Strategies: SCI-TALKS (Supporting Community Initiatives for TeAching, Learning, and Knowing Science)

SCI-TALKS（支持教学，学习和了解科学的社区倡议）是一个ITEST战略项目，旨在为西弗吉尼亚州农村低收入高年级学生提供社区环境中的课后能源和环境（EE）教育计划。SCI-TALKS的目标是为职前和在职教师提供专业发展和技术资源，以确保他们的学生通过EE教育计划建立劳动力准备技能。通过引导性探究，职前教师将专注于培养“科学”的思维习惯。科学讲座将影响300名学生和88名教育工作者。该项目将促进当地社区的联系，以有效地实施该方案。 科学讲座将利用两个主要来源的课程：1）国家能源教育发展能源课程，以支持阿巴拉契亚学生和教师对能源及其使用的适当管理的必要性和2）PASCO小学介绍科学实验与PASCO的SPARK系统proweware为学生提供工具，收集真实的测量，设计实验，并培养出对世界的科学好奇心。 测试前和测试后的数据将收集学生的成果，并与来自比较组的数据进行比较。将与当地STEM行业保持积极的伙伴关系，由劳动力投资委员会进行区域管理。对SCI-TALKS项目的评估将由一名具有评估课后计划专业知识的外部评估员进行。

SCI-TALKS (Supporting Community Initiatives for Teaching, Learning, and Knowing Science), an ITEST strategies project, is designed to deliver after-school energy and environment (EE) education programs in community settings for rural low-income upper elementary students in West Virginia. The goal of SCI-TALKS is to provide pre-service and in-service teachers with professional development and technology resources to ensure that their students build workforce readiness skills through EE education program. Through guided inquiry, pre-service teachers will focus on developing "science" habits of mind. SCI-TALKS will impact 300 students and 88 educators. The project will foster the local community connections to implement the program effectively. SCI-TALKS will utilize two primary sources for curriculum: 1) the National Energy Education Development energy curriculum to support Appalachian students and teachers on the necessity of proper stewardship of energy and its use and 2) PASCO Elementary School Introductory Science Experiments with PASCO's SPARK system probeware to provide students with tools to collect authentic measurements, design experiments, and develop a sense of scientific curiosity about their world. Pre and post test data will be collected on student outcomes and compared to the data from the comparison groups. Active partnerships with local STEM industry, managed regionally by the Workforce Investment Board, will be maintained. The evaluation of the SCI-TALKS project will be conducted by an external evaluator with expertise in evaluation of after-school programs.