2005 SUMMER INSTITUTES
FOR PHILADELPHIA AREA K-12 TEACHERS

Sponsored by Bryn Mawr College
and the Bryn Mawr/Haverford K-16 Collaborations in Science and Mathematics Education
with support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Making Sense of Change:
Hands On Science Throughout the Curriculum

Program Outline: The big bang. Plate tectonics. Tsunamis. Chemical change and acid rain. Caterpillars and butterflies. Human behavior. Culture and technology. Evolution ... on large scales and small. Why does change happen? And how can humans make sense of it? Is science useful in this regard?

Science is often thought of as a specialized set of interests, abilities and practices, rather than as a general process of question-asking, intuition-testing and story-revising that all of us engage in daily, and which all of us--whatever our content area--can pursue in our classrooms. Understood in this way, science is accessible to everyone, and perhaps best taught in relation to other parts of the curriculum, by teachers who are themselves excited by the sort of teaching and learning that involves exploring new realms and trying out new tasks.

This Institute will provide selected K-12 teachers with an opportunity to explore ways of making sense of change as scientists do, and to use such explorations in precollege classrooms. A series of relevant hands on activities, developed by College faculty in physics, geology, biology, literature, psychology and computer science, will be presented each morning. College faculty and precollege teachers will work together in the afternoons to develop ways to adapt the modules to particular precollege settings. Attention will also be given to computers and the web as valuable tools for both curriculum development and dissemination of information.

The Institute Directors are Wilfred Franklin, Laboratory Instructor and Coordinator in Biology, and Anne Dalke, Senior Lecturer in English and Co-ordinator of the Feminist and Gender Studies Program at Bryn Mawr. Franklin teaches the major and non-major biology laboratories and is currently collaborating with other faculty to develop a new inquiry-based curriculum for the Biology Department at Bryn Mawr. Dalke's current interests relate to the intersection of science and literature, and what it means for interdisciplinary teaching. The Institute directors will be assisted by Paul Grobstein, Professor of Biology and organizer of the Summer Institute program, and by colleagues in a number of other College science departments.

Institute Requirements and Follow-up: Fellows will be expected to play an active role in the Institute, including participation in public on-line discussion so as to help others to develop more effective ways to integrate scientific concepts and perspectives with other aspects of the curriculum. Fellows will also be expected to prepare a written proposal describing plans to make use of Institute experiences in their own classrooms, to experiment with these during the following academic year, to participate in several follow up meetings during the year, and to prepare a report of the their year's activities to be published on the web so as to be available to other interested teachers.

Institute Schedules and Location: This Institute will take place at Bryn Mawr College from 25 July through 5 August. Sessions will be held from 9 am. to 4 p.m. on Mondays through Fridays. Lunch will be provided.

Eligibility: High school, middle school and elementary school teachers, including department heads and school administrators are eligible. Participants may teach science and/or other subject areas. Preference will be given to teams of teachers from schools that serve overlapping student populations. Please indicate team memberships on the applications forms. Enrollment will be limited to eighteen.

Incentives: Participants will receive 60 hours of Act 48 credit, and a $500 stipend. An additional $200 per participant to purchase educational supplies and materials will be available to teachers submitting cogent curriculum proposals and agreeing to provide a written report on their experiences.

Principal's Commitment: Institute participation requires signature of principal.

Application procedures: Information and application forms are available on line at http://serendipstudio.org/local/suminst/application.html. See http://serendipstudio.org/local/suminst/ for information about the general program and other available Institutes.

For more information:Anne Dalke, Department of English, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pa. 19010, 610 526-5308, adalke@brynmawr.edu or Wil Franklin, Department of Biology, Bryn Mawr college, Bryn Mawr PA 19010, 610 526-5090, wfrankli@brynmawr.edu.