Changing the Way Teachers Teach Science
June 24, 2003

The National Hands-on Science Institute just celebrated its 13th year of teaching teachers how to be even more amazing in the classroom. Presented by Steve Spangler Science and Front Range Community College, the Institute guaranteed to change the way elementary teachers approach the teaching of science and to provide teachers with hands-on materials to get students turned on to science.

This year the Institute provided hands-on training to 96 teachers from 37 states. Aspen Creek K-8 school in the Boulder Valley School District in Colorado served as host of this highly acclaimed teacher workshop.

The National Hands-on Science Institute offers week-long teacher training workshops designed to meet the needs of elementary school teachers who want to make science more exciting, stimulating, and meaningful in their classrooms. All of the Institute workshops continue the very successful model of inservicing teachers in the morning and then immediately practicing the demonstrations and activities with enthusiastic children who attend the science camps in the afternoon. Best of all, teacher participants take home materials to conduct over 200 hands-on science activities demonstrations to facilitate hands-on learning in their classrooms.

"I can't believe how many materials I get to take back to my school," said John Walsh, a fifth grade science teacher from New Jersey. "The best part was how the instructors taught us how to build meaningful connections between this new material and our present science curriculum."

Teachers took home dozens of highly visual demonstrations and accompanying hands-on activities that challenge inquisitive minds and stimulate further inquiry. Most importantly, teachers developed strategies for turning ordinary "hands-on" activities into inquiry-based learning experiences that meet the objectives of the emerging state and national science standards.

"In my 21 years teaching in Texas, this was by far the best workshop I've ever attended," according to Lynn Harris from Dallas, Texas. "This Institute changed the way I will teach science forever. I can hardly wait to share what I learned with my students and staff."

For more information about registration for the National Hands-on Science Institute in June of 2004, please contact the workshop coordinator, Lisa Brooks, at (303) 798-2778 or email lisa@stevespanglerscience.com.