|
click here for a C's to Shining C schedule For more information contact: Annette Brickley, Professional Development Director. 207-990-2900 x 2/
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
The Maine Department of Education has awarded the Challenger Learning Center of Maine one of five Mathematics and Science Partnership Grants. The $99,988 grant will fund "C's to Shining C: Connecting Climate to Curriculum," a three-year project helping middle school teachers to develop their own understanding of the Earth's climate system through interaction with University of Maine scientists, and giving them the tools needed to use climate change as an educational theme.
Annette Brickley, Director of the Earth & Space Science Community Education Center (ESSCEC), housed at the Challenger Center in Bangor, will manage the project, which is a partnership among the Challenger Center, the UMaine School of Marine Science, the UMaine Climate Change Institute, the UMaine Center for Science and Math Education Research, four regional school districts and the United Technologies Center of Bangor.
"From recycling bins in kindergarten classrooms, to environmental action clubs in the high school, students are becoming more engaged in "green" and issues of climate change," said Brickley. "A school using Earth systems as an over-arching theme for the grade 6-12 curriculum can use questions about global climate change to address life and physical science topics in the middle grades, and biology, chemistry, physics, and environmental sciences in the higher grades.
"But most of today's teachers did not study climate change in school; nor did many of them likely study science in an interdisciplinary way," she continued. "Providing teachers with in-depth content knowledge about scientists' recent understandings about Earth-climate interactions is critical to making them effective educators about this important subject."
Currently, middle school teachers from Hermon, Old Town, Hampden, and Bangor are involved. Space is limited, but if additional district teams of teachers are interested in participating, they should contact Brickley at 990-2900 x2.
The Mathematics and Science Partnership (MSP) projects, awarded by the State Departments of Education and funded by Title II funds from the Federal No Child Left Behind legislation, are intended to enhance the capacity of local teachers to enact curricular reforms that produce higher student achievement in mathematics and science. A partnership between local school districts and institutions of higher education's science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) faculty is the conduit used to reach these goals and is required in these projects
"The Maine Department of Education has found, in working with the Challenger Learning Center, that their professional development for teachers is of high quality and offers unique opportunities for teachers in our state," said Barbara Moody, Maine Department of Education Title II Coordinator. "We look forward to supporting their excellent work."
Project participants will establish a regional consortium of educators who are able to share resources, provide mutual support, model effective practices, and disseminate concepts to their greater educational community.
Another objective of the project is to integrate climate change education with the objectives of the Maine Learning Results, Brickley said. "Studying climate change offers a uniquely engaging and relevant opportunity for students to gain skill in scientific inquiry and to master understanding in the Maine Learning Results unifying themes such as systems, scale, models, constancy and change, Life, and Physical science standards," she said. "It's also a wonderful forum for introducing concepts of interdisciplinary education, which is becoming more and more accepted as one of the most effective approaches to education. While studying climate change, students will be using science skills to gather observations and interpret data, math skills to summarize and represent data, language arts to communicate findings, and social studies to understand implications for society. And all this in an applied, relevant way."
The project, which begins in August, includes a series of interconnected monthly workshops developing fundamental concepts, pedagogical practices, and integrated curricula, the practices of Lesson Study and Classroom Action-Research, year-end summit sessions with school administrative staff, and a week-long summer institute with University researchers.
|
