Recruitment and Program. Personnel of school
districts just beginning to engage in systemic reform
decide that they are ready for these workshops and then
they make the arrangements and handle publicity. TSAI
personnel present the workshops, often assisted by lead
scientists and school leaders. 1/2-Day Community
Workshops can be large, with as many as 150 active
participants from the community, including business
leaders. Their principal purpose is to build
understanding of and support for a hands-on,
inquiry-centered approach to science education among
interested and often leading members of the community.
The 1/2-Day Community Workshops program acquaint
participants with the current state of knowledge about
children's cognitive development and learning and with
information about the national consensus for new goals
for K-12 science education embodied in such documents as
the National
Science Education Standards and the Benchmarks
for Science Literacy . The high point of the
workshop is invariably a hands-on science exercise
constructed from five related activities from a 6-8 week
elementary science curriculum unit. This exercise conveys
to participants the engagement and depth of understanding
that children experience when learning to do
science in a carefully constructed sequence of learning
activities.
