Science Fellows Supporting Teachers in the Classroom

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This NSF GK-12 Fellow Project involves a collaboration of 17 grade 4-6 teachers, 17 NSF graduate and undergraduate content and technology resource fellows, and Ohio State University (OSU) science, engineering, pharmacy and math professors. The collaboration is adapting and implementing scientific and math investigations in grade 4-6 classrooms of the 64,000 student urban school district in Columbus, OH. The inquiry investigations support the curriculum of the schools and the inquiry strategies in the National Standards, the Ohio Model Competency-Based Science Program, and the Benchmarks in Science Literacy.The project involves several key components: a) Four-person teacher-fellow teams each adapt 12 hours of inquiry investigations for use in special parts of the local curriculum. b) Before their use with students, other teachers and fellows participate as students in using the investigations during weekly 3-hour teacher-fellow classes. The teachers and fellows provide feedback that is used to modify the investigations. c) After revision, all of the teachers assisted by fellows use the inquiry investigations in their grade 4-6 classrooms. Each year, the focus is on one particular grade level, with follow-up visits to classes involved during previous years. In addition, the teacher-fellow teams produce kits that can be used by teachers in classes throughout Ohio. The dissemination of these kits is facilitated through summer workshops led by fellow-teacher teams for other Columbus grade 4-6 teachers and for OSU Extension Agents who offer workshops for teachers throughout Ohio.