This Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) application is a Phase II proposal to disseminate the Positively Aging TM project. Positively Aging TM is an educational partnership developed between the Aging Research and Education Center (AREC) at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA) and the Northside Independent School District (NISD) in San Antonio, TX. We evaluated the Positively Aging TM teaching materials during a Phase I SEPA grant (1997-2000-R25- RR12369). We now plan to disseminate Positively Aging TM by consolidating our partnership with NISD and establishing a new partnership with North East Independent School District (NEISD). For the past six years the working scientists of the AREC have worked with middle school educators from NISD to produce instructional materials that meet the SEPA goals of (a) improving the quality of math and science education in public schools and (b) promote an understanding of behaviors that increase the risk of disease. To date, the work has centered on middle schools that have large student populations of Mexican Americans in the past these students have performed less well on standardized achievement tests compared to their European American classmates. The three long term goals of Positively Aging TM are: (a) to provide effective teaching materials that center on math and science curricular elements and are based on examples from the Gerontologic Sciences; (b) to help students learn to make critical, life determining decisions for extending and enhancing their own lives; and (c) to help students develop a sensitivity to the needs and concerns of the aging population. In this dissemination proposal, we designed two specific aims to achieve these long term goals. First, to develop an interactive web site that facilitates and supports distance learning to (a) improve student knowledge and skills specific to math and science curricular elements, and (b) improve professional development for teachers in knowledge specific to gerontology and the aging process. Second, to directly test the effectiveness of two sustained 3-year dissemination strategies. A controlled study will compare a program of teacher training followed by web based electronic support alone compared to teacher training with web based support plus in-school personal support by Positively Aging TM staff. We will test the hypothesis that in-school personal support will facilitate dissemination beyond what can be achieved solely by computer based distance learning techniques.
| Lichtenstein, Michael J; Pruski, Linda A; Marshall, Carolyn E et al. (2005) Do middle school students really have fixed images of elders? J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 60:S37-47 |
| Lichtenstein, Michael J; Pruski, Linda A; Marshall, Carolyn E et al. (2003) Sentence completion to assess children's views about aging. Gerontologist 43:839-48 |
| Lichtenstein, M J; Pruski, L A; Marshall, C E et al. (2001) The Positively Aging teaching materials improve middle school students' images of older people. Gerontologist 41:322-32 |
