Blending chemistry, chemical education, and inquiry for high school teachers

CHED 1472

Julie Henderleiter, henderlj@gvsu.edu and Sherril A. Soman, somans@gvsu.edu. Department of Chemistry, Grand Valley State University, 327 Padnos Hall, Allendale, MI 49401
Grand Valley State University's Target Inquiry (TI) program contains a seven-course sequence of chemistry classes that aim to improve current high school teachers' abilities to successfully incorporate inquiry into their classrooms. The course sequence alternates the study of how to do chemistry and chemical education research with research experiences in each area. Teachers learn about the research process in science by completing summer research experiences in chemistry. They then reflect on these experiences to develop inquiry instructional materials and design action research projects. A critical component of the program is to help teachers synthesize their research experiences with their classroom practice through the development of high quality inquiry materials. TI teachers design and peer-critique inquiry experiences for use in their classrooms. This talk will focus on how college faculty can facilitate teacher growth and expertise with the use of inquiry materials; examples of teacher-developed materials will be presented.