Science Made Sensible: Teaching Graduate Students to Communicate Science and Middle Schoolers to Experiment Through Shared Classroom Experiences

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PROPOSAL #: 0638135PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Michael GainesINSTITUTION: University of MiamiTITLE: Science Made Sensible: Teaching graduate students to communicate science, and middle schoolers to experiment through shared classroom experiences This project pairs graduate student fellows in ecological and environmental disciplines with middle school science teachers to improve the communication skills of the former and the inquiry-based teaching skills of the latter. Fellows and teachers attend summer workshops on student learning, curriculum development, and effective communication. They develop and implement inquiry-based lesson plans built upon the fellows' research areas in order to foster middle school student interest in science. Science Made Sensible addresses three problems. First, graduate programs fail to prepare future scientists to communicate clearly. In this program, middle school serves as a venue for such training. Second, teachers' knowledge of science constrains what and how they teach. Partnering with graduate fellows, teachers learn to incorporate research-based, interdisciplinary and quantitative activities in the classroom. Third, student achievement and interest in science begins a steady decline during middle school. Hands-on research experiences shaped by graduate-fellow-and-teacher teams keep middle school students interested in science. Structural change in the professional training of scientists is needed to expand their array of career choices. This program equips graduate fellows for careers that require an ability to communicate complex subject matter effectively to diverse audiences.