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The Vermont STEM Leadership Institute (VSTEM) was designed to provide professional learning and leadership opportunities for K-12 educators teaching primarily in high-need schools. The fundamental premise of the program was to actively engage teachers in constructivist curriculum and pedagogy coupled with authentic scientific research experiences within the context of local environments or "places." This study investigated changes in content and pedagogical content knowledge that teachers exhibited in their science teaching practice over the course of their program participation. Data analysis revealed that teachers' science content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge were enhanced by VSTEM program participation with moderate to strong indications about place-based education, project-based learning, and the importance of engaging students in authentic scientific research. The study found that participants learned new content-specific teaching strategies and implemented standards-based units and lessons that aligned with constructivist theories of teaching and learning.

In July 2008, a new professional development program called Satellites, Weather and Climate (SWAC) began at the University of Vermont. Its goal was to enhance the competency of in-service K-12 science and mathematics Vermont teachers in the atmospheric, climate, and geospatial sciences. The pilot program ran until 2010, during which time 14 teachers representing three cohorts were exposed to the eight training modules developed specifically for the program. The SWAC program is social constructivist in nature and implemented in such a way that participating teachers built upon prior SWAC content knowledge with each passing year in the program. SWAC modules were based on inquiry, problem, and project-based techniques and were presented in lectures, outdoor observation, and remote sensing laboratory settings. Participating teachers typically began the program during a weeklong, intensive summer program that covered the core SWAC concepts and skills. This was followed by two 1-h workshops every month during the academic year in which participants focused on a specific content module, geospatial skill, or technique. These content and skill workshops alternated with lesson planning sessions to allow teachers to develop lessons, units, or projects with SWAC materials. Program effectiveness was quantified by pre- and posttest evaluations of the modules, a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis in January 2010, and a comprehensive survey of participants' pedagogical changes, as well as the skills and attitudinal changes of the 927 students they taught during the pilot phase. Teachers reported that participation in SWAC transformed their pedagogical approaches and in-class effectiveness while dramatically improving their students' observational abilities, critical thinking skills, and understanding of geospatial technology. An additional outcome of the SWAC program was the Teacher Learning Community that developed, in which participants were able to share activities and challenges across grade levels, school systems, and institutional barriers in a setting not found anywhere else in their professional development environments.

At Montpelier High School (MHS) in Vermont, students are accustomed to making changes in their school and community. Over the last six years, MHS students have participated in the Annual Winooski River Cleanup Project, the construction of a solar-powered greenhouse that provides produce for the school's cafeteria, and a thriving composting program used to fertilize the produce and plants grown inside the greenhouse. This article describes the sustainable energy projects that students designed during the spring semester of 2008. An overview of the project is followed by a description of the planning and implementation processes, examples of specific student energy projects, and a discussion of outcomes and lessons learned. (Contains 2 figures and 1 online resource.)

This article discusses how sixth through twelfth grade science teachers can engage their students in the design and implementation of sustainable energy projects as part of a unit of study on energy. The project challenges students to engage in an energy project that gives them the opportunity to make a difference in their local community and the world. Student projects include a project description, an approved protocol, project design, community experts as a resource, and a discussion of obstacles and problems. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.)

This research reports on the efforts of six middle school and high school science teachers in a public school district in New York City to balance innovative teaching methods and strategies with the New York State Learning Standards and Regents requirements. More specifically, this research examines the factors that influenced the implementation of project-based approaches to teaching and learning science. Observations of meetings and classrooms, and collection of artifacts such as curricula, project planners, demographic profiles, student work, and test results served as the primary data sources that were triangulated and related to current theory on project-based learning in science. Four teachers embraced aspects of project-based learning in science and two rejected most aspects of teaching project-based learning in science. Implications for science professional development are discussed.

Introduces an issue that details a complex study of a science-teacher-education program whose goal was to graduate teachers who held conceptual change conceptions of teaching science and were disposed to put them into practice. Presents a conceptual framework for science-teacher education, and describes the context and major questions of the research study. Contains 98 references. (Author/WRM)

The Vermont STEM Leadership Institute (VSTEM) was designed to provide professional learning and leadership opportunities for K-12 educators teaching primarily in high-need schools. The fundamental premise of the program was to actively engage teachers in constructivist curriculum and pedagogy coupled with authentic scientific research experiences within the context of local environments or "places." This study investigated changes in content and pedagogical content knowledge that teachers exhibited in their science teaching practice over the course of their program participation. Data analysis revealed that teachers' science content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge were enhanced by VSTEM program participation with moderate to strong indications about place-based education, project-based learning, and the importance of engaging students in authentic scientific research. The study found that participants learned new contentspecific teaching strategies and implemented standards-based units and lessons that aligned with constructivist theories of teaching and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A project funded by the National Science Foundation focused on how constructivism and reflective practice were applied in a science teacher education programme at the elementary and secondary levels in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This programme was designed to train teachers who held appropriate views about teaching science and were willing to put these ideas into practice. Attention was given to issues including how prospective teachers develop with regard to their practice of teaching during the course of a teacher education programme.