In this project, participants will earn a total of ten university undergraduate credits spread over the six-phase, two-year project. Participants will meet during each summer of the project for a three-credit, three-week institute. Each summer institute will be followed by a two-credit professional development session held weekly for a five-week period during each of the two semesters following the summer institutes. The four overarching goals of NEST are:
- To increase participants' content knowledge of physical, earth and space, and life and environmental sciences commensurate with Wisconsin's Model Academic Standards for Science.
- To increase participants' knowledge base of the nature of science, science applications and connections commensurate with Wisconsin's Model Academic Standards for Science.
- To enhance the participants' teaching of elementary school science through the inclusion of the various facets of the nature of science in their science teaching instructional strategies and.
- To improve the teaching of science at the participants' schools with school-based teams of teachers becoming science education leaders.
To support elementary teachers in urban settings in making these meaningful changes in their instructional practices, NEST will:
- Work with colleagues of school-based teams, supported by school administration, and provide science instructional leadership at their respective schools.
- Delve into science content pertinent to what they need to know to be able to effectively deliver their district's/school's science curriculum.
- Build a knowledge base of the nature of science with specific attention to the linkages between science content and effective science teaching pedagogy.
- See university faculty working with district liaison teachers to present science content through teaching methods that can be used in the elementary classroom.
- Have a sustained two-year experience through course modules and project phases that address the construction of basic concepts through experiential learning and the transfer of that learning into teaching elementary school science.
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