CI Team: Introducing High School Science Teachers to 21st Century Research Techniques made Possible by Cyberinfrastructure

For many scientists, engineers and mathematicians, using sophisticated computational resources operating on ever-growing data archives available through the cyberinfrastructure is revolutionizing their disciplines and replacing traditional research techniques. Even though these same resources are available on the Internet, 21st century science has not yet found its way into the high school science classroom. In order to prepare the next generation of scientists, engineers and mathematicians and a science-literate workforce, it is imperative that we begin to empower teachers to take advantage of cyberinfrastructure resources to enable 21st century research techniques and collaborative science in their classrooms. The Strategic Technology Astronomy Research Team (START) Collaboratory is a Web-based national astronomy research collaboratory that is being created under a three-year NSF-STI grant (PN #0334168) to provide high school students with integrated access to national astronomy databases, tools and resources available on the cyberinfrastructure. The two-year CI-TEAM demonstration project will show how the START Collaboratory can be used to bring 21st century research techniques made possible by the cyberinfrastructure into high school classrooms through a face-to-face and an online teacher professional development program that includes follow-up online mentoring and support for teachers and their students. The Adler Planetarium joins the START Collaboratory team - Hands On Universe at the University of California at Berkeley, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey at Johns Hopkins University, and the Northwestern University Collaboratory Project - to create and offer the professional development programs. Teachers will learn to engage and support their students in 21st century astronomy research by first exploring these new research techniques themselves while being mentored online and collaborating with other participants and remote experts in the START Collaboratory. The first year will focus on experienced high school teachers who are already working with their students on astronomy research. Year two will bring in Chicago-area high school science teachers half of whom will be drawn from the Chicago Public Schools with a focus on increasing minority participation. These teachers may have an interest in astronomy, but little research experience or specific astronomy content knowledge. At the conclusion of this two-year demonstration project, the Adler Planetarium and Hands On Universe will integrate the face-to-face and online workshops into their programs. The workshops and START Collaboratory will be available to other organizations to adopt. By providing students with the opportunity to learn science by doing contemporary data-driven research, the project will contribute to developing a more science-literate workforce.