Next fall, students in Roanoke will join a growing movement of innovative science achievement and learning in Virginia. Teachers from RCPS were selected to join a year-long, free professional development project designed to change the way science is taught in schools across the state.
Funded by one of the biggest grants ever awarded by the U.S. Department of Education, the Virginia Initiative for Science Teaching and Achievement (VISTA) teaches teachers how to shift from the traditional lecture-led classroom to problem-based learning. Problem-based learning is about examining “real world” problems and thinking like scientists to find solutions.
Teachers Hayley Burnett, Jen Hancock, Marianne Nester and Suzanne Witcher from Bonsack, and Lindsay Seiler from W. E. Cundiff, are attending the Elementary Science Institute on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg.
As part of the institute, area students attended a free, two-week camp. The embedded student camps gave teachers a chance to practice the hands-on approach they are learning.
In addition to the free, four-week program, each teacher receives a $5,000 stipend; $1,000 in teaching resources, science materials, and web content for their classrooms; a master teacher assigned to coach them in the new teaching method throughout the school year; and an all-expense-paid trip to the Virginia Association of Science Teachers Professional Development Institute in the fall.
For more details about the institute, click here. For more information about VISTA, click here.
