This three-year project, serving 81 less well-prepared teachers of grades 5-12 is directed primarily towards the improvement of science education in rural Minnesota through the enhancement of subject matter competency and pedagogy. The objectives of the program are: to improve the subject matter competency of teachers; to generate and increase collaboration and cooperation among teachers of different grade levels; to develop leader teachers who will work with their peers within their own and other school districts; and to enhance further the expertise of master teachers from throughout the country. These objectives will be accomplished through: summer workshops in earth science, life science and physical science; an academic year inservice program, and; a year-long program for master teachers who are called Guest Instructors. Three Guest Instructors, one for each subject area, will be selected from a national pool of applicants. Each will become a member of the appropriate department at the college during one summer and academic year and will teach part-time, assist Gustavus professors during the summer workshops, aid in the evaluation of the workshops, assist in the preparation for the next summer, and serve as the principal figure in conducting the academic year inservice program. Nine teachers, three each from middle, junior high and senior high school, will participate in each of three summer workshops. Each workshop would be made up of three teams-one from each school level-that would act as cooperative learning groups. Each team would use content and pedagogy presented during the workshop to prepare projects for implementation into the classroom at the appropriate grade levels. Workshop participants would range geographically from rural Southern Minnesota during the first year to all of rural Minnesota during the third year. Coordinators of some of Minnesota's 33 rural education districts have played a role in the planning of the project and will aid in selection of teachers, project dissemination and coordination of activities of the new teacher leaders. During the academic year, each Guest Instructor will assist each of the participants who were in the summer workshop in the preparation for and the presentation of the lessons developed in the workshops. He/she also will encourage and assist qualified teachers to become leader teachers as they, in turn, prepare to work with other teachers. School districts will provide some financial assistance for in-house facilities as well as released time for the leader teachers to visit other classrooms. The NSF share of this project is $368,123 which is matched by $262,379 from Gustavus Adolphus College. The matching funds are more than 71% of the grant amount.
