This two-year project, starting in May 1990 and sponsored by Montana College of Mineral Science and Technology, offers a geoscience based four week summer program for middle-school teachers in the rural areas of Montana, Idaho, North Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. There will be 20 teachers involved in the program the first year and 25 in the second. The project will use the resources of a well established local Science/Technology Alliance and the Montana Tech Math/Science Resource Center. The teacher participants will experience the cross curriculum nature of science and technology through course work and field activities led by professors from the Montana College of Mineral Science and Technology and representatives of local natural resource based industries who are part of the Science/Technology Alliance. Activities particularly relevant to rural communities such as water quality control, wildlife impact studies, and mining will be the basis of the content. These represent "real world" issues which will have meaning both to teachers and students. Continued year-round content and activity support will be provided by the Montana Tech Math/Science Resource Center. Teachers will involve their clases in "real-life" activities of science research. Reports of these activities will be compiled and disseminated to all particapating teachers. The NSF share of support for the project is $240,730 and is being matched by Montana Tech and other local agencies in the amount of $105,277. The matching funds are approximately 44% of the NSF grant.
