Newswise — A three-year project aimed at improving science education in 14 school districts representing more than 140,000 students will kick off at a meeting in August. Of the 14 school districts, 13 are from Washington and one is from Alaska.
The kick-off is a four-day leadership institute that will be hosted by the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study Center for Professional Development's, or BSCS, National Academy for Curriculum Leadership and the Washington State Leadership and Assistance for Science Education Reform, or LASER, Project. This regional NACL is a partnership between BSCS and Washington LASER.
During the three-year project, a series of workshops will be held each year " five days in the fall and two days in the spring. The workshops cover topics such as science inquiry, curriculum leadership, professional development, team building and the skills, strategies and tools necessary for measuring successful science education programs. The districts' coaches, administrators and science teachers from middle and high schools will participate. The first week-long workshop series, to be held in November, will be called the NACL Fall Academy.
Battelle, which operates the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, is providing a major financial gift of $650,000 to support this project.
"Battelle's support for the NACL and LASER reflect its belief that science education is a critical part of a student's education today, just as science is a critical part of today's world," said Jeff Estes, manager of science and engineering education at PNNL and co-director of Washington State LASER.
Next month's kick-off is from August 5 to 9.
The three-year program is based on a national high school science curriculum leadership model that was tested regionally for the first time in Washington from 2004 to 2007. BSCS developed the national model with a grant from the National Science Foundation. The regional program was made possible through a gift by the Agilent Technologies Foundation.
The initial regional pilot involved 13 districts in Washington and one in California.
2007-2008 participating districts:
Alaska:Anchorage
Wash.:BickletonColvilleEverettHighline (Evergreen HS)HighlandIssaquahMabtonNorth FranklinRichlandSouth KitsapTumwaterWalla WallaWapato
For more information, visit BSCS (http://www.bscs.org/) or Washington's LASER (http://www.wastatelaser.org/) project. For nationwide and state comparisons on science education assessments, visit National Center for Education Statistics (http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/science/).
Battelle is the world's largest non-profit independent research and development organization, with 20,000 employees in more than 120 locations worldwide, including five national laboratories Battelle manages or co-manages for the U.S. Department of Energy. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Battelle conducts $3.8 billion in R&D annually through contract research, laboratory management, and technology commercialization. As a non-profit charitable trust with an eye toward the future, Battelle actively supports and promotes science and math education.
PNNL (http://www.pnl.gov) is a DOE Office of Science national laboratory that solves complex problems in energy, national security and the environment, and advances scientific frontiers in the chemical, biological, materials, environmental and computational sciences. PNNL employs 4,200 staff, has a $750 million annual budget, and has been managed by Ohio-based Battelle since the lab's inception in 1965.
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