Teacher Enhancement in Applied Ecology

这个项目是一个为期三年的项目，提供为期五周的教师提升暑期课程，随后是学年课程开发活动。暑期研习班将在曼卡托州立大学举行。来自中西部6个州的72名中学科学教师（每年24名）将参加土壤生物学/农业生态学主题领域的暑期研究经验和报告。教师将有机会研究土壤中的生物，将他们所学到的知识应用于农业生态学问题，并参与课堂材料的写作、测试和修订。实验所使用的材料可供参与的教师及其学生在课堂上进行实验和研究。参与者承担的研究项目将被设计成可以回到家庭教室，让学生参与到项目中来，并且不需要复杂的仪器和技术。每位老师都会为同事提供在职培训。包括6个为期一周的讲习班，由两个教师小组在该地区的不同地点进行。至少还有60名教师将接受这些讲习班的培训，以便与他们的学生进行类似的研究活动。这些讲习班的部分经费将由当地资金提供。相当于国家自然科学基金费用20.5%的数额作为费用分摊。

This project is a three year program that offers five-week teacher enhancement summer institutes, followed by academic year curriculum development activity. The summer institutes will be held at Mankato State University. A total of 72 middle school science teachers (24 per year), from a six state Midwest region, will participate in summer research experiences and presentations in the subject area of soil biology/agroecology. Teachers will have the opportunity to study the organisms in soils, apply what they learn to issues in agroecology, and participate in writing, testing, and revision of classroom materials. Laboratory materials to be used are readily available to participant teachers and their students for in-class experimentation and study. Research projects undertaken by the participants will be designed for transport back to the home classroom to engage students in the projects, and will not require complex instrumentation and techniques. Each teacher will provide in-service training for colleagues. Included will be 6 one-week workshops conducted by two teacher teams at different locations within the region. At least 60 additional teachers will be trained in these workshops to conduct similar research activities with their students. These workshops will be funded, in part, by local funding. An amount equal to 20.5 % of NSF costs has been provided as cost sharing.