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Goals
At UMass Boston we have the following goals for GK-12
Program:
Develop within Science Graduate Students the interest, skills, and commitment to be actively engaged in K-12 education throughout their scientific careers.
Develop connections between the University of Massachusetts Boston and a diverse set of school districts (housing a diverse population of students) located within a natural geographical boundary, the Neponset River Watershed.
Create an active interest and increased knowledge in Middle School students in Environmental Science (and Science in general) using the context of their local watershed.
Increase Teachers' science content knowledge.
Evaluate the effectiveness of context learning for Middle School students and disseminate pedagogical research results through publication and national Workshops.
Objectives
The objectives of the GK-12 Program are as follows:
- Train Fellows in the issues facing K-12 educators.
- Create lifelong connections and experiences with K-12 Education.
- Make Fellows better educators.
- Increase the breadth of math and science content knowledge of Fellows by using the interdisciplinary Environmental Science Watershed theme.
- Develop the skills for Fellows to explain/present their own current research to non-specialists.
- Develop personal working relationships between University Science faculty, College of Education faculty, and Administrators and School District Teachers, Science Curriculum Coordinators, Principals and Superintendents.
- Stimulate Watershed educational activities.
- Increase working science knowledge in Middle School students: Math, Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Earth Science
- Recruit more Middle School students into science careers.
- Train Teachers with specific knowledge, especially Environmental Science examples to teach state and national frameworks and work with Science Curriculum Coordinators and Fellows to develop/modify curriculum.
- Create interest and increase content knowledge of non-participating science and math teachers in participating Middle Schools.
- To evaluate the effectiveness of the program.
- Disseminate results of this experimental program.
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