9554610 Dow Central to Buffalo's Local Systemic Change Through Teacher Education project TEAM 2000 (Teacher Education at the Museum) is a plan to implement a constructivist teaching and learning science program in all of Buffalo's sixty-one elementary schools by the year 2000. The project is an outgrowth of a long-standing partnership between the Buffalo Public Schools and the Buffalo Museum of Science. A previous NSF funded project of this collaboration resulted in the development of 150 teacher leaders of hands-on science. These teachers, the TEAM staff, and scientists from the informal sector will form the core of the instructional staff for the current project. Together they will provide professional development for all 1400 K-8 teachers in the city's 61 elementary schools. The program will also provide opportunities for TEAM mentors to pursue their own continuing professional development, a process that is essential for the long term implementation and well-being of Buffalo's Elementary and Middle Level Science Program. In addition, TEAM 2000 will create a Science Materials Center that will provide for the continuous design, delivery, and reconditioning of instructional kits and materials to facilitate the on-going growth and development of the District's science program. The cost sharing for the project will be 46% of the NSF award.
