UASPP: Helping Middle School Teachers Devise Their Own Hands-on Engineering and Science Activities

The University of Arkansas Science Partnership Program (UASPP) focuses on the professional growth of 6 th , 7 th and 8 th grade science teachers through summer institutes and follow-up activities.Teachers are teamed with engineering faculty to improve teaching skills and to increase the teachers' use, understanding and application of hands-on exercises.The 27 participants in the Year 2 (2007) Institute developed 18 open-ended design briefs and activities for use in their classrooms during the academic year.Follow-up visits showed that the participants were very active in using design activities during the 2007-2008 school year.The 21 surveyed teachers used 73 teacher-developed design activities for an average of more than 3 activities per teacher.Best of all, 19 new design activities were developed by the 21 surveyed teachers after the Institute, and one teacher developed six new activities for the classroom.Following a very successful Year 2 Institute and follow-up activities, sweeping changes in preparing the Year 3 Institute were not warranted.The Year 3 Institute will further teach the participants how to implement the "design loop" in their classrooms as a systematic approach to solving problems, and expand the design briefs to include mathematics.Additional U of A faculty will participate in the Institute and be available for follow-up activities during the academic year.Middle school math teachers will also participate in the Institute and, along with middle school science teachers, will prepare design exercises that integrate material between math and science teachers working at the same school.