Abstract
In order to make teachers more aware of the demands of the economy, industry, and research, two groups of agriculture and science teachers were taken on tours of research and industry facilities across the state of Georgia. During each of the four-day tours, teachers were transported across the state by bus and visited The University of Georgia, Georgia Technical Institute, six Centers of Innovation, and a cross section of the industries that the universities and Centers of Innovation serve. The objectives of this project were to engage high school teachers of science and agriculture in a program that would (a) increase science content knowledge, (b) develop teachers’ comfort levels with inquiry based teaching strategies, (c) expose them to new teaching technologies, and (d) influence them to share ideas with fellow teachers. When comparing retrospective means with post-experience means, on a 5-point Likert scale, teachers reported close to a three point change in their knowledge level of how the Georgia Centers of Innovation fit into the overall economic growth plan for the state of Georgia. Additionally, responses to open-ended questions indicated that teachers found the tour extremely beneficial and believed that it would help them in utilizing inquiry based instruction to teach science content knowledge in their classrooms.
Keywords
summer teacher tour program, new teaching technologies, knowledge level, inquiry based instruction, science content knowledge
 Peake_NACTA_June_2012.pdf | [ ] | 330 kB |
