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Recruitment and Outreach
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Participant recruitment in each of the three, annual Institutes will
target K-12 pre- and inservice teachers of urban, rural, and resource poor
students; faculty researchers; and specialists such as post-doctoral
science or science education students, curriculum developers, science
supervisors, informal science educators, and assessment and evaluation
professionals. A maximum of 24 participants (15 inservice teachers, three
preservice teachers, and six specialists) will be selected for each
Institute in cooperation with professional associations such as the
National Marine Education Association (NMEA), the National Science
Teachers Association (NSTA), the North American Association for
Environmental Education (NAAEE), the National Estuarine Research Reserve
Systems (NERRS), the Biennial Conference in Chemical Education, and the 29
Sea Grant Programs. Other professional science and environmental
organizations will be contacted for assistance in the recruiting process
with special attention given to those organizations which have significant
numbers of minority educators in their memberships, i.e., the Council for
Greater City Schools. Advertisements and articles in national science
education newsletters and journals will publicize the program. An
application brochure will be developed for the Polymer and Marine Science
Institutes. This application brochure will be used for participant
solicitation and recruitment through hard copy and on this project's
Website which will also be linked to each Sea Grant Program and the BRIDGE
(electronic resource center for teachers at http://www.marine-ed.org/),
housed at the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences.
The annual Polymer and Marine Sciences Institutes will convene a selection
committee to choose participants from the applications submitted. Each
Institute will make efforts to have near equal participant representation
by states/territories. Further, for each of the three annual Institutes,
there will be six teams with four participants in each team. The teams
will include one elementary teacher, one middle school teacher, one
secondary teacher, and one specialist. Participants will be selected on
the basis of applicants' willingness to:
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Enroll in a four-semester hour, 18-day graduate or undergraduate course
and be in residence at The University of Southern Mississippi. (Note:
postdoctoral students and faculty researchers will not need to enroll for
credit; the Co-Principal Investigators do expect these participants to be
in residence with the other Institute participants);
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Develop a minimum of one formal/informal training workshop or staff
development program within each participant's respective school, school
district, informal setting, or other appropriate venue-depending on the
diversity of audiences;
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Infuse concepts and appropriate activities concerning polymers within
sciences in formal and informal teaching environments;
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Submit a journal article, present a paper, or demonstrate an activity at
a state, regional, or national education conference; and
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Infuse appropriate educational technologies into their existing science
curricula.
The Polymer and Marine Science Co-Principal Investigators will assist
teacher participants in these tasks.