The Lawrence Hall of Science, in conjunction with New York Hall of Science and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, will offer a series of three-week summer institutes to experienced elementary and middle school teachers from throughout the United States. The institutes will provide a range of experiences and resources for teaching astronomy and space science through classroom activities keyed to participatory planetarium programs, modern science updates, and field trips to observatories and planetariums. Two institutes per summer, each accommodating 25 teacher- leaders, will be conducted in 1992, 1993, and 1994, for a total of 150 teacher-leaders. Participants will communicate with an additional 100 teacher-leaders who attended similar institutes in 1989-90, via newsletters and meetings at NSTA national conventions. This proposal is appropriate for the Teacher Enhancement Program because it is national in scope, and is designed to enhance science education in an area of science that is growing in its impact upon and interest to teachers and their students, but about which most teachers have little or no background. Non-NSF cost-sharing is approximately 66% of the amount requested from NSF.
