The Dartmouth College Superfund Outreach Core in collaboration with the Montshire Museum of Sciences proposes to develop the curricular, logistic, and teacher training support necessary to create a six week multi- disciplinary, environmental chemistry program for middle school (6th- 8th grade) students in rural Vermont and New Hampshire. This Environmental Detectives program emphasizes student-centered, investigatory learning techniques and hypothesis testing, and melds chemistry, earth science, biology, and toxicology. Project staff includes Dartmouth scientists and experienced science educators from the Montshire Museum of Science. The program builds upon the scientific expertise of Dartmouth College and its SBRP and the experience of the Montshire Museum as the major science education center in the Vermont- New Hampshire region. Montshire's active and on-going affiliation with elementary and secondary schools throughout the two states assures a reliable delivery mechanism. The program addresses current pedagogic trends in middle school science education as well as national science standards for this age. For six-weeks, students will engage in a process- oriented focus on chemicals in our environment, developing skills in observation, comparison, measuring, recording, hypothesizing, and testing. Field trips, lab activities, and collaborative learning in small groups will support these objectives. Intensive pre-program teacher training, classroom supplies, and frequent visits from project staff will help the teacher build and maintain program momentum. All students will participate in a culminating community-wide poster session hosted by Dartmouth and Montshire. During year 1, project staff and two master teachers, experienced in the classroom, will develop activities and techniques and establish a baseline of specific projects, experimental activities, and multi-disciplinary materials. Project teachers are trained in years 2-5. Teachers attend a week-long summer workshop before starting the program, plus two one day workshops during the school year. The program will be evaluated by an experienced external science education consultant. Dissemination will include a written curriculum and a workshop, hosted by Dartmouth and Montshire, for staff from other interested. Materials and evaluation data will be available on a project Internet site. Twenty teachers will be trained and approximately 4400 students will have classroom experience with the program. Twenty-five other teachers will have training and project materials. The completed curriculum, along with evaluation data, will be available nationwide for use by thousands of others.
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