"Science Co-operatives" is a five year Local Systemic Change project designed to transform the elementary science program of 35 rural school districts in Missouri and Iowa. The project will work directly with 75 schools, enhance the content and pedagogical knowledge of 1,405 teachers, and impact over 19,000 students. Three university-based project teams (University of Missouri-St. Louis, the University of Iowa, and Iowa State University), assisted by expert consultants and facilitated by 9 local Co-op field coordinators will deliver summer and school-year teacher enhancement activities. Telecommunications will allow experts to deliver inservice instruction to teachers within and across cooperatives on a variety of science, pedagogical, and special topics. The fiber optic systems involved include the Iowa Communication Network (ICN) and the Missouri Research and Educational Network (MOREnet), both fully interactive educational video networks that link universities, community colleges, school districts, and other sites. Professional development will have, at its core, the implementation of units from three NSF-sponsored elementary science curriculum development projects: FOSS, STC, and Insights. Additional teacher inservice activities will be patterned after the highly successful "Science Parents, Activities, and Literature" that helped teachers integrate their science teaching with other disciplines. An independent evaluation will use both qualitative and quantitative methods to measure the impact of the project on students' opportunities to learn science, attitudes towards science and achievement, and teachers' knowledge of science and improved classroom practice.
