9353969 Smith The proposed project would support a coalition of two- and four-year institutions (The Washington Center Coalition) interested in helping faculty learn about new advances in their disciplines and new ways to incorporate these into their classes. The project emphasis is on interdisciplinary science curricular designs. Four, eight-day interdisciplinary summer institutes would be team-taught over the two year period of the grant. Each Institute would be residential and have 30 faculty participants. Follow-up activities after the institutes include a two-day retreat, involvement in on-going Washington Center activities, and communication among the participants via InterNet and written publications. The Summer Institutes, which are the core of the project design, are miniature versions of some of the most successful interdisciplinary programs in the state. They provide a "high challenge" curriculum and are based upon pedagogical principles of student involvement that are recommended by an increasingly convergent literature on improving education in the sciences. ***
