Tusculum View Elementary School teachers Ms. Diane Stearns, Ms. Rachel Silvers, and Mrs. Kalyn Miller have been selected to be a part of an exciting Science program made available via an ETSU grant! We are very proud of these great educators!

Project SEE (Science in Early Education) is a grant ETSU received from the Tennessee Higher Education Commission that is focused on science for early elementary (K-3). The purpose of the grant is to work with K-3 teachers to increase their confidence in teaching inquiry science to young children, with the ultimate result being an increase in science achievement scores for children.

Project SEE will provide high-quality, research-based professional development (PD) designed to increase K-3 teachers’ physical science content knowledge and to improve elementary students’ success in science and readiness for middle school and beyond. The project involves 100 hours of PD during the 16 month project by providing 8 workshops (24 hours), 2 seminars (16 hours), and a Summer Institute (48 hours, which includes 2 days of ETSU’s Early Childhood Conference). In addition, the project staff will conduct 3 school visits (3 hours), and 9 Bug in the Ear virtual observations (9 hours) to provide onsite support for classroom implementation. All activities will take place from August 2012 to December 2013.

Each of the three teachers will receive the following as part of the program:

·        Three graduate credits in Science for Early Elementary from ETSU with tuition waiver

·        A total stipend of $1,250, plus travel, lodging for summer institute (if needed), and meals

·        $2,000 in classroom materials to implement in K-3 classrooms

·        iPad for video conferencing, Bug in the Ear technology for coaching sessions

·        Facilitators notebooks that include all materials needed to train others

·        Improved teaching and learning to promote inquiry, problem solving, and higher order thinking in young children

·        Long-term sustained support for STEM through the partnership with ETSU and the participating teachers