Uaspp: Three Years Of Helping Middle School Teachers Devise Their Own Hands On Engineering And Science Activities

The University of Arkansas Science Partnership Program (UASPP) was developed in 2006 to focus on the professional growth of 6 th , 7 th and 8 th grade science teachers through summer institutes and follow-up activities. Teachers were teamed with engineering faculty to improve teaching skills and to increase the use, understanding and application of hands-on exercises in the classroom. The program has been operational for three years, and has recently received funding from the Arkansas Department of Education to continue for an additional three years. As UASPP has matured, a number of changes have been made which have had a positive impact on the use of the program activities by the teachers in the classroom. Examples of these changes include movement away from providing experiments to the teachers and toward teacherdeveloped experiments, the development and use of design-based experiments, and increased use of engineering professors in summer institutes and follow-up activities. This paper highlights program developments and their impacts throughout the three year history of UASPP, and presents the format for new activities as the program moves into its next three years.