Leadership Program in Life, Earth and Space Sciences for K-6 Teachers and Principals

该项目旨在提高路易斯安那州卡尔卡西厄教区K-6课堂教授科学的质量和数量。该项目的三个主要组成部分是：(1)为期两个学期的生命科学、地球和空间科学讲习班；(2)为这些讲习班的参与者提供与同行分享其专业知识的方法和动力；(3)建立一个当地学校系统可以为其教师服务的模式。经过适当挑选的教师和他们的校长将参与这项为期三年的努力。教师团队和教师校长团队是从教区的36所学校中挑选出来的。每个工作坊都以体验为主，以探究为导向，为教师提供6小时的研究生学分。其目标是更新和拓宽32名K-6教师及其校长的生命、地球和空间科学知识，并为教师提供改进课堂科学教学的方法和动力。这32名教师参与了以前的一个项目，在该项目中，他们在物理科学、物理和化学方面的知识基础得到了加强。通过将这笔资金与上一笔资金进行排序，这些小学教师应该做好充分准备，有效地向他们的学生教授所有的科学知识。他们还将参与几年的工作，这将使他们有适当的背景成为所在学校的带头教师。通过将校长包括在项目的内容部分以及领导部分，应该能够为加强科学教学提供强有力和通情达理的行政支持。在学年日历中加入了四个全天和五个半天的在职天数，以实现这一同行提升。专家教师以及大学教职员工将参与授课。麦克尼斯州立大学和卡尔卡西厄教区公立学校的捐款相当于NSF申请的50%。这是学校和大学方面的坚定承诺，也是继续在课堂上实施科学教育改进的好兆头。

This project is designed to improve the quality and the quantity of science taught in K-6 classrooms of Calcasieu Parish in Louisiana. The three major components of the project are (1) two semester long workshops in the life sciences, earth and space sciences, (2) the provision of the methodology and motivation for these workshop participants to share their expertise with their peers, and (3) the development of a model by which a local school system can inservice their teachers. Both appropriately selected teachers and their principals will be involved in this three-year long effort. Teacher teams and teacher-principal teams are chosen from among the 36 schools in the parish. Each workshop is heavily experiential, inquiry oriented and offers 6 hours of graduate credit for the teachers. The objectives are to update and broaden the knowledge of life, earth and space science for 32 K-6 teachers and their principals and to provide the teachers with the methodology and motivation to improve the science instruction in their classrooms. These same 32 teachers have been involved with a previous project in which their knowledge base in the physical sciences, physics and chemistry, has been enhanced. By sequencing this grant with the previous one, these elementary teachers should be adequately prepared to effectively teach all of the sciences to their students. They will also have been involved over a period of several years which should give them an appropriate background to become the lead teachers in their schools. By including the principals in the content portion of the project as well as the leadership component, strong and understanding administrative support for enhancing science instruction should be forthcoming. Four full and five half-day inservice days are built into the school year calendar to implement this peer enhancement. Expert teachers as well as university staff will be involved in the instruction. McNeese State University and the Calcasieu Parish Public Schools have contributed an amount equivalent to 50% of the NSF request. This is a strong commitment on the part of the schools and the university and bodes well for continued implementation of science education improvement in the classrooms.