Planning Grant to Develop a Program to Improve the Teaching of Science at the Middle and Upper Elementary School Levels

这项计划拨款旨在制定一项计划，以改善小学中高年级的科学教学。该计划的目的是建立一种机制，在大学研究社区的教师和地区学校的教师之间建立持续的关系。在12个月的计划期间，来自城市学区、郊区学区和农村学区的约70名教师将共同审查和分析一系列科学教学磁带。完成这项任务后，来自三个学区不同学校的教师将在各自系统的研讨会上向科学教师展示磁带。讲习班的反应和结果将用于回答以下问题：教师应该使用哪些类型的书面材料来配合这样的磁带？一个装有本单元所介绍的材料示例的工具包也会有帮助吗？这种磁带的最佳时间长度是多少？在完成磁带分析后，将对参与学校的课程进行分析。该计划的目标之一将是建立一些普遍同意的初中和小学高年级科学课程的需求。该计划的这一方面是基于这样的假设，即每个科学教育计划都需要根据科学领域的进步以及不断变化的社会需求和各个学区的需求进行更新。规划期间的一个成果是设计和开发新的科学教学单元，这些单元在结构和格式上都是灵活的，可以在不改变整个科学项目或不将该地区引入新系列书籍的情况下引入现有项目。教师可以学习如何引入范围有限的新教材。他们从这些单元学到的新材料和教学策略也可以扩展到课程的其他领域。

This planning grant seeks to develop a program to improve the teaching of science at the middle and upper elementary school levels. The program will be directed at developing mechanisms for establishing ongoing relationships between faculty in a university research community and teachers in regional schools. During the twelve months planning period approximately 70 teachers from three school districts - Urban School District, Suburban School District, and Rural School District will work together to review and analyze a series of science teaching tapes. Upon completion of this task, the teachers from the various schools in the three school districts will present the tapes to science teachers in a workshop in their respective systems. The reactions and results from the workshops will be used in answering the following questions: What types of written materials for teachers should accompany such a tape? Would a kit with examples of the materials introduced in the unit also be helpful? What is the optimal length of time for such a tape? Upon completion of analysis of the tapes, the curricula of the participating schools will be analyzed. One of the goals of the program will be to establish some commonly agreed upon needs for middle and upper elementary school science programs. This aspect of the program is based on the assumption that every program in science education needs to be updated in response to advances in the fields of science as well as changing societal needs and needs of the various school districts. An outcome of the planning period is the design and development of new teaching units in science that are flexible in structure and format that can be introduced into existing programs without changing the entire science program or without committing the district to new series of books. Teachers can learn how to introduce new teaching material that is limited in scope. The new material and teaching strategies they learn with these units can also be extended to other areas of the curriculum.