Every other Saturday during the academic year, 20 high school science teachers from Philadelphia, Delaware and New Jersey gather on Penn's campus to receive training from University professors.
The teachers are earning their master's degrees for free through the University's Master of Chemistry Education Program, which was founded in 1999 to make teachers more proficient in teaching science.
With the help of a $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation, the program is expanding to include a section for middle school teachers, which will enable them to earn a Masters of Integrated Science degree.
"It has affected not only the way that teachers teach science, but it's also affected the students" who are being taught, Chemistry professor and Department Chairman Larry Sneddon said of the program -- which will now be referred to as the Science Teacher Institute.
The Institute was designed to counteract several effects of the national teacher shortage.
Teachers without science degrees are now being asked to teach science classes, while those with a science degree are often forced to teach classes outside of their specific field, according to STI Director and Chemistry professor Hai-Lung Dai.
To address this problem, Institute participants take eight science classes and two teaching classes over the course of three summers and alternate Saturdays during the school year.
"To have teachers who can master their content knowledge and who have the confidence to guide the students is only the beginning, at this point, to reform our science education," Dai said.
The new institute also features an administrative component that will work with supervisors of local school districts to help the teachers carry over their learning experience into the classroom.
Executive Director of the Chemistry Department George Palladino hopes that this will "stimulate more success on the part of the teachers who are attempting to bring about change in the curriculum."
Dai, who left Taiwan to pursue a chemistry degree at the University of California at Berkeley, recalls the lack of American students studying in science-related fields. He hopes that the program will stimulate more interest in science among middle- and high-school students.
"You have to worry [when] we have so few American students interested in pursuing a career in science and technology," Dai said, adding that scientific competence is necessary for the country to remain economically competitive.
The institute's science courses will be taught by faculty members from the Biology, Physics and Astronomy, Mathematics, Earth and Environmental Science and Chemistry departments.
The program is a joint venture between the School of Arts and Sciences and the Graduate School of Education.
