9355724 Marcinkowski This three-year project will involve middle school teachers in the acquisition, implementation and evaluation of carefully selected science content and STS issue instruction strategies in middle school classrooms. With the support of education service centers, and participation from nine participating school districts, in the Central and South Florida region, project staff will train teams of key middle school teachers and supervisors in summer institute settings. Instruction will include science content, a wide range of regional STS issues, strategies for investigating and evaluating STS issues, issue resolution skills, and two well-researched strategies for teaching this content to middle school students. Subsequent to each institute, participants will apply these skills, and report their results. Over each school year, participants will implement and evaluate much of this content, including one issue instruction strategy, in their classrooms. As a part of the projects evaluation, the teachers will report the results of their efforts to project staff and participants in a regular spring meeting. In Year 3 district teams will participate in a summer seminar designed to prepare them to offer inservice sessions to their colleagues. Once trained cadres of teachers and articulated instructional programs are in place, extensive data will be collected to assess impact and program effectiveness. The cost sharing will be 42 percent of the NSF funds. ***
