Teaching SMART(R), A Program of Girls Incorporated of Rapid City (South Dakota), a division of Youth & Family Services, is a comprehensive, research-based, three-year teacher professional development program designed to produce systemic change in the classroom through improving science education at the elementary school level. The mission of Teaching SMART is to encourage the performance and persistence of all students, particularly girls and minority youth, in elementary science, increasing the probability that they will major in science in college and ultimately pursue a health sciences related career. To achieve this end, Teaching SMART provides instruction, hands-on training, and long-term technical assistance and support for third through fifth grade teachers which increase their awareness of and comfort level in using equitable, hands-on inquiry, and exploration based approaches to teaching science. The success of Teaching SMART program has been proven by five years of independent evaluation, conducted by Dr. Marsha Lakes Matyas and Dr. Ann Haley MacKenzie, and is based on its long-term commitment to educational reform, which is accomplished through a comprehensive professional development training model. For this NIH funded project, Teaching SMART will add a new component to the existing model by partnering with working scientists at each of the new sites to improve student understanding of science and increase the interest of young people in health science careers. Teaching SMART will provide training and long-term technical assistance for up to 150 elementary school teachers in Teaching SMART methods and philosophies, which includes increasing their awareness of and skills in addressing gender equity and cultural issues. It will impact approximately 6,200 students over the three-year funding period. The goal of the Teaching SMART Staff Development for Science Education Program are: 1) To positively impact the way teachers teach science; 2) To positively impact students' cognitive skills in science; and 3) To positively impact student attitudes in science.
