Effective and Sustainable Professional Development for Hands-On Universe

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9819579PENNYPACKERThis three-year project, sponsored by the University of California (Lawrence Hall of Science), will scale up the Hands-on Universe (HOU) Teacher Enhancement program using the Internet and will develop supporting professional development materials. Over the next three years methods to enable teachers to join HOU will be developed so that High School teachers who come from broad geographic and scientific backgrounds can effectively teach through the HOU Program which will be continuously upgraded in content and which will add embedded assessment options. Teachers will learn a number of skills that support the new National Science Standards. Thus teachers learn how to: i) use a sophisticated global array of telescopes and other real astronomy data for science and math education; ii) undertake research-based explorations using the tools of professional astronomy; iii) use potent computer and technological tools to support inquiry-based education; iv) enable themselves and students to make real discoveries. A plan of on-line tutorial materials and teacher guides will be developed and evaluated, including careful formative evaluations of any differential effects of interactive web-based workshops compared to face-to-face workshops. The key is to use the Internet to access a powerful set of teacher training materials and resources which support a wide range of teacher interests and skills, so that many more teachers than is currently the case can easily use the HOU Program. Altogether more than 1000 teachers will be served by the project.The cost-sharing amounts to 30% of the NSF award.