Summer science institute targets middle level students
MU faculty help boost science achievement

While the current focus in the No Child Left Behind arena is reading and math, science scores will be emphasized in the 2007-2008 school year. A group of University of Missouri-Columbia professors hopes to improve middle level students’ science achievement by spending three weeks in summer 2004 teaching their teachers. With topics ranging from simple circuits to chemical compounds, they will strive to increase the teachers’ knowledge and offer tips on how to bring science alive for young minds.

The Physical Science Summer Institute for Middle Level Teachers (grades 6-9) will target school districts with poverty levels of more than 20 percent and Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) scores that need improvement. Professor Meera Chandrasekhar, Physics and Astronomy, coordinates the institute. She said the schools accepted for the institute can send more than one teacher and the information they will receive will be a valuable teaching aid.

"We expect they will learn new content, add to their knowledge and increase their skills," Chandrasekhar said. "They will receive a ready-to-use kit to take back to their school so they don’t have to reconstruct the materials. Teamwork within the institute is really a key to learning so much new content. An individual learner can get bogged down by taking in so much material."

The institutes are taught in a three-year cycle with different course materials offered each year. Ideally, a school will participate in the institute for a full cycle. Chandrasekhar has taught at the institutes for 10 years and said there is evidence linking it to improved student achievement.

"We have anecdotal data from teachers giving us some good feedback," Chandrasekhar said. "One teacher who came to all three institutes saw her MAP scores in the physical sciences go up each year."

Other MU professors teaching at the institute are Bruce A. McClure, associate professor of biochemistry; Steven W. Keller, associate professor of chemistry and Mark J. Volkmann, associate professor of science education. The Coordinating Board for Higher Education is funding the institute. More information on the institute is on the course website at http://www.missouri.edu/~wwwepic/Teachinst2004.htm.

Additional links:

Physics and Astronomy Department
Exploring Physics in Cyberspace (EPIC) program
Meera Chandrasekhar

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