http://dwb.unl.edu/dwb/meetings/NATS-10-29-99/NATS1.html

Principal Teacher Site:

http://dwb.unl.edu/dwb/Teacher/Teacher.html

There is dissatisfaction with the level of high school chemistry teacher content knowledge in the US.

Offering a chemistry major to preservice teachers doesn’t help. IF a teacher has the equivalent of a major, they most likely will take an ‘industrial’ job. The starting salary differential usually is something like $12K US in the US.

Pedagogical Content Knowledge. There is a concept used in instruction called pedagogical content knowledge. This deals with just both 'ordinary content knowledge' and knowledge of how to teach.

For example, it would involve knowing good experiments or demonstrations to illustrate a point, or common student misconceptions and strategies for overcoming them.

Main Themes of This Project

1. Many schools are participating. If you represent a college with a graduate program, and you support teachers, you, too, can participate. If you are a teacher needing credit for any one of several reasons, you can participate.

For the first three years, no cost to the teacher.

After that, teachers will get a large bill, say $200 US, which will be forgiven if they complete the course in a predetermined time. Actually, they will be billed. We’ll find a company to sponsor the project and, when the teachers complete on time, they’ll receive a scholarship in the amount of the bill.

There are no serving costs for the administering school.

2. Eighteen courses are available, and there is a curriculum for each.

http://dwb.unl.edu/dwb/Teacher/Courses.html

01 Structure and properties of matter-water and solutions
02 Chemical reactions-equations and their consequences (mole; prediction; stoich)
03 Structure of atoms-nuclear
04 Structure and properties of matter-periodicity
05 Structure and properties of matter-bonding and structure
06 Structure and properties of matter-carbon chemistry and polymers
07 Interactions of matter and energy
08 Chemistry of life processes-DNA
09 Structure and properties of matter-gases and the atmosphere
10 Structure and properties of matter-electrons and chemical properties
11 Chemistry of life processes-energy and metabolism
12 Chemical reactions-acids and bases
13 Chemical reactions-kinetics
14 Equilibrium-unifying theme
15 Chemical reactions-oxidation, reduction and electrochemistry
16 Conservation of energy and the increase in disorder-thermodynamics
17 Inquiry and the nature of science-analysis and instrumentation
18 Structure and properties of matter-condensed states and materials science

3. Much of the testing is automatic.

A teacher finds a mentor in a participating program. The mentor logs on, and, together with the teacher, they set objectives and testing formats. The formats determine how much essay reading will be involved.

The teachers receive some materials — but delivering Web materials is not what we are about.

They receive tests. Repeatable tests. The tests provide immediate feedback. Records are made of automatically gradable materials. Essays are e-mailed to graders.

Examples:

Sample objectives. Test 1. Response 1. Test 2.

Make solutions.

Balance equations. Balanced.

AP Descriptive: Test Example. Answers Example. Tutor Example.