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Intel volunteer engineer Ryan Warr gives suggestions to West Union Elementary students building a suspension bridge out of classmates. Warr and parent Intel volunteer Keisha Thomas (in background) help out with simple science, technology and engineering activities.
(Michael Thompson / The Argus)
Seventy Oregon teachers will be trained as instructional specialists who will spread the word at their elementary schools about how to teach to new national standards for science instruction that call for more hands-on work, more investigation and more engineering.
An additional 300 elementary teachers will get trained in the new science content in the coming three years.
Both training efforts will be led by the Portland Metro STEM Partnership, housed at Portland State University. The metro partnership, one of six regional groups that link business, education and nonprofits to boost math and science instruction, won a $1 million federal grant to do the work.
STEM is a shorthand way that educators and technology fans refer to science, technology, engineering and math.
The Next Generation Science Standards, written over the past several years, call for a new approach to teaching science that ties all lessons into the few "big ideas" of science, incorporates engineering as a key science component and emphasizes the common practices that scientists use.
Oregon adopted them in March as Oregon's new science standards. But schools have until 2018 to fully make the switch to teaching the new way.
William Becker, executive director of the metro STEM partnership, said in a statement that his group is excited to win enough money to do large-scale teacher training.
"This project underscores the importance of effective science instruction to help all students become successful science learners," he said.
The project will draw on help from Portland State science faculty, educators in the Hillsboro, Portland, Beaverton, Forest Grove school districts and leaders of two other regional STEM partnerships.
Carol Biskupic Knight, Beaverton's elementary curriculum specialist, will help run the training efforts. "We envision the instructional specialists that are trained through this grant to serve as change agents in their schools and districts and to be leaders in supporting the adoption of Oregon's new science standards," she said.
-- Betsy Hammond