Teaching Physical Science to Preservice K-8 Teachers
Stephen Thornton, Physics
1997 TTI Fellow
Email: stt@virginia.edu
Home page: http://faculty.virginia.edu/sthornton/
In 1989, President Bush's Education Summit at the University of Virginia pledged to make the youth of America #1 in science and math by the year 2000. One way to improve the quality of science education is to improve the scientific ability of future science teachers. Professor Thornton is developing a new course (PHYS 115) that uses technology that allows students to learn about science by acting like scientists. The laboratory component of the course will focus on integrating computers and graphing calculators into the analysis of experimental data. The new Virginia Standards of Learning mandate computer literacy for all students after 5th grade and the use of graphing calculators in many math and science classes, so these future teachers will be learning the same way their students will learn. The lecture component of the course will be taught using a cooperative learning model that will be facilitated by a "student response system". This system will allow the students to respond to questions in real-time and give the instructor tabulated answers and information on the performance of each student. This active involvement in the lecure portion of the course should engage the students much as experiments do in the laboratory.