Program connects teachers to 'big ideas' in science for all ages

The Princeton University Program in Teacher Preparation is helping to create a series of workshops aimed at improving and coordinating the teaching of science across all grade levels, from elementary to high school.

The University is collaborating with Rider University, local school districts and other organizations to create the program, called CONNECT-ED (Consortium for New Explorations in Teacher Education), which started this week with workshops in Princeton's chemistry labs. Thirty teachers from local school districts are spending the week learning from practicing scientists and participating in hands-on science projects.

"We are focusing on the big ideas in math and science and helping teachers see how those ideas connect across the K-12 curriculum," said Kathy Brown, who directs the Science Education Literacy Center at Rider University and helped create the CONNECT-ED program.

Anne Catena, director of special projects for Princeton's Teacher Prep program, said CONNECT-ED is meant to improve not only how teachers present science to students at each grade level, but also to help ensure that certain concepts are introduced, reinforced and developed over the years in a cohesive way. CONNECT-ED builds on the University's longstanding Quest program, which is geared specifically to elementary and middle school teachers.

At a recent CONNECT-ED session, Princeton chemistry professor Andrew Bocarsly and a team of lead teachers from West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District led the group through a series of dramatic experiments to illustrate interactions between heat and matter. Starting with the most elementary concepts in the morning -- such as observing objects freeze when placed in liquid nitrogen -- the teachers engaged in increasingly complex experiments throughout the day.

The same demonstrations can often be used at many different grade levels, said Brown. All that changes is the sophistication of the language and concepts used to discuss the experiment.

"If it's a fun, curiosity-driven activity, it doesn't matter how old you are," said Bocarsly.

The CONNECT-ED program was established as a pilot program with support from Bristol-Myers Squibb and the Science to Go program at the Invention Factory in Trenton as well as major investments from the Program in Teacher Preparation, Rider University and the participating school districts.

"It is a real partnership," Catena said. "Everyone has committed time, money and a lot of work to make this happen."