The Department of Physical Sciences at SCSU is committed to enhancing pre-service teachers’ understanding and teaching of science. Our goals are to (1) increase the student's knowledge of scientific concepts, (2) increase the student's understanding of the scientific process, (3) improve the way science is taught at the primary and secondary level. Secondly, we recognize the need to attract more students, particularly minority students, into science related fields including teaching. An important first step is exposing young students to the excitement of scientific discovery through innovative courses utilizing current pedagogical research. Such courses would encourage student-initiated inquiry in a collaborative learning environment.

We are developing two courses using Online Weather Studies as a foundation. One course will be offered as a science component in the General Education Curriculum for traditional students, particularly those students majoring in Elementary Teacher Education. The second course will be offered on line to in-service teachers seeking to improve their science teaching. This course will demonstrate how concepts associated with weather can serve as a gateway to the study of other areas of science and mathematics. We plan to begin offering each course in the spring of 2004.