{"id":60373,"date":"2012-09-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-19T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-ric-effort-to-boost-science-education-in-state-builds-as-teachers-gain-skills-knowledge-confidence\/"},"modified":"2012-09-19T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-09-19T00:00:00","slug":"uri-ric-effort-to-boost-science-education-in-state-builds-as-teachers-gain-skills-knowledge-confidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2012\/09\/uri-ric-effort-to-boost-science-education-in-state-builds-as-teachers-gain-skills-knowledge-confidence\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站, RIC effort to boost science education in state builds as teachers gain skills, knowledge, confidence"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tRITES program to host science education roundtable event Oct. 13<\/p>\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 September 19, 2012 \u2013 More than 200 public school teachers returned to the classroom this fall with a greater enthusiasm for teaching hands-on science lessons, thanks to the Rhode Island Technology Enhanced Science Project (RITES), a partnership between the 溏心vlog免费B站 and Rhode Island College that offered summer short courses designed to expand teacher knowledge of science and share strategies for incorporating it into their curriculum.<\/p>\n


\n\tThe teachers will gather again Oct. 13, along with others in the state\u2019s science education community, for a roundtable event at 溏心vlog免费B站 designed to focus on the challenges of science education. The roundtable, part of the RITES Fall Conference, will feature author and veteran science teacher Betsy Rupp Fulwiler, leader of the reform of the Seattle public schools, who will showcase science education success stories in Rhode Island schools.<\/p>\n


\n\tThis was the fourth summer the short courses have been offered as a result of a $12.5 million grant that 溏心vlog免费B站 and RIC received in 2008 from the National Science Foundation to launch the RITES program. Led by 溏心vlog免费B站 Professor Daniel Murray and RIC Professor Glennison de Oliveira, the program has already helped 450 middle school and high school teachers in 27 school districts in Rhode Island gain skills and confidence in teaching hands-on science lessons.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cMany teachers don\u2019t feel comfortable doing inquiry-based science because it takes more time and it requires a deeper level of knowledge,\u201d said Howard Dooley, who manages the program. \u201cThe education landscape in Rhode Island is changing very quickly, so to add RITES into the mix requires that teachers make a big commitment. But we\u2019re finding that many really want to make that commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tThe program offers teachers two years of professional development, including summer short courses, opportunities to come together to share ideas, and the use of free online modules to use with their students that have been developed by a higher education faculty member paired with a secondary education science teacher.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cPairing higher-ed faculty with K-12 teachers has been eye opening for everyone,\u201d said Amber Gilfert, communications coordinator for the program. \u201cBy getting them to work together to develop a classroom investigation, they form personal relationships and then can better understand each other\u2019s world. We\u2019re starting to bridge that gap.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cThat relationship is really the core of the program,\u201d added Dooley. \u201cThe faculty member brings the science knowledge and the teacher brings the pedagogical knowledge. Together they create an investigation that is technically accurate, interesting to the students, and based on science standards.\u201d <\/p>\n


\n\tAccording to RITES teacher Buddy Comet, who taught at John F. Deering Middle School in West Warwick and now serves as an induction coach at the Rhode Island Department of Education, RITES has been instrumental in several ways. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cOne of the main benefits for my students has been the in-class collaboration with RITES and higher education,\u201d he said. \u201cThrough RITES, we have had multiple visits from professors and graduate students to extend the student\u2019s learning and experiences. Our class has also been involved in educational research through RITES, so we were able to be part of science instead of just learning about science. This collaboration has broadened our access to scientific and technological resources, materials and people to expand students’ learning opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tTeachers receive a $1,000 stipend for participating in RITES each year, plus $700 for equipment for their classroom and three graduate credits from RIC.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cThe T in RITES stands for technology,\u201d said Dooley. \u201cWe know that technology is not used in the classroom as much as it should be, and that\u2019s partly because teachers and students don\u2019t understand how certain technologies can be incorporated in the classroom. But technology is used by scientists every day. So part of our job is providing support directly to school districts to make sure the technology works and teachers are comfortable using it.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tThose interested in learning more about the RITES program or who would like to attend the roundtable event invited to visit www.ritesproject.net or contact Amber Gilfert at 401-874-4071 or agilfert@ritesproject.net.<\/p>\n


\nPictured above

\nTeachers Andres Castro (left) from Hope Arts School and Shubhra Nandi from Hope Information Technology School, both in Providence, participate in a hands-on science education workshop for educators sponsored by the Rhode Island Technology Enhanced Science Project.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RITES program to host science education roundtable event Oct. 13 KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 September 19, 2012 \u2013 More than 200 public school teachers returned to the classroom this fall with a greater enthusiasm for teaching hands-on science lessons, thanks to the Rhode Island Technology Enhanced Science Project (RITES), a partnership between the University of Rhode […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60375,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}