Project Summary (2000-2005)

The Outreach Core, in collaboration with the Montshire Museum of Science, develops curricular, logistic, and teacher training support necessary to create a six week multi-disciplinary environmental chemistry program for middle school (6th-8th grade) students in rural Vermont and New Hampshire. This Environmental Detectives program emphasizes student-centered, investigatory learning techniques and hypothesis testing, and melds chemistry, earth science, biology, and toxicology. Project staff includes Dartmouth scientists and experienced science educatory from the Montshire Museum of Science. The program builds upon the scientific expertise of Dartmouth College andits SBRP and the experience of the Montshire Museum as the major science education center in the Vermont-New Hampshire region. Montshire's active and ongoing affiliation with elementary and secondary schools throughout the two states assures a reliable delivery mechanism. The program addresses current pedagogic trends in middle school science education as well as national science standards for this age. For six weeks, students engage in a process-oriented focus on chemicals in our environment, developing skills in observation, comparison, measuring, recording, hypothesizing, and testing. Field trips, lab activities, and collaborative learning in small support these objectives. Intensive pre-program teacher training, classroom supplies, and frequent visits from project staff will help the teacher build and maintain program momentum. All students participate in a culminating community-wide poster session hosted by Dartmouth and Montshire.