Workshop Physical Science: Project Based Science Education for Future Teachers, Citizens, and Parents

车间物理科学项目是一个主要的努力，以提高我们未来的K-8教师，家长和公民的科学教育的有效性，通过开发一系列的物理科学入门实验课程。我们寻求将引导探究与学生指导的项目结合起来，以帮助学生更好地了解实践科学家的实际工作。这种亲身实践的方法旨在改变导论科学课程的重点，从覆盖大量的主题——促进记忆事实和公式——到帮助学生培养科学过程技能，使他们有信心独立进行未来的研究。课程材料的模块化设计将为其他学院和大学的教师提供充分的灵活性，使其适应自己的环境。这些教材将用于教师预备课程、非科学专业的通识课程、鼓励一、二年级学生选择科学专业的课程。这个拟议的四年项目于1994年9月在查尔斯·a·达纳基金会的三年赠款下开始，期望为完成该项目将征求更多的资金。我们要求FIPSE承担项目第2年和第3年大约一半的费用，以及第4年的全部费用。这将使我们能够为两个学期的课程序列创建和评估表皮材料，并在三个不同的机构，迪金森学院，内布拉斯加州大学和明尼苏达州的穆尔黑德州立大学完成为期两年的材料试点测试。此外，资金的一部分将用于在项目的第四年发起一项积极的传播方案，包括会谈、文章和讲习班，以及与有兴趣使用这些材料的几个机构进行协商。

The Workshop Physical Science Project is a major effort to increase the effectiveness of science education for our future K-8 teachers, parents, and citizens by developing a sequence of introductory laboratory courses in physical science. We seek to integrate guided inquiry with student- directed projects in order to help students acquire a better understanding of what practicing scientists actually do. This hands-on approach is aimed at changing the focus of introductory science courses from covering a large number of topics-which promotes memorizing facts and formulae- to helping students develop science process skills that will give them the confidence to undertake future investigations independently. A modular design of the curricular materials will provide ample flexibility for instructors at other colleges and universities to adapt the program to their own environments. These materials will be developed for use in teacher preparation programs, general studies courses for non-science majors, and courses designed to inspire freshmen and sophomores to pursue science as a major. This proposed four-year project began in September 1994 under a three-year grant from the Charles A. Dana Foundation, with the expectation that additional funds would be solicited for its completion. We are asking FIPSE to underwrite approximately half of the costs for project years two and three, and all of the costs for year four. This will allow us to create and evaluate cutticular materials for a two- semester course sequence and to complete a two-year pilot test of the materials at three different institutions, Dickinson College, the University of Nebraska, and Moorhead State University in Minnesota. In addition, a portion of the funds will be used to initiate an active dissemination program in the fourth year of the project involving talks, articles, and workshops, as well as consultations with several institutions interested in using the materials.