization, notes, "If you want to have an impact on students, you have to excite their teachers. The potential audience is much larger." The STCs devote much of their resources toward working with teachers one-on-one to develop effective approaches to science education and to build teacher awareness of careers in science, engineering, and mathematics. Alternative approaches to teacher development abound in the STC program.

The "Project SEARCH Science Fair" sponsored by the Center for Magnetic Resonance Technology for Basic Biological Research involves faculty and undergraduate students working with area K-6 students and their teachers in hands-on science activities.

Courses, Workshops, and Symposia for K-12 Teachers

One program that embodies this idea is the "Geometry and the Imagination" summer course for secondary school teachers given by the Center for Computation and Visualization of Geometric Structures (The Geometry Center). In this unconventional course, participants learn about the mathematical ideas and computational principles behind the computer-generated images and special effects found in movies and music videos. They also learn about modeling specific motion, such as the motion of three planets interacting under gravity. Participants examine the questions of probability and statistics currently reported in the news, such as: "Do electromagnetic fields cause cancer?" or "Do basketball players score in streaks?" The center's "Geometry Room" is used to assist participants with building either physical or computational mathematical models, which are made using everything from papier-mache to popsicle sticks to computer workstations. As one teacher commented about the program, "It changed the way I see things. Now when I look at lettuce leaves, I think of hyperbolic shapes." Since 1991, 30 teachers have participated each summer in the program.

Hénon map created by an undergraduate participating in the Center for Computation and Visualization of Geometric Stuctures' Geometry Center Summer Institute.

Other courses have actively engaged teachers in learning about advanced scientific concepts. The visual attraction of computer graphics was exploited by an intensive three-week summer program for seven high school teacher-student teams at the Brown University site of the Center for Computer Graphics and Scientific Visualization. The workshop introduced concepts in computer graphics and geometric modeling, presenting these areas as motivational tools for the teaching of mathematics. Participants created their own three-dimensional models using modeling software developed at the center's site at the University of Utah. Teachers are now using the materials in a range of courses and special projects including courses in physics, mathematics, and computer science. Sister Mary Catherine Burns, a teacher at the Coyle and Cassidy School in Taunton, Massachusetts noted that the STC's program on three- dimensional modeling helped her to teach mathematics more effectively to her students: "Those students who question the 'why' of mathematics have a new and exciting motivation-math actually is useful and fun." Several students have worked with their teachers to integrate the materials into new curriculum units.

It is important to note that the STCs have an impact on science education through scope as well as innovation. The STCs reach large audiences in the educational community that could not be reached without the coordinated efforts of the centers. For example, the Center for Clouds, Chemistry, and Climate, in collaboration with the Stephen-Birch Aquarium-Museum at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, sponsored a symposium entitled "Forecasting the Future: Studying Evidence for Global Climate Change," where more than 40 K-12 teachers explored ideas with center researchers in the atmospheric, chemical, meteorological, and physical sciences on how to apply scientific approaches to teach global climate change in their classrooms.

Model created by a high school student at the Center for Computer Graphics and Scientific Visualization's five-week Utah Summer Computing Institute, which is in its fifth year.

Laboratory Experiences

At the Center for Biological Timing, a program for high school teachers emphasizes research experience. Participants attend weekend workshops during the regular school year featuring lectures and laboratory demonstrations and are eligible for fellowships to engage in center research for six to eight weeks during the summer. After their first summer, the teachers can choose to pursue an independent project. Several participants have noted that this research experience was helpful in generating ideas for future lessons and laboratories for their classes.

Since 1989, the Center for Superconductivity has conducted 20 workshops in superconductivity reaching 400 teachers. In turn, an even larger audience is reached as the teachers incorporate these workshop experiences and materials into their curricula.

Field Experiences

The Center for Microbial Ecology provides state-wide summer field work in Michigan for high school teachers. At the Michigan State University's Kellogg Biological Station, faculty annually conduct a week of field work for 24 high school science teachers from five midwestern states in "The High School Teachers Workshop in Environmental and Behavioral Ecology." In northern Michigan, six Detroit teachers and their students participated last summer in island field work at the Beaver Island Biological Station. Additionally, the Inland Seas Education Association, which is a neighboring Northern Michigan- based organization, will conduct a workshop in 1994 for 12 Detroit inner-city teachers using its newly built "Science Schoolship" in a "maiden voyage."

Long-term Professional Development

The Center for Ultrafast Optical Science collaborates with Detroit Public Schools (DPS) on two demonstration sites. Middle schools that pilot and model new projects for eventual adoption by all DPS middle schools. Components include teacher training, hands-on science, summer science camps, tours, and curriculum development and supplementation.