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Grant Wood AEA receives $450,000 grant to support science teaching in area schools
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Cedar Rapids, IA...Grant Wood Area Education Agency’s Van Allen Science Teaching Center in partnership with the University of Iowa’s Science Education Center, Geography Department and Center for Evaluation and Assessment, the Iowa Geological Survey’s IOWATER Project and eight local area school districts have received a $450,000 three-year grant which will be administered by the Iowa Board of Regents and the Iowa Department of Education.
The iGISST project is an acronym for Inquiry Geographic Information Systems in Science Teaching . The purpose of the grant is to improve science teaching and learning in grades 7-12 through an intensive professional development program for 50 educators in the area. This intensive learning program will begin this summer and will incorporate Science as Inquiry instructional strategies and work with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data analysis tools in a problem-based learning instructional framework. Christopher Soldat a science consultant from Grant Wood AEA will be the project’s director.
The goal of the project is to improve student science learning in grades 7-12. Professional development for the teachers, will focus on enhanced Earth Science content knowledge and use of research-based inquiry teaching methods and problem-based learning strategies using GIS data analysis tools. Students participating in the project will receive an introduction to problem-based learning using GIS tools in real-life studies of water quality in the area through the Iowa DNR sponsored IOWATER program. “The response over the years to our science professional development efforts at Grant Wood AEA has been overwhelmingly positive,” says Soldat.
Soldat says “We believe this project will improve student achievement and enhance students’ attitudes toward science.”
The grant project will collaborate with the volunteer citizen water quality monitoring IOWATER Project. IOWATER will provide training materials and standard field-based water testing equipment. Following training in water quality monitoring techniques, the students and teachers will develop a water monitoring plan for a local stream. The plan will identify the scientific question being investigated for the selected stream, the data collection needs, and the potential data analysis methods. All data collected as part of this project will be submitted to the statewide IOWATER database and will be available for other volunteers and professionals to access the data through various internet-based GIS applications.
Grant dollars will cover the cost of providing a minimum of 100 hours of professional development for the teachers, which will include:
- Summer Institutes focusing on problem-based teaching, inquiry strategies & GIS technology integration
- Curriculum planning, where teachers analyze current science curriculum to identify units that could be enhanced through an environmental context, inquiry, and GIS integration
- Academic year seminars to further enhance content knowledge and teaching strategies
- On-site lesson implementation assistance in real-world settings where students will learn to form investigatable questions, collect/analyze data using GIS tools & develop claims based upon scientific evidence
- Student learning showcase where students will share what they have learned from their projects
The program will also feature a collaborative mentor network of teachers, AEA consultants & University scientists/educators, through face-to-face consultation, information sharing, and web-board discussion groups.
During the third year of the project, Grant Wood AEA science consultants and lead science teachers will engage in fostering the dissemination and implementation of similar scientific learning state-wide.
The Van Allen Science Teaching Center (V.A.S.T. Center) was named in honor of Dr. James Van Allen, a University of Iowa professor and world-renowned space physicist. The V.A.S.T. Center provides professional development training for teachers and materials and kits for hands-on scientific inquiry for students in eastern Iowa schools.
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