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LAWRENCE -- Pop quiz: Would a group of 15-year-olds learn more about atmospheric science by listening to a lecture about the subject or by rolling up their sleeves to conduct their own research?
That's a no-brainer to researchers at the University of Kansas Center for Science Education. They say the best way to teach students scientific concepts is to get them to think like laboratory investigators.
To help Kansas middle and high school instructors mold their students into laboratory sleuths, the AT&T Foundation has pledged $200,000 to the Kansas University Endowment Association. The grant will support the center's development of a five-week online course for teachers from Lawrence, Topeka and Kansas City, Kan. The class is being offered in fall 2002 and fall 2003.
The class is part of a $1.2 million effort to enhance the skills of Kansas science teachers with new teaching methods, technology and high-tech research projects for their classrooms. In addition to the AT&T grant, the center received $1 million from the National Science Foundation. The NSF grant will fund an intensive summer workshop at KU for teachers who have participated in the online course, among other initiatives.
Gary Webber, project administrator for the grants, said turning students into independent thinkers in a laboratory setting will help them learn problem-solving skills and retain what they learn.
"The way many of us learned science in middle school or high school was through lectures and rote experiments," Webber said. "We learned to be precise about following directions for an experiment and not about asking questions and designing meaningful experiments."
However, when students go to college or get a job, professors and employers expect them to be able to think independently about how to solve problems, he said. "That's why this is important: We need to teach kids the skills they need to be good problem solvers later."
In the online course, teachers will learn methods to help students develop a hypothesis, identify a strategy to test it and draw their own conclusions. The course's model project uses high-tech methods of gathering information to demonstrate the connection between air quality and environmentally sensitive species. Teachers will learn how high concentrations of ground-level ozone -- the kind that prompts metropolitan areas to issue ozone warnings on hot days -- are unhealthy for the common milkweed plant and consequently affect monarch butterfly larvae that feed solely on milkweed. The health of the butterfly population depends upon the survival of these environmentally sensitive plants.
Webber said Kansas needs to improve science teacher training to better meet the changing needs of modern science education.
"Good teachers with minimal science qualifications are often promoted into more advanced courses, sometimes without additional training," said Webber, a former middle school science teacher. "This is further complicated by a general shortage of qualified teachers, especially in math and the physical sciences."
Based in New York City, the AT&T Foundation invests globally in projects that reflect community needs and AT&T's business interests. The foundation provides support for programs that serve the needs of people in communities where AT&T has a significant business presence, initiatives that use technology in innovative ways and programs in which AT&T employees are actively involved as contributors or volunteers.
The gift from AT&T counts toward the $500 million goal of KU First: Invest in Excellence, the largest fund-raising campaign in KU history. KU Endowment is conducting KU First on behalf of the university through 2004 to raise funds for scholarships, fellowships, professorships, capital projects and program support. KU Endowment is an independent, nonprofit organization serving as the official fund-raising and fund-management organization for KU.
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