Summer Workshop Plans

Partnership for Inquiry-Based Science

• Ecosystems and Ecology - Teachers explored interactions between plants and animals and their dependence on the environment, the macroscopic and microscopic worlds, current environmental topics, and local ecosystems. 45 teachers attended this class. The class was taught by two scientists with support from one Science Resource Teacher.

• Organisms, Life Cycles, and the Process of Classifying - Teachers explored individual questions about organisms, animals often studied in elementary classrooms, and microscopic organisms. 45 teachers attended this class. The class was taught by one Science Resource Teacher and one scientist.

August Science Institute
We provided five full-days for participants entering the program.

The purpose of this August Institute is to introduce participants to Seattle's Inquiry-based Science Program including the curricular materials adopted by the Teacher Adoption Committee and the Seattle School Board. These materials include standards-based kit units from Science and Technology for Children (STC), Insights and FOSS. This is a five-day, thirty-hour institute (six hours per day). Attendance is required in order to receive the first unit.

The goal of this August Institute is that participants will begin to understand the components of the program: content, pedagogy of inquiry-based science, philosophy, lessons, assessment, and management of the first unit to be taught. Each grade level class had at least one Science Resource Teacher, at least one Lead Teacher and at least one scientist. The scientists take a lead on teaching the content; the Science Resource Teachers take a lead on teaching the pedagogy of inquiry-based science, and the Lead Teachers supported the Science Resource Teachers in teaching the lessons from the kit and provided information on how they actually implement these units in their classrooms. In some cases, the scientists and Science Resource Teachers blended the pedagogy and content, and in other grade levels, the content was taught in the afternoon.

160 teachers K-5 attended the August Full-day Institute.

August Science Concept Courses
80 teachers participated in these half-day content courses. Scientists taught the classes. The classes offered were:

• Balance and Motion
• Balls and Ramps
• Liquids
• Sound
• Food Chemistry (with computer technology integration and a field trip to Starbucks to see how scientists work in the food industry.)
• Magnets and Motors

The professional development in all of these classes is connected to specific curricula -- the district adoption. The adoption includes units from STC, FOSS and Insights.