About a dozen teachers from around the country will attend a workshop at Hope College on the interface between research and learning, gaining insights and experience that they will take back to their schools.
The workshop will run Sunday, July 8, through Saturday, July 21.
The teachers will develop inquiry-based laboratory exercises for use at the high school level, focusing on examination of water quality. They will spend their first week working together on the exercises, and the second week implementing them with the high school students who are attending classes through the college's Upward Bound program.
Following an opportunity to try the exercises at their schools as well during the coming academic year, next spring they will hold an "electronic conference" to review their efforts and compare notes.
The workshop is funded through the "Award for the Integration of Research and Education" (AIRE) that the college received in the fall of 1998 from the National Science Foundation. The workshop, now in its third year, is one of a number of efforts at Hope that the grant is supporting to establish partnerships between high schools and colleges, and to disseminate information concerning the blending of research and teaching.
The participating teachers are coming from Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The workshop is directed by Dr. Donald Cronkite, professor of biology at Hope, who is also serving the workshop as a teacher mentor and is teaching with Upward Bound this summer. The staff also includes Dr. Brian Bodenbender, assistant professor of geology and environmental science, serving as scientist in residence and environmental consultant; Nancy Hein of Hawley High School in Hawley, Texas, serving as inquiry specialist, technology specialist and teacher mentor; and Jewel Reuter of Archbishop Rummel High School in Metaire, La., serving as technology consultant and teacher mentor in addition to teaching with Upward Bound this summer.