This project is designed to develop and evaluate a sustainable university/school/industry program that models new methodologies for preparing elementary teachers to teach science effectively in a multicultural/urban setting. Over six semesters, 150 Towson State University (TSU) elementary education majors will be trained to teach, and subsequently teach, hands-on, integrated, sequential science units to small groups of children in grades 1-5. The field component is to be located in 2 Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS) having 90+% minority enrollment. These supervised preservice experiences, as well as inservice training for participating classroom teachers, will be coordinated by a site-based director and guided by a multidisciplinary advisory board. The infrastructure needed to support this project will be built in three stages; 1) partnership planning; 2) model training; and 3) self-sufficiency development. Master teachers, 2 from each of the 2 schools, will be selected from a cadre of 20 teachers in the 2 BCPS schools. These master teachers will be trained to coordinate the school-site tasks necessary to implement the program. By 1994 the urban practicum will be a co-requisite of the science content/methods course in the TSU program. In addition to NSF funding, this project is supported (28%) by Towson State University, the Baltimore City Public Schools, and Baltimore Gas and Electric.
