NTEN Online Graduate Courses for Teachers Encourage Kit-Based Science Education
By Leigh Agler, FOSS Developer, Anacortes, Washington

Created by the Montana State University at Bozeman and funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Teachers Enhancement Network (NTEN) delivers quality teaching resources and professional development opportunities through the Internet directly to K–12 science teachers. Educators access electronic teacher resources, discuss issues with other educators online, and participate in high-quality graduate long-distance learning courses, all from convenient home or work locations via the Internet. University scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and science educators teach NTEN’s graduate courses. NTEN also enhances professional networking nationwide among science teachers and active research scientists.

NTEN's latest endeavor has been to offer online courses for elementary teachers who use FOSS and other science kits. The courses expand on the science concepts addressed in the inquiry-based kits, providing participants with adult level science content to enhance understanding and confidence in presenting the FOSS module. Each one-credit course is quite extensive, requiring an average of six to eight hours a week over a short, eight-week period. The first week is a slower-paced "Succeeding On Line" tutorial that eases you gradually into the online format. Although it is recommended, it is not essential that the NTEN course be taken at the same time the particular FOSS module is being taught. In the same way that FOSS students benefit from reading the FOSS Science Stories after they have completed the investigations, the NTEN courses are often most useful sometime after your own questions have bubbled up in the process of teaching a FOSS module.

Pilot Courses are Tuition-Free!

Each course developed by NTEN is offered twice during its pilot phase. Over the past year, the pilot courses have been well received, and participants have provided valuable input for improving the courses. During the pilot phase courses are free to teachers and participants receive one graduate credit from Montana State University. Four pilot courses will be offered during the fall of 2003. This will be the last time that these four courses will be offered without charge:

• Exploring Science Through Food and Nutrition
  
• Measurement and Motion
  
• Electricity
  
• Plant Biology for the Elementary TeacherÑSeed to Seed

Four new courses will be developed and piloted during 2004. Tentatively, these will be designed to enhance the FOSS Air and Weather, Landforms, Physics of Sound, and Levers and Pulleys Modules.

Four courses have moved out of the pilot phase and were offered this spring, running from January 11–March 3. These are:

• Learning and Teaching Soil Science from a Kid's Perspective
  
• Teaching and Learning Science – Elementary Space Science
  
• Teaching and Learning about Ecosystems
  
• The Fascinating Bug: Learning about Insects through Observation and Inquiry

Once out of the pilot phase, each course costs $325 ($250 tuition and $75 for materials).

For information about NTEN, upcoming course offerings, evaluation reports on the NTEN Elementary Program, and how to join the network, check NTEN's website at www.scienceteacher.org, or contact Lisa Brown at NTEN, Burns Telecom Center, Montana State University in Bozeman, 406-994-3062, nten_elem@montana.edu