Leadership in Science Education

List of 3 items.

• Teaching Teachers

  SCH was selected in 2008 as the Philadelphia area’s first Satellite Workshop Center in Molecular Biology as part of the Princeton University Outreach Program. Fall and spring four-day workshops for Philadelphia-area science teachers were offered by Springside faculty. Topics included DNA extraction, DNA fingerprinting, PCR, genetic engineering, and bioinformatics. The grant that supported the program has ended, but SCH continues to offer workshops and loan out thousands of dollars worth of equipment and materials so that all science students have the opportunity to use professional-level science tools.

   

  Each summer SCH hosts a free workshop for teachers from throughout the United States called “A Taste of Chemistry” in conjunction with leading researchers in taste and smell from The Monell Chemical Senses Center. This one-week workshop helps science teachers energize and challenge their students in new ways as they incorporate the biochemistry of taste into a variety of their typical units. Teachers also are able to borrow state-of-the-art equipment to use with their students.
  

• Bringing the Excitement of Science to Our Community

  Every spring, SCH teachers and students set up camp at the Philadelphia Science Festival Carnival to turn Philadelphians on to science by learning about the biology, chemistry and physics of their own bodies.  SCH is also the only school in the city to participate in the Philadelphia Science Festival Neighborhood Outreach Program, teaching science and engineering lessons to Philadelphia school students at neighborhood libraries.

• Sharing Our Expertise and Knowledge

  In addition to offering workshops at SCH and reaching out to the community, we actively share our expertise and resources with other educators.

  • We welcome science teachers from public, private, and charter schools to come and observe our classes.

  • We are consulted by other schools’ administrators to analyze their school’s science programs.

  • Our teachers regularly receive grants for their innovative classroom projects. Recent grants have come from Coca-Cola, Recyclebank, the Society of Women Environmental Professionals, Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, and the Department of Environmental Protection.

  • Our teachers present their work at local and national conferences. These include:
  • presenting best practices in the biology classroom for the National Biology Teachers Association
  • highlighting innovative chemistry activities at ChemEd conferences
  • showcasing our unique high school pharmacology course for the American Association of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics conference and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Network of Educators in Science and Technology
  • describing how to weave literacy into a science research project at the National Science Teachers Association National Conference
  • presenting how to foster creativity, communication, collaboration, and critical thinking through active physical science explorations at the Delaware Valley Association for the Early Education of the Young Child
  • demonstrating how to effectively integrate sustainability into the curriculum at several area workshops.