Teacher Training and Impact Utilizing Health Science Portable Laboratories

The goal of a two-year SEPA grant, Phase II of a collaboration between Columbia University (CU) and the New York Hall of Science (NYHoS), was to enhance science teaching and learning through the use of portable laboratories and hands-on modules to study biotechnology and microscopy in middle and secondary school classes. Four multi-day workshops were held at the NYHoS to train teachers to use the portable laboratory kits. The primary goals of this evaluation are to assess: 1) the workshops' value for teaching the hands-on kit curriculum, 2) teachers' perception of the portable laboratories' value in the classroom, and 3) the relative knowledge gain of students who were and were not exposed to the portable labs. A secondary goal of the evaluation is to determine if workshop participants who had taken part in Columbia University's Research Program for Science Teachers rated their skills and knowledge in relevant topics higher before and after the training than teachers who had not been part of the CU Research Program. Teacher Training and Impact Utilizing Health Science Portable Laboratories succeeded in meeting its goals. Science teaching and learning were enhanced through the use of portable laboratories and hands-on modules for studying biotechnology and microscopy. Teacher training proved highly effective in enabling teachers to use the hands-on curriculum, enhancing their perception of the value of portable laboratories in their classes. Overall, findings from nine separate studies indicate that the kits are a valuable resource for science teaching and learning, supplementing the lack of hands-on experiences available in the schools. Teachers who had experienced the CU Summer Research Program for Science Teachers had significantly greater entering skills and knowledge in relevant biotechnology and microscopy topics than did non-CU teachers. Post-training skills and knowledge in both groups increased to similar levels for microscopy topics, but CU teachers were significantly more skilled at micropipetting and more knowledgeable about DNA structure and function.