The National Governor's Association awarded $500,000 grants to six states so that students and teachers can learn more about science, reports Rebecca Boyle of Fort Collins Now. The funds will allow teachers to work with scientists and share their discoveries with their students.
FORT COLLINS, COLO. -- John Moore remembers the snow story well.
Several years ago, he led an Upward Bound expedition up Trail Ridge Road. Upward Bound is part of a Colorado State University program that serves high school juniors and seniors from low-income areas.
One student, who lived in Denver, marveled at the scenery.
"Oh, my God," she said. "I didn't know that the white stuff up here was snow in the summertime."
Though he's on the phone, you can practically hear Moore shake his head as he shares the anecdote.
"She looked at the mountains all her life, but didn't connect the fact that there was snow on the mountains in the summertime," he said. "That's a metaphor for a lot of issues."
Now, Moore is leading a group of educators and researchers hoping to expand basic scientific literacy programs to help students prepare not just for college, but for 21st-century jobs.
Moore directs CSU's Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory and is leading a $12.5 million, National Science Foundation-funded effort to expand teacher training in science, technology, engineering and math in school districts around the country.
It's part of a growing movement in public education, where American schools have seen precipitous drops in student performance in math and science.
One Fort Collins principal said focusing on scientific literacy is key to developing 21st-century learners, and it goes beyond standard assessment tests.
"It's about how to work in a collaborative environment, and science lends itself to that," said Mary Kay Sommers, principal at Shepardson Elementary School and past president of the National Association of Elementary School Principals. "It's about how to be critical thinkers and make judgments. The world is exploding with information very quickly, so the skills that children need today are different than the ones we needed when we were growing up."
Science, technology, engineering and math programs, or STEM programs, are getting attention from state and national education groups interested in preparing a modern workforce.
Colorado is one of six states to receive a $500,000 grant from the National Governor's Association to establish STEM centers, including a group in Northern Colorado.
Sommers said the movement is gaining steam; rarely a day passes when she doesn't receive an e-mail related to STEM.
Moore, who spearheaded efforts to get the science foundation grant, already participates in the NSF-funded Long-Term Ecological Research network, or LTER, which partners with K-12 math and science teachers around the United States.
With the new grant, four LTER stations, including some in Colorado, will partner with 22 school districts, focusing on middle schools and high schools.
Teachers will work at research sites with scientists and attend seminars based on themes of the carbon cycle, water and biodiversity.
The idea is to increase teachers' knowledge of math and science subjects and let that experience trickle down to students, Moore said.
He's considering a stipend to get teachers out of classrooms and into the lab, but they'd maintain interaction with their schools throughout the year so they can infuse their knowledge into the curriculum. When a teacher can talk in the first person and start a lesson by saying, for instance, "When I was up in the Arctic..." that's when students really become enthusiastic about learning, Moore said.
The environment in schools across the country was ripe for a program like this. Teachers have expressed a desire to see how their subjects are practiced in the field, and test scores in the four fields have lagged nationwide.
For the complete story, visit the Fort Collins Now.
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