The Somerset County Business/Education Partnership, formed in 1988 by senior business executives and school superintendents to define goals and create an ongoing relationship, has requested support to (a) develop consumer-relevant instructional packages for K-12 grades and (b) provide teacher training for the implementation and dissemination of the packages. In this 36 month project, industry scientists and interested teachers, working in paired teams, will develop lessons drawing upon the scientists' expertise for identifying potential topics and the teachers' for creating appropriate instructional packages. While only 15 plans are envisioned for each of the project's years, each package will be adapted for a different age group, thereby leading to the production of approximately 90 different units over the life of the project. A one-week training workshop will be held in June each year for 30 teachers and participating teachers will be expected to participate in two post-training sessions to evaluate their experiences using the newly developed materials. While the initial request for support of the Foundation did not include provision for significant evaluation of student performance, that was added to the project in the course of negotiations. The Foundation's support represents approximately 48% of the total project costs.
