Re: 2 million teachers in 2007!

[Lois Breur Krause <krause@CLEMSON.EDU>]

fair point.

you can check if your state has a 'science in elementary education
committee' of some sort. SC has "science hubs" for example, that provide
workshops and opportunities for science teachers at several levels k-12.
i'd start by looking up the state board of ed and searching from there.
every state is organized differently, unfortunately.  or fortunately.

another source is the national science teachers association.
http://www.nsta.org.  they may have a local (state) org that works with
elem teachers. http://www.nsta.org/about/chaptersnew.asp these groups may
coordinate and offer the workshops that would tremendously appreciate your
contributions.

the problem i see with el ed majors, and therefore elem teachers, is that
the current state of science prep is so poor, that in two required
semesters it's nearly impossible to get them up to where they need to be to
subsequently teach the material effectively.  many elem teachers just skip
the subject entirely, or use canned stuff such as on the rainforest that
does more letter writing and activist stuff than science. at most, they
might read a chapter or two in their text book, (now tommy, it's your turn,
would you please read the next paragraph? study the vocabulary words,
class,  we'll have a quiz on this tomorrow.) no wonder they hate science,
and take as little of it in high school as possible.

> I like to make these contacts WITHOUT the school of education.  How do you
> think these teachers got this way in the first place?  Like Lois said, most
> teachers are pretty enthusiastic about such opportunities.  Once one
> teacher is
> bitten, the disease usually spreads.
>
> Sam
> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >

Dr. Lois Breur Krause
Department of Geological Sciences
442 Brackett Hall
Clemson University
Clemson SC  29634

teaching chemistry, physics, astronomy and geology to elementary education
majors.

How We Learn and Why We Don't: Student Survival Guide,
available from International Thompson Publishing, ISBN 0324-011970

http://home.earthlink.net/~breurkrause

krause@clemson.edu