On Monday, March 7, NISMEC gave a presentation of guided inquiry learning to the K-6 teachers of the Southern Wells School Corporation.
(Wells County is east of Rochester and south of Fort Wayne, and has only two rural school districts, one north, one south). Joe Bellina and Karen Morris led the presentation and
hands-on activities for the 27 teachers and administrators in the beautiful media center:
The wall paintings seen in the pictures are by a parent of the Southern Wells schools.
The urns of 5 Ball brothers held high at Ball State University
On Friday and Saturday, March 11 and 12, Drs. Bellina and Berry attended the National Annual Meeting of PhysTEC,
with its focus on "Building the Coalition: A Conference on the Preparation of Physics and Physical Science Teachers" at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.
PhysTEC comprises 6 Universities nationwide with the goal of "improving teacher preparation" and is facilitated by three of the most prominent national physics societies,
the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT), American Institute of Physics (AIP), and American Physical Society (APS). Ball State and Western Michigan Universities are two of the six.
A collaboration/association of NISMEC (Saint Marys and Notre Dame) with PhysTEC is under consideration.
Initial assessment and other preparatory activities are already underway - we wish the Mishawaka school system and the teachers every success in this exciting endeavor.
Here follows the April 11, 2005 press release from Mishawaka:
School City of Mishawaka Captures $420,000 Grant for Science Education
from the Indiana Department of Education
Project Partners: Saint Mary's College, primary partner
University of Notre Dame. secondary partner
The Indiana Department of Education and the Math and Science Partnership Team has named School City of Mishawaka as a recipient of a Math and
Science Partnership grant. The grant will total over $420,000 in its three year term. The grant entitled 'Inquiry Learning for Students and Teachers' will
center on science instruction in the elementary classrooms, from kindergarten through sixth grade. Guided inquiry instruction takes advantage of the students'
natural curiosity and thinking ability to focus their learning. The students learn from thinking about their own experiences, using research-based materials and
teacher guidance, rather than only from reading and memorizing explanations provided by the textbook. About 130 elementary teachers will develop
expertise in guided inquiry-based learning in the summer workshops and with additional support throughout the school year.
School City of Mishawaka is joined by Saint Mary's College, the primary partner, and the University of Notre Dame, the secondary partner,
for this project. Dr. Joseph J. Bellina, Jr. of Saint Mary's will direct the Teacher Science Institutes [TSI] during the summers of 2005, 2006 and 2007.
The one-week summer workshops on the Saint Mary's campus will immerse Mishawaka elementary teachers in the strategies and practices of guided
inquiry science instruction. University of Notre Dame instructor Karen M. Morris will coordinate the Dissemination and Implementation Workshops [DIW].
These sessions will be held at various elementary schools throughout the school year to provide ongoing support and assistance for the teachers who were
trained the previous summer.
Superintendent of Schools R. Steven Mills explains, "School City of Mishawaka is committed to providing highly skilled professional staff for all students
who are able to challenge the imagination and meet the needs of each and every student whom they teach. We accomplish that by working hand in hand with
our professional staff through an ongoing professional development program based on collaboration, cooperation, and coaching. School City of Mishawaka
has consistently utilized not only our own highly skilled people in this process, but we have worked diligently to align ourselves with nationally recognized
professional developers as well as many leading schools of higher education such as St. Mary's and Notre Dame. Other schools that we have utilized include
Teacher's College, Columbia University, The Ohio State University, and Purdue University."
This competitive grant program, Mathematics and Science Partnership [MSP] is authorized through Title II, Part B of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.
The program was designed to encourage colleges and universities, local school districts, and individual schools to participate in professional development
activities that increase the subject matter knowledge and teaching skills of mathematics and science teachers. In Indiana, the funds must be used to promote
and enhance inquiry-based learning in science for elementary students.
Inquiry-based science is not new in School City of Mishawaka, but the grant will bring these cutting edge techniques to all of the elementary schools.
In August of 2004, 24 teachers from Beiger Elementary and Twin Branch Model Schools attended a week-long seminar at Saint Mary's with Dr. Bellina,
an innovative leader in the learning of science by guided inquiry. With the grant funds, every Mishawaka elementary teacher will have the opportunity to
participate in the workshops and classroom implementation activities during each of the three years that the grant is in effect.
"The Teacher Science Institute was developed by science faculty at Saint Mary's College in collaboration with master elementary teachers to help
those teachers understand, by their own experience, how well science is learned by guided inquiry," says Dr. Joseph J. Bellina, Jr., professor of
physics at Saint Mary's College. "We look forward to supporting teachers as they create communities of learners in each elementary school using
their new research-based, student centered curriculum."
In March of 2004 the Northern Indiana Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Collaborative [NISMEC] was created through a partnership of eight Indiana
school districts, Indiana University South Bend, the University of Notre Dame, and Saint Mary's. From this group emerged the partnership of Saint Mary's,
the University of Notre Dame, and School City of Mishawaka. Primary grant writer Caryn Ellison [Twin Branch teacher, Project DEEP 5th & 6th grades]
added, "'Inquiry Learning for Students and Teachers' will bring together the university-level resources, Mishawaka elementary teachers, and the students
themselves into a collaborative group that will find all three groups worked side-by-side, 'doing the work of scientists'."
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The successful collaborators
The plan for the grant was presented by Superintendent Steven Mills and approved at the Board meeting of the School City of Mishawaka, April 12, 2005.
Arcadia, is/are a play and a conference on the intersections of Nature, Science and Art
The play by Tom Stoppard will run from Tuesday, April 12, to Saturday, April 23, as part of the inaugural season of the new University of Notre Dame Center for the Performing Arts
The 3-day conference, April 21 to 23rd entitled Nature, Science and Art coincides with the last days of the play. The Friday (April 22nd) meetings entitled Nature and Science:
The Changing Scientific Picture of the World will be of particular interest: the principal speakers are Jeremy Butterfield of All Souls College, Oxford, Bas van Frassen of Princeton University
and Tony Leggett of the University of Illinois More information can be found at the Arcadia website
John Glenn Schools take virtual technology trips!
An article in USA Today, describing how easy it is to visit the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis (and other places) - cheaper than a trip there by bus...
Which was your favorite summer professional development program and why?
Here is one teacher's response to a survey looking for worthwhile National Science Foundation funded programs...
One of the best summers of my life was the physics program at PHYSLab run Lowell Herr at the Catlin-Gabel School in Portland, Oregon.
This program, funded by NSF, was one of the few teacher education programs ever that was run
exclusively by high school teachers with no university professors acting as our guides.
PHYSLab's concept was that many physics teachers would like to do more labs, but that they didn't know their equipment that well -- or didn't have any -- and so would spend most of their time lecturing.
So, the program was simply three weeks of doing labs, like we were students, using Pasco and Vernier and home-built probes. We changed lab partners every day, so that as Ken Appel, one of the instructors said, we wouldn't always be with the same brain dead ones. We wrote up descriptions of what we did, how we could modify the labs and equipment, and how we should
incorporate them into our class. We learned good lab technique, and how to care for what we bought.
Dave Vernier came to speak with us and we saw the plant outside of Portland. We had representatives from Pasco as well.
We also brought checks for $1000 from our schools that were matched by NSF to buy equipment. NSF paid for our housing and a stipend. We could get graduate credit.
In addition to all of this, though, the program helped us become colleagues. We cooked breakfast together each morning. We ate together over most lunches. We bunked together in a fleabag hotel which we more or less took over. We cooked dinner together one night a week. Lowell arranged weekend field trips to Mt. St. Helen's and other sites relatively nearby. We also made many trips into town to go to Powell's Books.
I have run into other graduates of other years, and they still recall the time fondly. I have even worked
with another graduate. It's pretty cool.
Lowell won AAPT's teaching award a few years ago.
I'd love to try to do the program myself here in San Francisco. All I need is someone else to lead the
hikes.
Marc "Zeke" Kossover,
The Jewish Community High School of the Bay
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.........mathematics, engineering and the other sciences too!