Summer Institute for High School Teachers

We have conducted again a summer institute for high-school teachers in South Carolina at Winthrop University. The target audience were 9th grade physical science teachers in schools within a 50-mile radius from Winthrop. We developed a graduate level physics professional development course covering selected topics from the physics and chemistry content areas of the South Carolina Science Standards. Delivery of the material included the traditional lectures and the following innovative approaches in science teaching: hands-on experiments, group activities, computer based data collection, group discussions, and presentations. Two master teachers assisted us during the delivery of the course which took place in June 20-29, 2007 using Winthrop facilities. Requested funds were used for the following: salary for us and master teachers, contract course fee, some of the participants' room and board, startup equipment for all the teachers, and indirect costs to Winthrop University. Startup equipment included Pasco's stand-alone and portable Xplorer GLX interface and sensors (temperature, voltage, pH, pressure, motion, and sound). What we learned and ideas for continued K-12 teacher preparation initiatives will be presented.