With funding from the Ohio Board of Regents (OBOR), Ohio Department of Education, Miami University, local communities, and industry, we’ve been helping teachers provide quality science education to Ohio’s children for over 20 years. Beginning with our Science Is Fun initiative in 1987, our outreach programs, workshops, academies, teacher resource books, and other programs have reached teachers in every Ohio county. Today, our core of dedicated science educators and administrative staff, collaborating with leaders in education and industry, continue to have a strong influence in improving the science education of Ohio students from pre-kindergarten through college levels. The main areas of Ohio programming are described here.
Science Is Fun
Through the Science Is Fun initiative, we provided elementary and middle school teachers, who had little or no science background, with a review of science content and showed them effective strategies for instructing students in hands-on activities in physical, life, and earth sciences. We provided methods for integrating science activities with language, art, mathematics, and other topics. The initiative also provided elementary school students with opportunities to enrich their science education through summer camps and other after-school programs. Science is Fun programming was funded through the OBOR Dwight D. Eisenhower Mathematics and Science Education Program, Miami University, Middletown Community Foundation, and sponsoring industries.
Science Integration in Today’s Elementary Schools (SITES)
Based upon the Science Is Fun initiative, SITES provided Ohio elementary school teachers with the scientific knowledge base and experience with hands-on science activities to confidently integrate science with reading, writing, and other curricular areas. SITES was funded through the OBOR Dwight D. Eisenhower Mathematics and Science Education Program and Miami University. In 1998, OBOR began funding the Blending Reading, Investigating, and Discovery into the Goals of Elementary Science (BRIDGES) program to continue the work begun through SITES. The teacher resource book Teaching Science through Children’s Literature (HEATHER LINK) was developed as a result of this programming and continues to serve as a valuable resource in teacher professional development.
OSCI 7–10: Meeting the Challenge
Funded by the Ohio Department of Education, the Ohio Science Institutes covered fundamental concepts in physical, earth, and life sciences for Ohio science teachers of grades 7–10. The institutes included activities to increase familiarity with Ohio’s Science Academic Content Standards; opportunities to enrich understanding of content related to the Standards; best practice teaching strategies; and information about and strategies to help prepare for the Ohio Graduation Tests and Achievement Tests. This far-reaching program served more than 2,000 Ohio teachers in two years.
Advancing Ohio’s Physical Science Proficiency (Advancing)
Advancing is an ongoing, OBOR-funded program that we have conducted in five yearly phases since 2003. Through the Advancing initiative, Ohio teachers and paraprofessionals participate in intensive and continual, year-long Advancing Science Institutes that include Foundation Workshops, Reconnect Sessions and Extension Activities, and Follow-Up. A special program for pre-K educators is offered as well.
The program helps teachers implement project materials into their curricula through foundation-building summer instruction and continual school-year support. Instruction focuses on standards-based physical science content that provides connections to students’ lives while also building reading, writing, mathematics, and other cross-curricular skills. Teachers work with colleagues and district leaders to develop lesson plans to fit these activities into their core curricula while incorporating science writing heuristic and career links.
Ohio Programs Resources
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