For School Administrators

Newton’s Universe presents an opportunity for rural teachers to experience on-going job-embedded professional development that is content intensive and designed specifically for their needs and educational background. The project also supports and models inquiry instructional strategies, and along with the classroom kits and activities makes it practical to implement the same practices in the middle school classroom.

The project will establish a sense of community among project participants through on-line partnerships with other rural teachers that will continue through the school years. Participants will also have on-line relationships with the project leaders at UK – and can communicate with us at any time about their conceptual understanding, classroom implementation and related teaching issues.

Benefits to the school:

Project expects to produce improvements in student performance in physics concepts on standardized tests.
Teachers will gain greater depth of understanding of physics concepts, and increased confidence to teach those concepts
More opportunities for students to learn science through guided inquiry activities
Classroom materials to support those learning activities
Continuing and job embedded science professional development designed specifically for rural teachers

Cost to the school:

Financial: $0
Teacher time away from classroom required: 0 hours
Impact on classroom instructional time: none
Teachers complete a course each summer, not during the school year.
By accepting into the project only teachers who already teach thermal energy, force and motion concepts as a regular part of their curriculum, they will be teaching things that they already teach, but with different materials and activities.

Student Assessment:

time required for student project assessments: up to 3 class periods per year
value of assessments: they are designed to be provide practice for standardized testing (multiple choice and open response formats, with emphasis on higher order thinking skills)
All assessment results are confidential and will not be linked with specific individuals, classrooms or schools

Standards

How to apply/register

How to contact us with questions:

What the project asks of school administrators:

Support your participating teachers. Applaud their dedication to their own professional growth.
Encourage their persistence. Each summer course is intensive and requires about 40 hours of effort. They are joining the project for multiple years; this is not just a one-time workshop
Support their inquiry teaching strategies. The course and classroom materials may change some of their approaches to instruction. Inquiry teaching requires more preparation and active student involvement.
Keep them in the same teaching position for the duration of the project so they can continue to build depth of knowledge and inquiry strategies. If they no longer teach the project concepts, they cannot remain in the project and we lose valuable data.
Tell others about their accomplishments.