Teacher Enhancement Institute

In a team building, team teaching strategy with four faculty, can learning strategies such as educational technology and problem based learning be provided to forty local teachers of primary, elementary, and secondary students? The impetus for the effort is to provide information about science and engineering at NASA and motivate students to pursue careers in science and technology. Teachers, identified and selected through a rigorous application procedure, participated in a two week workshop for a graduate credit. Teachers were exposed to computer applications such as INTERNET, MOSAIC, Power Machintosh word processing, NASA scientists, and laboratory experiments. Teachers were evaluated on level and quality of their participation, design of teacher application materials and relevant lesson plans and presentations. The results show that teachers, regardless of preparation and background, can learn science and engineering applications and develop relevant materials to transfer information to their classroom. Follow-up during the academic year will show that teachers are successfully using materials.