GCE Schoolyard Program
Overview
Schoolyard LTER field sampling
(photo by Jerri Reining)
The GCE Schoolyard program provides critical in-service training for K-12 educators in field ecology, immersing science and math teachers in hands-on research activities in the field to enable them to bring lessons and actual research data back to the classroom. From 2000 to 2008, over 50 teachers participated in one or more sessions of the GCE S-LTER program, representing 113 teacher slots and a collective impact on 11,278 students. Teachers split their time between doing research alongside GCE scientists and graduate students and discussing ways to implement the information in their classrooms.
A hallmark of the program is its emphasis on continued participation of teachers. Long-term teacher participation allows mentoring on multiple levels and provides teachers with a sense of continuity within the research process and a depth of understanding about those processes that can never be replicated in textbooks. Our program, built around long-term contact between teachers and researchers, is obtaining lasting results.
One teacher wrote:
“I need this every summer to show myself and my kids that I am a scientist. Only now do I feel like I can call myself a science teacher. It used to be so much work to teach – especially using inquiry. But now, after this, it makes so much sense. Now, I have an easy job and am a better teacher. My kids believe me because they see the pictures of me really doing what it is I’m teaching them. It’s even now a rare thing to have to write any kid up for bad behavior. They don’t want to miss class! I guess what I’m saying is that I have been empowered personally and professionally because I now know what science really looks like. I’ve done it. I think about it all very differently. I am a scientist!”
Schoolyard 2012
The 2012 summer workshop will run from July 8-13, 2012. This year's workshop will be based at the UGA Marine Institute on Sapelo Island. The program immerses science and math teachers in hands-on research activities alongside GCE scientists and graduate students. Teachers split their time between doing research and discussing ways to implement the information into their classrooms. PLU credit can be facilitated for in-service teachers and graduate credit may be able to be earned as well. Expenses for the actual program (room and board) are covered by a grant to the GCE LTER from the National Science Foundation. There is a $100 deposit required for registration, and a $100 stipend available upon successful completion of the workshop.
Please download, read, and print the following documents:
To learn more, please visit Teacher Workshops at the UGA Marine Education Center and Aquarium.
Schoolyard 2010
The Science Education and Applied Research in Coastal Habitats (SEARCH) research experience for teachers workshop and graduate course was conducted on July 8-16, 2010.
SEARCH 2010 provided participating classroom teachers with a unique professional development opportunity through collaboration with scientists conducting ecosystem research. Participants were assigned to a research project in field and laboratory settings within the Georgia Coastal Ecosystems Long Term Ecological Research site on Sapelo Island (UGA Marine Institute). Teachers attended an intensive 4-day coastal ecological study at the University of Georgia’s Marine Education Center and Aquarium (MECA) facilities on Skidaway Island. Classroom implementation was aided by the participant teachers’ creation of research based activities for their classes and colleagues through public and web-based data sources. Evaluation tracked knowledge growth of participants in terms of science content as well as applications to teaching through teaching portfolio creation. This is a residential program based at UGA facilities on both Skidaway and Sapelo islands.
To learn more about this summer's research projects, please visit the SchoolYard 2010 Research Projects.
