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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.