This Leadership Activities project will develop teams of science educators in 20 school districts in central Connecticut which will provide instructional leadership and inservice activities for teachers in the districts' elementary and middle schools. The inservice activities will focus on physical science and address those areas in the science curriculum which are being taught minimally or not at all. The teams in each district will consist of three elementary or middle school teachers, a high school physical science teacher and a science coordinator or curriculum specialist. The members of the team will prepare for their work in the district in several meetings during the spring of the year followed by a three-week workshop in the summer. College science and science education staff, industrial scientists, and a computer specialist will work with the teams as they prepare curriculum modifications and evolve plans for the inservice activities to be held during the academic year. Both formal and informal follow-up sessions will be held in the schools during the academic year with the college staff continuing to serve as a support for the district teams. A summer internship program in area scientific businesses for selected secondary science teachers on the teams is an auxiliary part of the program. Science Resource Centers will be established in the school districts to assist all teachers in the implementation of the new curriculum units. The school districts involved have participated in the planning of the proposal and have made a commitment to sustain the program once NSF funding ceases.
