Local Teachers Awarded Hughes Grants to Support Innovative Science Teaching By Sue Kropp
			SEPTEMBER 6, 1999--Seventeen teachers from three local elementary schools will receive grants from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Outreach Program and Oberlin College. On Thursday, September 9, at 4:30 P.M. in Wilder Student Union room 101, Caitlin Scott, assistant director for youth education at the Oberlin College Center for Service and Learning (CSL), will present the grants to teachers from Cascade Elementary in Elyria, and Eastwood and Prospect Elementary schools in Oberlin. The projects funded by these grants will teach students about plant and animal wildlife, weather, inventions, astronomy, gardening, conservation, and simple machines. "The program's two goals are to support innovative science teaching in K-4 public schools and to give college students the opportunity to explore careers in science education," says Scott. The program, funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and coordinated by the CSL, provides grants of varying amounts to elementary-school teachers to develop experiential science projects. The teachers work with Oberlin College science majors who have studied science pedagogy. The science majors help develop curricula, lead presentations, and set up experiments with the teachers.
			Please send comments, questions, and suggestions about Oberlin Online news and feature articles to Linda.Grashoff@oberlin.edu.