Operation Chemistry (OpChem) is
a national program designed ultimately to provide
professional development to teachers of chemistry in
grades 4-8 by four-person teams that include a college
faculty chemist or science educator and a chemist from
industry or other applied area.
Scope. OpChem's National
Science Foundation funding began in 1994 and ends in
1997. So far, the program has trained 72 four-person
teams in 38 states to provide professional development to
teachers who teach chemistry in grades 4-8 in those
states or in regions comprising those states. The
training of the teachers is not covered by NSF funds but,
rather, through local sources. So it is anticipated that
this training will continue throughout the country for
many years, as has the training of physics teachers by
teams from Operation Physics. See Examples: Operation Primary Physical Science and choose Detail: Operation Physics.
Summer Institutes for
Training Teams. OpChem's teams are trained during
summer institutes, which are held at the University of
Wisconsin at Oshkosh and at Purdue University. At these
locations, each OpChem team engages in model workshops
taught by OpChem instructors and based on activities from
the 12 Operation Chemistry workshop books.
Eight of the workshops are a day
long each and are taught in a way that is meant to model
the interaction between chemistry knowledge and pedagogy.
The workshops are on some of the most commonly taught
chemistry concepts in grades 4-8: energy, matter and its
changes, acids and bases, density, polymers, chemical
reactions, environmental chemistry, and industrial
chemistry. Recently, the workshop books have been
cross-referenced with the National Science Education
Standards.
Four of the workshops are only
two hours each and are planned and carried out by the
OpChem teams themselves. These workshops are based on
workshop books entitled "Chemistry of the Space
Shuttle," "Chemistry of Food," and
"Chemistry of Life."
In addition, the teams
participate in sessions on several non-chemistry topics
that will prove important in the team's work with
teachers: assessment, writing grant proposals, working
with adult learners, learning theory, managing materials,
science education standards, working with industry, and
so on.
Structure of Teams. Each
OpChem team consists of a college chemistry or
science-education faculty member, a high-school chemistry
teacher, an elementary- or middle-school science teacher,
and an industrial chemist or other practitioner of the
chemical sciences.
Each member brings a particular
type of expertise to the team in the form of content
knowledge, pedagogical experience, or experience
connecting chemistry to the "real world." In
addition, some of the team members may offer various
types of material support. For example, the college
faculty member can often provide a site for the
subsequent teacher training, support staff,
teacher-recruitment connections, and grant-writing
ability. The industrial chemist may be able to provide
materials, may be a possible source of funds, and may be
able to arrange summer employment opportunities for
teachers.
Recruitment and Training of
Teachers by OpChem Teams. OpChem teams recruit
teachers for the program though mailings to science
centers, school districts, and universities. The teams
must also find financial support. Then they plan and
execute their training program, devoting at least 72
hours each to providing professional development to
teachers in their areas. What each member does during the
professional development hours largely depends on local
circumstances. Often working in pairs, team members can
conduct the training in the form of school workshops,
pre-service academic-year courses, inservice summer
courses, a series of Saturday half-day sessions, hands-on
experiences at conferences or conventions, and so on.
OpChem teams often patch into pre-existing professional
development programs.
On average, individual teachers
reached by the program receive 12 staff development hours
in their first year of participation. Four to five topics
are usually covered during those hours. Most teachers go
on to complete a sufficient number of hours to cover all
of the program's topics within two to three years.
Evaluation. OpChem teams
have worked with thousands of teachers. In evaluating the
first two years, OpChem surveyed teachers and team
members. The surveys found that the teams able to train
the greatest number of teachers were those with the
financial means to do so; they had been successful in
pulling state or other moneys, such as corporate, into
the program. Some of the teams also managed to become
part of existing staff development programs in their
school districts.
Many of the teams also indicated
that the groundwork laid by Operation
Physics, had helped them in
their own efforts. Also, teachers had liked the Operation
Physics workshops and had looked for more of the same
from Operation Chemistry.
Important obstacles were also
identified, including school system restructuring,
cut-backs in staff development budgets, travel
requirements, and teacher burn-out.
Roles for Scientists. As
of this writing, scientists can no longer join OpChem
teams because NSF funding for team training is ending.
However, OpChem teams are still in operation nationwide,
providing professional development to teachers using
OpChem materials and continuing to show the importance of
educational efforts that unite the academic and
industrial chemist. Scientists with an interest in
science education can visit an OpChem workshop for
teachers to observe one of the ways in which their
colleagues are helping to make a difference.
Two Related Programs. Operation
Chemistry is modeled on Operation
Physics, a project that began
in 1987 and was focused on training teams to train grades
4-8 physics teachers. A significant modification made to
the training teams by OpChem was the addition of the
industrial chemist. This introduced a
"real-world" perspective and opened a range of
resources (including financial) that only such a team
member could provide. A second modification was the
requirement that one team member be on a college faculty;
in OpPhys, that role was often played by a science
coordinator within a school system. A third modification
was the abandonment of a two-tier training system, in
which the OpPhys teams were responsible not only for
training teachers but other teams as well. Evaluation
showed this system did not work well in OpPhys.
OpChem and OpPhys have been
joined recently by Operation
Primary Physical Science (OPPS)
. This program trains teams to train teachers who teach
physical science in grades K-4. OPPS teams have three
members, as did the OpPhys teams, but one member must
come from a college faculty. Also, in OPPS, seed money is
available for teacher training--about half of what is
required to train teachers over three years.
For further information on
Operation Chemistry, contact
Garry Dikeos at the ACS
Phone: 202-872-6125
e-mail: g_dikeos@acs.org
or
Ann Benbow at the ACS
Phone: 202-872-6179
e-mail: a_benbow@acs.org
