This project will develop a model for implementation and evaluation of a comprehensive staff development program to implement and sustain quality elementary science curricula. It will increase the strengths of elementary teachers who are better prepared to teach science and develop these individuals as instructors, coaches and facilitators of change for those teachers who are less prepared. Inquiry and discovery teaching methods will be employed. The model will include (a) science content and concepts (b) new strategies for interfacing science with mathematics, reading, and writing (c) collegial support through demonstrations, discussions, peer coaching, and interactions with other teachers in the project and (d) long-term support commitments from participating districts. Three school districts in Colorado, an urban, mid-sized city and a rural district will participate in the four-year project. Specially qualified teachers in local schools will be the first level participants to become "trainers", who, in turn, will train "tutors" to work with their peers. This multiplicative system will enable all the elementary teachers in the districts to benefit from the project. Administrators will participate in workshops which will involve science content and strategies from teaching science in order to facilitate the implmentation of change. A ratio of 60% of the NSF request is being cost shared by the University and the participating school districts.
