Summer Program at AAAS for DC Teachers
Focuses on Connections Between Math, Science

Spread out in front of Ethel Day were the tools of her trade—a microscope, pipettes, a ruler, and a pair of scissors. A science teacher at Ronald H. Brown Middle School in Washington, DC, Day had come to AAAS for a class on crystals, but her job last week was to be a student.

"I've never liked math, and I had never thought of myself as an abstract thinker," said Day, explaining the impact of the course at AAAS. "But all of a sudden something clicks, and when it does click, it's in. I think I'll be teaching more math this year than I would normally have thought to teach."

In partnership with the DC Public School system, AAAS is running a series of summer institutes for middle, junior and high school teachers, and Day and dozens of her colleagues at schools throughout the city spent many of their vacation hours in the granite building at the corner of 12th and New York Avenue, N.W.

"The philosophy that drives our work is that teachers of all levels can benefit from extending their own knowledge and understanding," said Florence Fasanelli, associate program director DC ACTS in AAAS's Directorate for Education and Human Resources. "To do this, teachers are exposed to just a few activities in depth in an effort to connect these experiences with day-to-day teaching. This means, for example, that teachers learn in depth the mathematics that supports what they teach rather than new tricks to carry back to the classroom."

The middle school teachers, representing 17 public middle and junior high schools and five public charter schools, participate in one or more of the four one-week Mathematics and Science Institutes at AAAS, which is funding the classes with support from the DC State Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, the AAAS, and the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The courses on enzymes and crystals were held in June and July. The harmonics class started on 4 August; and microorganisms begins 11 August.

Participants are given memberships in the AAAS to honor their commitment to science and to teaching, and to welcome them into the scientific enterprise. Part of the teaching program is included under DC ACTS, a coalition of DC Public Schools, AAAS and by the Carnegie Institution of Washington to support mathematics, science and technology education in the DC public schools.

"AAAS received a strong response from its advertisement of the middle school summer institutes," said Fasanelli. "Many of those who could not be accepted asked to be placed on a wait list."

The program for high school teachers took place in July, and was divided into two distinct sections: a three-week Science Institute and a three-week Mathematics Institute.

Fasanelli noted that several of the teachers who took part in the high school Mathematics Institute have been teaching for three years or fewer, but most have been teaching more than 20 years. She noted that the training is particularly important for those teachers, as current textbooks use approaches that they were not taught when they prepared for their careers.

"New technologies, for example, allow the teaching of mathematical concepts that are not approachable with paper and pencil alone," Fasanelli said. "The teachers study the high school mathematics that they teach from a mathematically advanced standpoint, but different from the material designed for high school students. Teachers learn the historical context in which ideas and concepts have arisen as well as applications in many settings. The study also links subjects which are often taught separately such as algebra and geometry."

The Mathematics Institute is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the DCPS Office of Advanced Programs, and the AAAS. The Science Institute, which allows teachers to conduct experimental laboratory work to gain a deeper understanding of scientific concepts, has additional funding from the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The teachers in these institutes represent 11 of the city's 19 high schools.

Quoted on the DC ACTS website, Paul L. Vance, superintendent of the District of Columbia Public Schools, notes that, "The District of Columbia public schools have access to resources and to expertise that other school districts only dream of."

On a Wednesday afternoon last week, Fasanelli talked about the lessons she hoped her teacher/students would take away from the class on the structure of crystals.

"The mathematical structure of science enables them to understand and see the chemistry more clearly," Fasanelli said. "Some of them are seeing a connection between mathematics and science that they had never seen before."

—Coimbra Sirica

7 August 2003