The American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) and the Colorado Alliance for Science will collaborate in the implementation of this three-year project designed to address math/science needs of three Wisconsin and three Michigan school districts which have a large (90-100%) Native American population. Collaboration between elementary and secondary teachers will be promoted; each local team will consist of three elementary teachers, a Native American teacher-aide, and one high school teacher. The project, which includes an annual three-week summer workshop, four inservices, a two-day Leadership Seminar, and classroom observations and visits, will address the stated and identified needs of teachers of Native American students as determined through several needs assessments conducted by AISES over the past six years; these include the need for hands-on strategies, increased content knowledge, more American Indian culture in teaching math/science, and more training in cooperative and discovery learning strategies. This leadership proposal is appropriate for teacher enhancement because it is designed to enhance the science knowledge and teaching, and develop leadership skills of teams of teachers from particularly needy population. Non-NSF cost-sharing is approximately 4% of the amount requested from NSF.
