SMART TEAMS: PROJECT-BASED PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

描述（由申请人提供）： 该项目的目标是传播一个非常成功的专业发展计划，为高中教师提供最新的知识和独特的工具，以帮助学生在生物分子结构和功能的水平上理解生物学。这个项目将教师和学生与科学的真实的世界联系起来。 该项目由两部分组成。首先，我们将在全国范围内传播一个针对高中科学教师的专业发展计划，“基因、方案、分子机器”，该计划是在第一阶段SEPA赠款期间开发、测试和完善的。该计划涉及教学生物分子结构和功能的方法，整合了计算机和物理建模。我们将与三个地点合作：圣地亚哥、湖城和纽约北部。选择这些地点是因为存在强大的现存的专业发展计划，该计划的工作人员的热情，使他们的教师在这种方法，并确定教师干部积极参与。 第二，我们将继续进一步发展学生充实计划，其中参加我们专业发展计划的教师组成SMART团队（学生建模研究主题），设计和构建正在当地生物医学研究实验室研究的蛋白质或其他分子结构的物理模型。这种方法弥合了课堂和活跃的研究实验室世界之间目前存在的差距。在这个项目中，我们将与来自大密尔沃基地区和威斯康星州的教师和SMART团队合作。我们当地工作的一个重要的新组成部分将是探索与探索世界博物馆的数字扫盲团队合作，以更有效地将SMART团队的成就传达给更广泛的教育工作者，家长和公众。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this project is to disseminate a highly successful professional development program that provides high school teachers with updated knowledge and unique tools to help their students understand biology at the level of biomolecular structure and function. This program links teachers and students with the real world of science. This project consists of two components. First, we will disseminate nationally a professional development program for high school science teachers, "Genes, Schemes, Molecular Machines," that has been developed, tested and refined during a phase I SEPA grant. The program involves an approach to teaching biomolecular structure and function that integrates computer and physical modeling. We will work with three sites; San Diego, Salt Lake City, and upstate New York. These sites were chosen because of the existence of strong extant professional development programs, the enthusiasm of the program staffs to engage their teachers in this approach, and the identification of cadres of teachers motivated to participate. Second, we will continue to further develop a student enrichment program in which teachers who have participated in our professional development program form SMART Teams (Students Modeling A Research Topic), that design and build a physical model of a protein or other molecular structure that is being investigated in a local biomedical research laboratory. This approach bridges the gap that currently exists between the classroom and the world of an active research laboratory. In this project component, we will work with teachers and SMART Teams drawn from the greater Milwaukee area and the state of Wisconsin. An important new component of our local effort will be the exploration of a collaboration with the Digital Literacy Team of the Discovery World Museum to more effectively communicate the accomplishments of the SMART Teams to a wider audience of educators, parents and the general public.