This Leadership Activities project for MS/JHS teachers involves the collaborative efforts of eight electrical utility companies, the National Science Teachers Association, and the National Science Foundation. It will provide a two-week summer workshop for 80 middle school/junior high school teachers at 8 regional centers serviced by the participating electrical utility companies (10 teachers/site), geographically distributed throughout the U.S. A regional committee of science educators will select the participants based upon a formal application and commitment of supervisory personnel in applicant school districts to support participants in follow-up efforts of curriculum implementation and in-service activities. In the proposed second year of the project the numbers of teachers will increase to 120 distributed among 12 regional centers serviced by electrical utility companies. Workshops will be staffed by appropriate utility company staff, local college and university professors, and environmentalists. A master teacher will be retained at each site to assist participants in developing classroom activities and appropriate in-service programs. Follow-up support will be available to participants from the workshop staffs. The overall goals of the project focus on increasing the knowledge of the participating teachers in the areas of the science and technology involved in electrical energy production, including the societal, economic and environmental impacts of that production; the translation of that knowledge into appropriate activities for middle and junior high school classrooms; and the communication of that knowledge to colleagues of participants in their schools through in-servics activities. The classroom activities developed will be piloted in classrooms, revised, edited and published so that all participants will share in the benefits of the collective efforts. National energy education resource guides and curriculum efforts will also be made available to the participating teachers.
