This project will give intensive training over a three-year period in astronomy and science teaching strategies to 60 teachers of grades five to eight from Central Texas elementary and middle schools. The project will be a cooperative effort involving the College of Natural Science and the School of Education of the University of Texas at Austin, McDonald Observatory, and many Central Texas school districts. Three members of the Astronomy Department will conduct the classes. In addition, a professor from the Science Education Center and two master school teachers (one from a rural elementary school and one from an urban middle school, both Christa McAuliffe Fellows) will help prepare and present the program. Each year, for three years, 20 participants will attend the university for a three-semester Institute in Astronomy. In the Fall semester they will perform hands-on inquiry-based activities and field exercises in astronomy in order to receive three hours of upper division undergraduate Astronomy credit. In the Spring semester they will learn strategies for presenting workshops, prepare a resource manual ofinexpensive materials and ideas for teaching astronomy to children, and receive three hours of upper division credit in Science. The Fall and Spring meetings will occur on sixteen Thursday evenings and seven Saturdays. The evening meetings are essential to give the participants direct experience of astronomical phenomena. In the summer, the participants will live together for three-weeks as they update their knowledge about modern astronomy and astronomy instrumentation. During the two-week Austin session, they will attend lectures and learn to use astronomical instruments on the Astronomy Department's Cassegrain-focus research caliber 16-inch telescope. Following their training, the participants will share in the experiences of a research astronomer through a three night observing run at the University of Texas McDonald Observatory in west Texas, 450 miles west of Austin in the Davis Mountains. At the observatory, they will live with the astronomers, tour the facilities and use the 30-inch and/or 36-inch telescope for their own projects. McDonald Observatory is providing six nights of telescope time per- year at no cost to the project. Three hours of graduate credit in astronomy is awarded upon completion of this portion of the program. In addition, an astronomer will interact with the science classes taught by each of the participants through visits to their school. Although many visits will be made by the principal investigator (offering a female role model), over 20 other members of the Astronomy Department have volunteered to visit classrooms. Non-federal funding is provided for these visits. Besides increasing the confidence of the participants in the teaching of science and improving their own backgrounds, another aim of the program is train them as science workshop presenters to teachers of grades two through eight. All participants have the support of their own districts which will provide the facilities and materials for conducting at least two grade specific workshops. The districts will also provide support for the participants to attend two follow-up meetings of science teachers. In summary, this program will develop a continuing collaborative partnership among scientists, science educators, and local schools as it improves the quality of astronomy instruction in elementary and middle schools in central Texas. Cost sharing in the amount of $126,914 is equal to 33% of the NSF award.
